Last week we enjoyed a warm, sunny, and beach-filled spring break get-away to Florida. We have a close friend who owns a condo with his family on the beach near Destin. He had offered that we'd be welcome to use it anytime. As spring break approached, we decided to see if it would be available for us to use...and it was. Beach fun and a free place to stay?
Hooray!!
We decided to make it a family road trip. At 13 hours each way, it was more than twice the length of our longest previous road trips to Pentwater and we weren't exactly sure how it would go. We took 2 days to travel each way and we had a great time on the road as a family.
All 3 kids did exceptionally well in the car. I packed lots of things to keep us entertained and fed. Although there were occasional complaints of boredom from the youngest in the group, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the trip was. We did have a near miss when there was an urgent potty need while we were stopped in a construction zone. Luckily it was our son and we had an empty water bottle, so problem solved.
We listened to LOTS of books on CD. Everyone had different favorites, but we all enjoyed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Surprises According to Humphrey, James and the Giant Peach, a couple Boxcar Children mysteries, Skylark, and There are No Bears on Hemlock Mountain. We also listened to The Pond episodes (always a family favorite), The Greatest Showman and Mary Poppins Returns soundtracks, and some of Briggs's Disney books on CD. The girls got more reading minutes than I could possibly tally with all the books we listened to.
While listening to our books on tape, the kids enjoyed drawing, writing, coloring and doing stickers. Briggs and Adelie played with Briggs's cars and trucks and their stuffed animals. There was also plenty of snacking.
And when the kids got a little road weary, they enjoyed watching a few movies and episodes of shows on our DVD player.
We also made a point to stop for some sit down meals to break up the driving time.
And we added in a few special treats along the way to keep it fun.
On the way home, we made a pit stop at a train station in Alabama for A Day Out with Thomas. I think that deserves its own blog post (if for no other reason than this one is already going to be overloaded with photos), so stay tuned for more information on this fun little road trip side stop.
Once we made it to Florida, it was time for some relaxation and fun. We settled into our beautiful beachfront condo in a really nice resort. Our resort had plenty of amenities that we never took advantage of: free DVD rentals, mini golf, tennis, basketball, indoor/outdoor pools, fitness center, poolside movies, kids activities,... It was nice to have all that available, but we spent almost all our days at the beach enjoying the sun, sand, and surf.
Our condo was so nice. It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a big living room/dining room, a kitchen, and a washer and dryer. It had a big enough hot water heater that we could all take showers after a day at the beach without running out of hot water. #score It also had a great big balcony and an entire wall of windows overlooking the ocean.
Each morning we enjoyed some family time in our condo before heading to the beach. We'd have breakfast, read books, play games, draw, or play on the balcony before heading off to enjoy the rest of our day on the beach.
We had beautiful weather all week--sunshine and low 70's made for perfect beach weather.
Each day on the beach had to start with tears. On our first day, Briggs had a massive fit for the first 20 minutes or so as he wanted to leave due to the "wind" on the beach and the many beach umbrellas. Too scary!! After he and I took a long calm-down walk on the beach, he recovered and had a great time. However, each day started with about 2-3 minutes of tears followed by a walk on the beach and then an enjoyable remainder of the day. At least he's consistent.
Once calm and ready to enjoy the beach, Briggs had a great time playing in the sand and at the water's edge. He never went into the ocean past letting it splash up onto his feet, although he did enjoy jumping over the waves on the shore. He also really liked seeing all the boats on the ocean, especially the ones pulling parasailers. There was also a nearby Air Force base, so helicopters and fighter jets were constantly flying overhead along with tourist helicopters and airplanes pulling banners. You can never go wrong with vehicles on land, on sea, or in the sky.
Although Adelie did venture into the ocean a short ways, she was also more of a sand and water's edge kinda gal. She loved playing restaurant on the beach where I would order food for Adelie and Briggs to make for me. Walking the beach and looking for shells was another favorite Adelie activity.
Staley was our water girl. She loved playing in the water, especially after we found this boogie board in the condo that we borrowed. She loved to ride the waves!
Staley's other favorite beach activity was playing Frisbee. Always a girl with goals, Staley decided that she wanted to get 100 catches in a row. She and Zach finally accomplished this feat. Frisbee champs!!
The kids made friends with a little 9 year old boy from our resort who played with them on multiple days on the beach and at the pool. He showed them how to catch clams in the ocean, and the kids had the best time watching the clams burrow themselves into the sand. It was really cool!
