2022 30A Summer Beach Trip - Days 5, 6, & 7

It’s finally time for part two of our beach trip!  If you missed the first half you can read it here.

Wednesday, June 8

Wednesday morning, we slept in until almost nine because we were all so exhausted, and then we had a lazy morning in the condo.  The weather was gorgeous yet again, but we decided to skip the beach for the day and take a break from the sun.  Both kids had different patches of skin that were irritated from the sand and sunscreen, and we were all pretty tired of the sun.

Instead, we made a light breakfast of eggs and cereal in the condo, I read on the balcony for a bit and had my morning tea, and then we got ready and headed into Rosemary Beach.  By the time we arrived, it was lunchtime, and we lucked out and got the last indoor table at Cowgirl Kitchen.  We love eating outside, but not during the hottest part of the day when the sun is beating down… especially since our goal was to stay out of the sun on Wednesday.

Cowgirl Kitchen has been on our list of places to eat for years, but there are only a few tables there, so it’s hard to get into, and therefore, we’ve never really tried.  We got right in and sat down on Wednesday, and the food ended up being awesome.  B had a pepperoni and banana pepper pizza that was amazing, and I had their Market Salad with mixed greens, strawberries, diced mango and pineapple, goat cheese, candied pecans, and house dressing, and OH MY WORD, it was one of the best salads ever.  Their house dressing was so unique… probably one of the best salad dressings I’ve ever had.  I highly recommend it if you’re ever there!

After we were done eating, we walked down to The Sugar Shak, a unique little place that sells tons and tons of candy – every type you can think of, old and new – as well as ice cream.  Every year, we always go there after dinner, and it’s always packed, so it was odd being there during the day and having the place to ourselves.  I came across Push Pops while we were in there and it brought back so many childhood memories!  Do y’all remember these??  I have not seen them in probably 30 years, even though I was told they’re still sold pretty much everywhere.  The kids each picked out a couple of things, and Olivia grabbed Bean-Boozled, the jellybean game with aaaallll the nasty flavors.  Lol. 

After that, we swung by The Hidden Lantern Bookstore to grab a book for me to read for the rest of the trip.  One of the books I’d ordered for the trip got lost in the mail before we left, so I was short one book, and I needed something else to get me through.  We ended up staying there for a bit and letting the kids browse.  If you haven’t been, it’s the absolute coziest little bookstore with warm wood bookshelves, big comfy couches, and perfect lighting.  I would have been happy sitting there for the rest of the afternoon.

The kids each bought one of those scratch-off books with their own money, I grabbed a copy of Beach Read, and then after we paid, we did some more browsing at a couple of the other shops in Barrett Square.

After we finished up in Rosemary Beach, we made the drive to Pier Park in Panama City to have our annual Dave and Buster's day.  I am not a huge fan of D&B (the incessant noise gets to me very quickly), but B and the kids love it, so we go every year while we’re there.  It’s usually our rainy day activity, but this year we lucked out and had zero rainy days.

Wednesdays all games are half-off, and therefore, the kids were able to play twice as much and get twice the tickets that they normally do.  They both ended up picking out a few good prizes each at the end and they were so excited.  Olivia had been asking for a sleep mask for a few weeks, and I’ll be darned if they didn’t have sleep masks as one of the prizes at D&B.  She was ecstatic and she couldn’t open it fast enough.  She also chose a mood necklace that she is in love with… she’d never seen one , so she thought it was really neat.  I felt like such a bad girl-mom having not ever introduced her to mood rings and necklaces.  They were a staple from my childhood.  Haha.

After D&B, we headed back to the condo and Olivia played Beanboozled and we all watched as she tried each of the nasty flavors.  If you’re not familiar with Beanboozled, it’s a game from Jelly Belly, and they have a bunch of jellybeans in a package.  There are 10 different colors of jellybeans, and each one could either be something tasty or something disgusting:

Juicy Pear or Booger

Strawberry Banana Smoothie or Dead Fish

Berry Blue or Toothpaste

Birthday Cake or Dirty Dishwater

Peach or Barf

Tutti Fruitti or Stinky Socks

Pomegranate or Old Bandage

Toasted Marshmallow or Stink Bug

Cappuccino or Liver and Onions

Buttered Popcorn or Rotten Egg

You have to spin the wheel and pick the one it says and then you’re just surprised with either a yummy one or a disgusting one.

