Destin Day Three

We set out for Destin... actual Destin on day three and decided to go on a two hour glass bottom boat cruise. We thought this would be really cool to see the dolphins from under the water/boat. Unfortunately the glass was more like fogged up plastic - in other words, not clear at all. It was a little disappointing but we still enjoyed the boat ride.

We were able to see several sightings of dolphins. They swam right up to the boat and at one point, two dolphins swam right along side the front of the boat for a long while.
I enjoyed the Caribbean/tropical songs playing while enjoying our cruise. Gotta love Jimmy Buffett! Definitely felt like a beach vacation.

The crew caught a crab in a trap and showed it to us and we got to touch it.

After the boat cruise, we stopped for lunch and headed over to the Gulfarium. This was not too far from the glass bottom boat cruise and we figured we would throw the naps to the wind and take the kids to this. This was a fun place but by no means Sea World!!

We saw a dolphin show...

... a sea lion show. This was actually a picture of all three sea lions getting their rest and sun tan after the show.

... and a sea lion and dolphin show.
The dolphin and sea lion sharing a kiss.

We also saw stingrays, huge turtles, alligators, a shark, some birds, tropical penguins, small aquariums of fish and a huge aquarium that we could peak through the windows at the dolphins.
It didn't take long before Hannah and Tyler fell asleep in the car on the way back to the condo after we left the Gulfarium.
And here is Whitney, my earliest riser as happy as can be.
We then decided to run by the Seaside shop that we didn't get a chance to look in the night before on our date night. Mamaw stayed in the car with the kids, who had their power nap minus Whitney. They watched a video for about 20 or 30 minutes while we picked up the most comfortable flipflops we've ever owned.

Then we headed back to the condo and had dinner at the condo and decided to play around some in the condo.

Our balcony...


Then we decided to go down and play in the grassy area in front of our condo building thingy. The kids really enjoyed this despite how tired they were from the busy day and lack of naps. I wished they had their fountains on so the kids could play in them but they were turned off all week.
Whitney refused to hold our hands; she was just as happy and content as she could be lagging behind.

Wouldn't it be hilarious if the water suddenly came on right about now?
Mamaw with the trips. We gave up on trying to get a good pic of the four of them.

Or these four... Hanging out on the little house, back porch island. Whitney was too scared to walk off the porch by herself because she was afraid of the mulch. Remember, if it aint grass or pavement, she aint happy.

This is where we stayed.
This is me being one of Bob Barker's girls, showing off our prize. :)
I will post more pics of the room later in a separate post but had to share with you the funny story of how much Tyler absolutely LOVED this sofa! He couldn't get enough of it. He would just sit and sit on it. And usually right smack dab in the middle. So cute!
After a busy day and after we put the kids to bed, Craig and I decided to run down to the La Cocina Mexican restaurant in our condo/resort building for a second dinner/snack. We enjoyed sitting outside and listening to the music.

Ok... Wow, this was a busy day for us and long post! I'll try to post day four and the drive home tomorrow.

Destin Day Two

Day two we got up and went to Seaside and did some walking around, window shopping and sight-seeing. A lot of the shops etc. weren't open yet so we didn't spend much time there. Anyway, Seaside is just up the strip from where we stayed and such a neat little community. Probably more to do as far as shopping, dinner etc. in Seaside than any other beach on the strip. If we could afford to stay there, and if we decide to go back one day, I'd like to stay there.

This was so pretty driving through this short row of palm trees on the way up the strip toward Seaside. It was also especially pretty at night with the palm trees lit up.

On a side note, here is the resort that we stayed in - The Villages of South Walton. Most of the condos were in much smaller groupings, like a house; ours was one of the few set up like this. This picture was taken just outside of Bud & Alley's Pizza Bar restaurant and several cute little shops. It is really cool how it is all set up so close to the beach.


When we finished up in Seaside we went back to the condo for lunch and put the kids down for naps. I took a walk with Mamaw while Craig stayed behind in the condo with the kids. I've never seen so many people walking/jogging for exercise on vacation in my life. We thought we would get a little exercise in too. It was short-lived.

When the kids woke up we decided we would take them to the pool. We weren't sure how this would go over because they hadn't been in the pool all season and had never really gotten super comfortable with the water even last summer. They were a little nervous at first but luckily with this large pool, it is separated into several sections of pools and we first went to one of the small pools then gradually moved to the bigger pool. I think the little water toys furnished by the condo owners saved us with the pool. It was a nice distraction and they were much more at ease.
After a fun, late afternoon in the pool, Craig and I had a date night and went back to Seaside for dinner. We planned on going to Bud & Alley's Restaurant because from what I read, they were one of the restaurants overlooking the beach and had pretty views and sunsets but when we got there, the first thing we saw was Bud & Alley's Pizza Bar so that is where we landed.


It wasn't until after dinner that we realized there was a Pizza Bar and Taco Bar too - all separate restaurants. It was all good and we really enjoyed the pizza bar. We sat out back and enjoyed the openness - we couldn't see the beach where we were but still very nice. This was our view from our table. This bench with green pillows was one side of our table - we just sat on the opposite side to enjoy the view.

The tables we sat at outside were coffee tables so it was different but good. Just what we wanted... something different. While we waited for a few minutes for our table before dinner, we looked around at some of the nearby shops but we were quickly buzzed to be seated at our table so after dinner we decided to stop back by this one shop and look around some more. Unfortunately, everything was closing up so we decided we would come back another day to check Seaside out a bit more.