We enjoyed other wildlife beach sightings as well. On our first two days, we saw dolphins swimming out in the ocean. On one day another group of kids found a large crab that we were able to watch scurrying sideways along the beach and burrowing into the sand. We attempted to go crabbing on the beach one evening after dinner since one of our friends had told us how much fun her kids had doing that, but we either didn't know what we were doing (obviously!) or perhaps it was the wrong season because we didn't find any beach crabs at night.
I loved this beach with its white sand and emerald clear waters. The sand was so white and soft and beautiful. I feel a little disloyal to our beloved Pentwater beach, but this was the best beach I've ever been to. The sand was soft and fine and never got too hot in the afternoon sun. And it brushed off so easily, making us less likely to track half the beach back to the condo with us. There was no prickly beach grass, biting flies, or beach beetles. The water was slightly chilly, but nowhere near the body numbing cold of Lake Michigan. I just loved this beach!
We would pass two of our resort pools on the way back to our room from the beach each day. Every day the kids insisted on swimming in the pool as we left the beach. I never minded too much as it was another way to rinse off more of the beach, making us less likely to bring all the sand back into our condo.
The girls preferred the big heated pool while Briggs liked to head over to the little wading pool. It was only about knee deep on him and not heated, but he loved playing around in it.
We did take one morning of our trip to venture out and enjoy the small local aquarium before spending the afternoon at the pool.
The kids all enjoyed checking out the marine life--seahorses and sharks and penguins and dolphins and sea lions and alligators were some of the highlights.
We all enjoyed the dolphin show. The other highlight was watching the alligator trainers go into the alligator exhibit to feed them. It was very interesting to watch them interact with the gators and hear them talk about their work. I'm just glad I wasn't one of them.
On the way back to our condo that morning, we stopped at a restaurant that also features an alligator farm. We didn't eat there, but were able to pop in and check out their "gator beach."
It was pretty cool to see that many alligators in one place. Again, I'm glad I was seeing them from a safe distance.
We enjoyed dinner out and some evening entertainment each night of our trip. The consensus favorite restaurant was Lulu's. This beachside, open air restaurant had a beach area with buckets and shovels and hula hoops for the kids to play while we waited. There was also a hydroplane that took off and landed from the water off the beach, which Briggs found fascinating. There was live music and the food was very good. Lulu's was dinner and entertainment, all rolled up into one. This is where we celebrated Adelie's birthday.
We enjoyed one evening in an adorable little beach town called Seaside. We went with the goal of eating at a restaurant a friend recommended. However, the wait for a table was an hour and half, so we instead enjoyed some food truck dinner and an outdoor kid's concert. While Briggs and Adelie had hot dogs, I stuck it out in a ridiculously slow food truck line to get the rest of us some gourmet specialty grilled cheese sandwiches. The wait ended up being close to an hour, but it was the best grilled cheese I've ever had.
We spent two of our evenings at a resort community area called Baytown Wharf. There were shops and restaurants and outdoor entertainment and lots of things for the kids to do.
The first night there was an outdoor concert and we walked around the area, rode the carousel, and played on a playground. Then the kids talked us into letting them do the ropes courses, which was not in our initial plans. After the amount of time and enjoyment all 3 kids got out of doing it, however, we determined it was well worth the money spent.
There was a little kids ropes course that Adelie wanted to do. She had the best time and, after watching her for about 15 minutes, Briggs decided he wanted to try it too. Adelie did all the obstacles and got so good that she began to run through some of them or go through them walking backwards.
Although Briggs wanted to hold my hand for most of the obstacles, he got braver as he went along and slowly agreed to try some of them on his own. Both kids had the best time and spent about an hour on this little course. It helped that they were the only ones on it at the time.
Staley did the big ropes course with Zach, trying out many of the obstacles. However, they did not get to the highest section on the course. One of the obstacles on the highest section was a plank that you walk out onto in order to ring a bell. Staley decided as we were leaving that she wanted to come back another night so that she could ring the bell. She was very determined to do it, so the next evening we went back to Baytown Wharf for a magician show and some more ropes course fun.
That night I went on the big ropes course with Staley. And yes, she did ring the bell. Adelie and Briggs did the little ropes course and the carousel again.
We enjoyed all our evenings out. Along with Lulu's and our grilled cheese food truck meals, we also tried out a yummy diner (The Donut Hole) where we all had breakfast for dinner. We enjoyed patio dining at a nice Mexican restaurant (Cantina Laredo). And we ate at another beachside restaurant (The Back Porch) with good seafood and some scrumptious hush puppies. And the best part? I never had to cook dinner.
We had a fabulously fun, relaxing, sunny, warm spring break vacation.
Hooray for spring break!!
