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It was blustery and freezing when I picked up my brother before departing for New York City and, ultimately, Daytona Beach, Florida. Ironically, just a few days earlier, temperatures reached the 70s.

The drive to New York City went without much trouble, except for some snow showers.

After parking at my friend, Rob's, apartment building in midtown Manhattan (because I didn't really know where else to park), my brother and I hailed a taxi and headed downtown to check out Ground Zero. Nearly six months to the day, two airliners caused the two World Trade Center towers to collapse.

Our taxi driver dropped us off as close as he could, and so we just walked around the perimeter of Ground Zero. The devistation was obviously still very evident. Windows remained blown out. Dust still covered everything. Shops were still closed, and people were still crying. There was a quiet calm, however, as the crews went about their business, and the people just quietly observed. Some, however, thanked the crews as they walked by and others took pictures with firemen like they were professional athletes. It was a surreal scene.

My brother and I hailed a taxi to Penn Station where we were to meet up with Sheldon, who was coming into Manhattan from Long Island. After a while, we finally met up, and we were off to Florida!

I drove straight through until about 11:00 p.m. when I switched with my brother near the North Carolina border with Virginia.

There's something absolutely awesome about driving the length of the entire Eastern seaboard, especially in March, after a long winter. It's not so much the big differences, but the subtle differences that make it so cool. Little things like the appearance of leaves on the trees, shedding the winter jacket in favor of just a sweatshirt when you get out of the car for the first time in hundreds of miles at 5:00 a.m. in north Georgia, and the feeling of the sun warming the oddly humid Florida air.

My brother drove to Georgia, I think (I slept most of the time he was driving). Sheldon got us to our destination, the Best Western La Playa on North Atlantic Avenue in Daytona Beach, FL at about 7:30 a.m.

Since we arrived so early, our room wasn't ready, so we had breakfast and then chilled on the beach while the sun rose over the Atlantic. I couldn't believe I was 1,200 miles away from home!

After we got our room, we each fell asleep until about noon, when the sound of music woke us. And so our Spring Break oficially started!

We walked the beach, and just hung around all day as we got acquainted with the scene.

Our hotel was an upside-down L-shaped building about seven stories tall. Balconies, which were off-limits during Spring Break, faced North and East. The outdoor hallways faced South and West. So, essentially, the hallways served as balconies. The hallways were actually even more ideal because people on the North wing of the building could see (and yell at) people on the East wing.

At around dinner time, our hotel came alive when everyone just hung-out in the hallways. Girls stripped to loud cheers with little prompting. The scene was absolutely insane, and totally awesome.

Later in the evening (the hallway parties were still going strong), we met Paul and Keith from Ohio, who stayed a few doors down from ours. Sheldon fell asleep early, but Rob, Paul, Keith and I went to Razzles, which was a club further down the strip.

Surprisingly, the scene down there was even more insane. I was pleasantly surprised. Razzles also didn't disappoint. Although there were way too many guys (way more guys than girls, unfortunately), we all had a freakin' blast.

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