A nice, friendly (slightly intoxicated) man offered to take our picture so we would have a picture of us together and stop taking pictures of each other separately. It was funny, his wife was on his case for spending so much time taking our picture and making sure we liked it because she was trying to get a family picture of her own. :) This was before dinner while we waited for our table.
Day Three to follow tomorrow...

Destin Day One

The morning of day two was pretty low key with trying to get settled in. We made a trip up the strip to Panama City Beach and did some sight-seeing from the car then we made a stop by a souvenir shop and get some souvenirs for everyone.

Then we went by the grocery store to pick up some food for us to have at the condo. Speaking of grocery stores... We went to Winn Dixie but we were all quite tickled by the name of one of the grocery stores in Destin.... Publix! Not sure if it is pronounced with a long U or short U but we hoped for the short U. Ha!!

We came back to the condo afterwards and had lunch and put the kids down for a nap then Craig and I went to the wonderful pool. It is a huge, 12,000 sq. ft. pool or something like that. It is a short walk from our condo, as it is not in our resort but we had access to it, staying where we stayed. This is one of the reasons we picked this resort because a lot of the condos either don't have a pool at all or the pool is very small. Anyway, I really enjoyed spending a couple hours soaking up some rays and floating on my Dora The Explorer float furnished by the condo owners. So so so relaxing and enjoyable.

Then after naps, we decided to take the kids to the beach. Boy oh boy was this a nightmare!!! The kids were all so freaked out by the sand and the mere size of the ocean and the noise of the waves crashing into the beach freaked them out, mainly Tyler!! Oh my goodness - it was awful! He would not warm up to it even after sitting on the shore (being held), walking the shore (being held), sitting in the chairs (being held). It didn't matter what we did, they weren't having it. They all went out in the water and the girls did stop crying and screaming but not Tyler! Whitney was just mainly freaked out by the sand. As a matter of fact, the entire trip, anytime she saw sand on the street, she would walk around it because she was so afraid of it. She is my sensitive girl and always has been afraid of stuff like this. She was also afraid to walk on rocks or anything other than pavement. Anyway, we stayed all of probably 20 minutes and left and never visited the beach again with the kids. All the stairs that had to be climbed to get to the beach and with the three kids and all the chaos, we figured it wasn't worth it to try again and attempt to acclimate them to it.

We went back to the condo and got cleaned up and went out for dinner. We went to the Old Florida Fish House. Their salmon and bread was SOOOO good! It was a neat little restaurant - slightly hidden off the main road and the whole set up leading to the restaurant, including a little souvenir shop leading up to the restaurant, was neat.

Here we are just outside our front door on the front balcony getting ready to go to dinner. It was Memorial Day but poor Tyler didn't have any red, white and blue to wear...

We decided to be silly and take our picture with the sign.... there are actually pictures of us kissing the fish too but I will spare you. :)
Sadly we didn't take very many pictures this day because in the morning we didn't do much and the beach was too chaotic for pictures. We took the camera to the restaurant but forgot it in the car so we didn't get any pictures at dinner. A day or two later we went back and took some pictures of the restaurant sign.

Day two to follow...

Florida Vacation - The drive there.

We set out on our way to Florida at 5:30 Sunday morning. We planned to leave around 3 a.m. but with the delay in getting everything done and packed the night before, we were up too late to be leaving at 3 a.m. The kids did so well; I cannot believe how well they did. They never went back to sleep after being woke up at 5:15 and they each had a 30 minute nap and nothing more throughout the entire drive, and didn't go to bed until around 10:30 that night. What a long day for them (and us)! I just can't get over how well they did with such a long drive and very few stops. It took us 16 hours to get there for what was supposed to be a 12 hour drive without stops. We actually got into Destin around 8:30 but by the time we got to Seacrest Beach and found our condo, it was 9:30. Things aren't too easy to find around there in the dark when in unfamiliar territory.

Our car was packed to the max and our overhead luggage rack storage bin was too. Mamaw and I planned to alternate sitting in the backseat however, Mamaw has been having some recent back trouble so she rode up front the entire time. Thankfully, the long drive wasn't too hard on her back. Craig informed me last minute that I would be doing some driving but that didn't happen so I rode in back the entire time and tended to and entertained the kids. I can't express how exhausting it was to turn around 8,000 times in the 16 hours to entertain them and fetch the toys/food/drinks they dropped. And with our car being so full, it was quite cramped and each time we stopped to get the kids out, most of the stuff had to be moved around so the seat could be moved up to get the girls out of the third row. A road trip I will never forget and will not again do for a very long time....not all at once - breaking it up, yes. :)

Here is Mamaw trying to keep her neck and back comfortable. Not too far into the trip at this point.

Craig driving - and gotta love good ole GPS!
Hannah all happy in her pajamas. And yes, that is a pack n play between her and Whitney.
Little Miss Whitney in her pj's. The poor girls had so much stuff in the floor board at their feet. Luckily though, these carseats sit up pretty high so they still had a decent amount of leg room.
My buddy Tyler sitting beside me in the second row. And there was another pack n play at his feet in the floor board (among other things).

Mamaw sat up in the condo while Craig and I unloaded ALL this stuff we took with us! Thank God for Mamaw! I can't imagine how hard it would have been for one person to do this alone while the other watched the kids. Isn't this crazy?!? For 4 days and 5 nights!! I will be updating each day of our vacation soon so stay tuned...