30A Beach Trip - Day 3

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Day three of our beach trip started out with donuts yet again!  If you know us, you know that we LOOOOVE donuts and we seek them out, especially when we’re on vacation.  There is no shortage of good breakfast places in 30A, so on this day we headed straight to The Donut Hole in Inlet Beach!  It was only about two minutes from our condo, so it was a quick and easy drive. 

When we pulled up, the line was out the door so eating there was out of the question.  Instead, we took ours to go and we ate them back at the condo.  The kids both opted for cinnamon rolls bigger than their heads (they ended up eating part of them one day and the other part the next day), and B and I selected an assortment of five different donuts – blueberry, red velvet with cream cheese frosting, glazed, crumb cake, and coconut.  They had so many good ones it was impossible to narrow it down, so he and I each tried a little piece of each of them and what was leftover was saved for the next day.  The coconut was my favorite!!

Next on the agenda was the beach again!!  We packed up our wagon with all of our stuff and we set up camp for the day.  The kids hunted for shells and played in the ocean and on this day they were even more brave in the water than the day prior.  Both of them were rolling around in the ocean, “swimming” to shore, letting the waves smack them in the head, and neither of them were scared to go out to the sandbar.  I alternated between laying out while reading my book and playing in the ocean with the kids and it was another day of heaven. 

We headed back up to our condo again for a repeat of sandwiches, chips, and fruit for lunch, and after we had our little break from the sun we headed straight back down for several more hours.  I’m telling y’all, this was by far my favorite beach trip yet!  Mommas with small kids, hang in there!!  It is absolutely amazing when your kids get a little bit older and gain some independence!  This was the first year that I could actually read while the kids were at the beach with me because they were perfectly content doing their own thing for some of the time.  We had our eyes on them every single second, of course, but it was nice being able to split the time with B this year instead of both of us being consumed with parenting duties the entire time.

The afternoon was just gorgeous, not a cloud in the sky, until we turned around and realized this was looming behind us just sometime before 3 PM:

Woops!  Haha.  We packed up our stuff pretty quickly and headed back to the room (much to the kids’ dismay) and then we all got ready for the evening ahead.  It never ended up raining in our area so we could have stayed a little longer, but it was pretty much time to pack it up for the day at that point anyway, so we really didn’t miss out on anything.

By the time we were dressed and ready, the clouds had all cleared so we headed out to The Hub in Watersound, FL.  Watersound was the furthest point that we drove to on the whole trip and I think the drive was about 15 minutes from our condo.  Keep in mind that all of these little beaches that we went to on our trip are only a few miles apart so you can drive to all of them within minutes.  As a matter of fact, most people just walk or ride bikes! 

I had heard good things about The Hub, and y’all, IT WAS MY FAVORITE!!!!  It’s basically a huge outdoor area with a big green lawn and loads and loads of tables and chairs in the middle, and it’s surrounded on all four sides by cute little restaurants, food trucks, bars, and other little shops.  There are string lights EVERYWHERE – MY FAVORITE!!!! – and it is extremely family friendly.  Some nights they do live music, some nights they do movies on the big screen, and some nights they do dance parties. 

When we arrived, we went in search of food, and we ended up choosing Mile Marker 15.  They have all kinds of burgers, sandwiches, salads, and hot dogs, and we were all in a burger mood, so we grabbed four plus fries and a couple of craft beers for B and me to try.  They did have an indoor seating area, but we wanted to be outside where all of the action was, so we sat out there.  There is a covered portion outdoors and there is also lots of shade everywhere else, so it was miraculously cool and comfortable out there. 

Once we were done eating, B and I grabbed a couple of stools at a hightop table that overlooked the green, and we turned the kids loose to burn some energy.  There were kids everywhere, and they were all building forts and playing with these cool little chairs that they had out there on the lawn.  At that point the vibe was pretty chill.  They had some music playing over the speakers and Ray LaMontagne was included in their playlist so I was totally in my element.  Not many people have heard of him, so it’s a rarity to hear his stuff out in public.  If you have never listened to him, do yourself a favor and grab this album.  Or this one.  They are both fabulous.  And when I was linking these I actually just saw that he just released a new album!  EEK!  I'll be buying that one now.  

At 7, the DJ came out and started the Friday night dance party and he played all of our favorites – Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift, and even some old-school OutKast.  The kids (and some adults) were going nuts dancing and singing and doing cartwheels and it was just a really fun atmosphere. 

Once the dance party fun wore off a little bit, we popped in to the ice cream shop there for dessert, and we took it out to a little patio just outside of the main square.  There were more twinkle lights, y’all!! 

The kids were pretty exhausted after dessert (keep in mind their little body clocks were still on Eastern Standard Time) so we decided to call it a night even though I would have loved to have hung out for a little longer.  We took one last look on the way out (look at all the twinkle lights lighting the dark!!) and then we walked back to the car and passed… yep, you guessed it… more twinkle lights!  Ha!

It was yet another perfect vacation day with my favorite people!  Stay tuned because the recap for days four and five are coming soon!  And if you missed any of the other posts, you can find them below.

By the Numbers

Day 1

Day 2

*Linking up with Home of Malones for Thoughts for Thursday.