Daytona Beach through the eyes of a National Champion

Daytona Beach, Florida: NDA

Day 1: Travel + Team Dinner

We arrive at Best Western Aku Tiki Inn at 3:00 pm after a long morning of traveling. I of course had to get in the pool first thing and swam for an hour or two with my team. A couple of us went grocery shopping at the Winn Dixie’s across the street to plan for the tiring week that was ahead of us which was nice to not have to worry about needing a snack here and there. After we got all settled in it was time to get ready for our big team dinner at Landshark Bar and Grill sponsored by Liz & Gary Hanna with Siouxland Scale Services! I started out with sharing artichoke dip for an appetizer and for the main course I had the fish tacos which were so delicious! After dinner we were all so tired we got ready for bed and anticipated the next exciting day full of practice.

Day 2: Practice Day

We had started day 2 off with a reserved practice at the Shore. The hotel was beautiful and our practice room had the best view! After our first practice we had about 7 hours before our 2nd scheduled practice so the dance team girls decided to make the most of it. We started off by heading to the beach to get some sun before the competition. We swam for about 2.5 hours before we headed off to lunch. We all love to go to The Health Nut Cafe when in Daytona, they have the best acaí bowls and smoothies! My personal favorite was the “Elvis Bowl” which consisted of classic acaí, strawberries, bananas, cashews, and peanut butter.

Day 3: Preliminary Competition

Day 3 was full of jitters and excitement for our first competition of the trip. We had woken up at 5am to get in full hair, makeup, & costume to drive down to the Ocean Center at 7:10. We had completed our jazz routine at 9:27am and after that we had finally calmed our nerves. After the excitement of placing 4th in the nation, me and my mom decided to have lunch at the world renowned Ocean Deck! The food was delicious and the service was incredible. Our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs but we still had a great time! After lunch it was time to head back to the hotel to prepare for Pom. We had competed Pom at 6:20 and had left the stage feeling so confident and excited for scores. Once we were informed that we had placed 1st in Pom for prelims, me and my mom decided to celebrate with my favorite boba place in Daytona, Bread and Bubble Tea! Then it was off to bed for our finals competition the next day.

Day 4: Finals

Finals day was everything we had hoped for. Thankfully we didn't have to wake up as early considering the first thing on our agenda was to watch Cheer compete followed by a scheduled practice. We then ate lunch on our own and proceeded to get prepared to compete Pom in finals. The anticipation definitely built, waiting all day till our performance at 2:24. After dancing, we all got a small snack before our awards at 4:45 where we were announced DIII Pom National Champions! Following the awards ceremony we all headed to the beach to take pictures with our trophy as a team. We all ran into the ocean and spent all of our night celebrating each other and making the most out of the night. We decided to have dinner at Racing’s North Turn which was so much fun from dancing to the live music to eating tasty shrimp tacos. Afterwards we went back to the hotel to sleep before our free-day the next day.

Day 5: Free Day

Me and my mom had decided that a beach day was the best way to spend our last day in Daytona. She had picked me up from my hotel around 9 and we stopped at her hotel before heading to the beach. She had been staying in the Streamline Hotel which was so cute + retro and definitely worth the hype. We laid on the beach for about 2 hours before grabbing a bite to eat at the Ocean Deck yet again. We had ceviche, gator bites, and a delicious salad to fuel up. After lunch we headed back to the Streamline Hotel to swim in the pool for the rest of the day. After a long day in the water we headed inside to get ready for dinner. My mom had made reservations for Mama Foo Foo and we were all very excited. The service was amazing and the food was exactly what we hoped for. We had shared charred octopus, Fontina Arancini and a large Charcuterie Board and for the main course I had the 5 points chicken. It was definitely a great night getting all dressed up and having a great meal celebrating national championships. After dinner I headed back to my hotel to get a good nights rest before we headed back the next day. I highly recommend taking a trip to Daytona beach, we had a blast in the “World’s Most Famous Beach”!