I have travelled to many places throughout my life so far, yet I hadn’t stepped into Florida until spring break this year.
Arriving in the warm sunshine state was a refreshing feeling compared to the cold Minnesota I once knew. This vacation was long-awaited after a cold and windy winter in Minnesota. After going through the first three-quarters of my senior year, I realized that I am about done with school and am ready to graduate and enjoy my summer. I knew going on this trip with my two friends, Karsyn Stang and Maddy Knettel, that this was going to be a spring break to remember.
We did so much over one week, and by the end, I could tell we were all ready to be home in our own beds.
We first took our trip 35 minutes north of our resort up to St. Augustine, the oldest city in the U.S, to do some shopping. Along the drive, we crossed many bridges over canals, which were full of sailboats. The walkway led to Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, a popular fort where people walk, bike, and spend time with friends. (Joey Savage)
There were many palm trees everywhere you looked. St. Augustine gave scenic old town vibes, which was very nice to look at as we drove to our destination. We saw people walking in groups of at least 2 – 4, and they were wearing leggings and sweatshirts, even though the weather was around 75 degrees. This is what I had expected, but it was still surprising to see when the weather was so nice. (Joey Savage)
In St. Augustine, we stopped in this shopping strip. There were many shops full of Florida tourism trinkets and St. Augustine merch. There were also many places to get yummy treats and snacks. We spent a good few hours here strolling around and peeking inside almost every shop we passed. We got some snacks at Ben’s Pretzels and even got some delicious smoothies at Playa Bowls. (Joey Savage)
As we were shopping, we passed by Karsyn’s mom and her grandma, where she took a picture of us and our smoothies. I ordered their Aloha (banana, mango, pineapple, coconut milk), Maddy ordered an orange and pineapple smoothie, and Karsyn ordered the Pink Pitaya (playa pitaya, coconut milk). These hit the spot on the warm day; they were full of flavor and lasted us a good while. “My favorite part about St. Augustine was walking around in the different shops,” says SHS senior Maddy Knettel. (Joey Savage)
One of the first nights we were there, we got right into taking photos. We took many photos on the beach and on the balcony of our condo. The scenery was perfect. The ocean was nice and calm, it wasn’t too windy, and the sun was the perfect shade, giving us all a glowy and slight pink/orange tone. SHS senior Karsyn Stang says her favorite part about this trip was “being with my friends and having tons of laughs and creating memories.” (Joey Savage)
Despite the sunset not being on the ocean side, it was beautiful every night. It was perfect to look at while we took pictures, and it was very relaxing to see the sunset after a long day. The sunset, ocean, and palm trees really made this vacation feel like paradise. Every night, we would take a walk down to the beach and spend time walking on the cool sand before going back to the condo to relax before bed. (Joey Savage)
We took a trip down to Daytona Beach named “The World’s Most Famous Beach.” Famous for its history and smooth-packed sands, which made it perfect for high-speed automobile testing and racing. Daytona became a magnet for racing fans. This sandy beach paved the way for the Daytona International Speedway track. This speedway has continued to host the Daytona 500 since the late fifties, which still attracts thousands of tourists and many racing fans every year. While we were here, we walked across the boardwalk and ate some lunch at a restaurant called Dick’s Last Resort. Dick’s Last Resort is a restaurant where the staff is somewhat rude and snarky on purpose. They also give you rolled paper hats with inappropriate yet funny phrases, which are personal to each customer. The food was good, and we all had a great time laughing and going back and forth with snarky remarks to our waiter. Afterwards, we finished our short stay in Daytona Beach, doing some shopping at some touristy shops. (Joey Savage)
During a gloomy day, we travelled to Washington State Oaks Gardens State Park. There were tons of different flowers, which were all very beautiful and aesthetic to look at. This state part was originally a plantation owned by Joseph Marion Hernandez, which was later passed to the Washington family in the early 1920s. After the development plans collapsed and the Great Depression, this state park changed ownership many times. It was purchased by a man, Louis P. Clark, in 1936. Later in 1965, the couple donated the land to the state and made sure it was kept as a garden, which is what it has been since. (Joey Savage)
Later on that day, since it was too gloomy to go to the beach or hang by the pool, we took another trip down to the city of Daytona Beach and decided to do some shopping. Our first stop was to Buccee’s, a large and popular chain gas station across the south. We spent a good amount of time in here exploring the different merch, homestyle items, and looking at the array of food. On our way out, we had to stop and get a picture with Buccee to capture our time well spent. (Joey Savage)
