At the end of the summer (yes I cannot catch up no matter how hard I try - I am consistently running about 2 months behind though), we drove to Destin, FL for some fun in the sun.
The first day we only drove to Baton Rouge. Upon looking for a restaurant on this obscure little road, we stumbled upon the Baton Rouge LDS temple. So we got out to take a picture and being a Sunday night and on the same property as one of our church buildings, someone gladly came over to say hi and take our picture for us. What a fun but completely random surprise!
The next day we headed out to Florida. Mike and I really liked The Shed (in Alabama I think?) for lunch. We stopped there off the highway. It's been featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives (or whatever that show is called). Good choice! Fun looking at all the old stuff too!
We stayed at the Crescent Condominiums. Not bad. Nice accommodations, very nice pool (not too many places have big pools there), and right on the beach.
We spent most of our mornings at the beach before it got hot. In fact, there was a hurricane way out in the Atlantic which kept things nice and cool for us for a while.
Ashley making sand angels...
Reagan buried herself in the sand but she sat up before I took the picture.
We also bought a boogie board. The waves were really light though so hard to get it going. Then Ashley tried to surf on it. She would just wait for the water to come pick her up.
Reagan found a shell that had a HUGE hermit crab in it!
Mike caught dozens of sand dollars that we took home as souvenirs. The water was so shallow and clear for so far out and Mike and the older girls did some great snorkeling.
We went to Harborwalk Village where Mackenzie and Kaitlyn got to zipline. I was fine with the lower one but didn't know they were going to do the really high one. I could barely look. This one is the lower one.
We took a sand castle lesson. It would have been really neat if it hadn't been in the hottest part of the day. I felt like we were sizzling. It was also a lot of work. So I learned stuff that was cool but it was absolutely exhausting. Here were some of our creations.
We took a dolphin cruise as well. The kids probably would have enjoyed the pirate cruise more, which I must say ALSO saw the dolphins, just provided more entertainment. I thought it was relaxing though!
Each kid also got to steer the ship, for real. They got to turn it and everything. Very cute!
And we got to check out Gator Beach and feed the alligators.
I think the highlight for everyone was the Banana Boat ride. It was pretty fun (except for my concern of sharks, which everyone wanted to tease me for but even the boat captain admitted that it's a reality). What was I thinking?
But here we are as we were starting off. So far so good!
Here's what we looked like after we'd picked up a lot of speed. I am actually starting to fly off because the weight was slowly dipping down into the water.
And wipeout for Mom! They thought this was hilarious. It was fine I guess, except for the uh...sharks that could be out there. Actually our whole side kept wiping out. Something must have been wrong with the weight distribution I think. I honestly enjoyed the boat when it was going so fast that I had to grip on for dear life. But in those gripping moments, yeah, I could have done without that.
Coming in from the banana boat with Harborwalk Village behind us.
Crazy pose!
See you later, Destin!
Honestly, it was gorgeous there for sure, but I find beach vacations to be very stressful with the kids. And I get tired of the intense heat. It was fun and I'm glad we did it because we'd never taken them to a really nice beach before, but I don't think it was our favorite. Don't mean that to sound snobby, maybe I'm more of a resort type person. I like things to be easy. But really vacations with children aren't easy. It's still work, just in a prettier place. Still, look at this sunset on the water! Beautiful!
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