Y’all!!!!  Could those flavors be more disgusting?!  Haha.

I wasn’t about to taste any of those, but I did smell all of the gross ones, and they all smelled exactly like what they were supposed to be.  Brian was the only one brave enough to taste them besides Olivia, and he said that Old Bandage literally tastes like how Band-Aids smell.  Ugggghhhh.  Haha.  It was disgusting but it certainly kept us entertained until it was time to go to dinner. 

We opted for The Hub for dinner Wednesday night, and while it’ll always be “The Hub” to us, they recently rebranded and their name is now “The Big Chill.”  Boooo.  Haha.

We love Duo’s at The Hub The Big Chill, so we all got burgers and fries, and B and I grabbed some beers, and we kicked back and relaxed there for a while.  After everyone was done eating, B and the kids walked down to Super Freeze to grab ice cream for all of us while I held down the table, and then shortly after that, we headed back to our condo. 

 

We got back just in time for another sunset beach walk, and then we got the kids in bed a bit earlier because they were both a little cranky.  Olivia got to use her sleep mask, and she’s used it every single night since then.  I can’t think of anything more Olivia than a sleep mask.  My little diva.  Haha.

Thursday, June 9

Thursday, we were up early, and B headed out just after 8 our time to grab another batch of donuts from The Donut Hole.  The weather was originally looking questionable for Thursday, but it turned out to be another gorgeous day. 

 

We got out to the beach around 10 AM our time, and it started sprinkling right at the time that we’d normally go up for lunch.  By the time we were done with lunch, the rain was long gone, and we had another beautiful three hours down on the beach.  The water was a little bit rough on Thursday and there was a bunch of seaweed, so the kids spent most of their time playing in the sand.  Olivia even made me a seaweed bracelet.  ;o)  She also used her "water powers" (like Elsa's ice powers) to bring in the waves.  See the second picture down.  ;o)

Jacob and I took a walk, just the two of us, and B stayed with Olivia since she wanted to play in the water.  While Jacob and I were walking, we could see storm clouds on the horizon, blowing in from the city towards the beach.  By the time we got back to our chairs, the clouds were pitch black and right upon us, so we packed up all of our stuff and headed back to the condo.  It was time for us to head up anyway, though, so it couldn’t have been timed more perfectly.  It never ended up storming anyway, though.

 

We all got showered and ready and then we drove into Seacrest for the evening.  We stopped at a souvenir shop first to grab a frame, and then we went to our very favorite Mexican restaurant of all time – La Cocina.  They have the best margaritas we’ve ever had EVER and they also have the best cheese dip and taco salad.  All of the food is insanely fresh and delicious, and it’s one of our favorite meals of the whole trip every year.  We also eat indoors there, so it was a safe space in case the storm ever came through.  Spoiler alert, it didn’t. 

 

After dinner, we walked to Rosemary Beach and sat on the green for a while.  B and I people-watched and the kids ran around with all of the other kids.  They were gearing up for family movie night, so there were food vendors and a face painter, and it was busy there.

We didn’t stay for the movie as they weren’t starting it until much later, and instead, we snapped a few family pictures in the courtyard by the post office and then walked back to Seacrest to try a new-to-us dessert place.  The place is called Smallcakes and they specialize in very unique flavored cupcakes and cookies, and they also have ice cream.  I really wanted to try a cupcake, but they had an ice cream flavor called Toasted Marshmallow and it sounded too good to resist.  It was SO delicious, y’all, and I had zero regrets about not getting a cupcake.

After dessert, we walked back to the car and made the drive to the condo, and we arrived at the room just in time to take another sunset beach walk.  The lighting outside was insane and these pictures aren't edited.  It was really that pink and purple outside.  On our walk, we saw three crabs, so the kids were thrilled.  We definitely saw more crabs on this beach trip than any other trip!  As for the bottom two pictures, Olivia said, "Mommy, take a picture of me with the sunset!!"  And then Jacob said, "Mommy, take a picture of me with the moon!"  And then he proceeded to do the goofiest pose ever but it was so dark outside at that point that everything was blurry.

 

When we got back to the room, we all watched one episode of Walk the Prank, and then everyone hit the hay.

Friday, June 10

Friday, we ate the last of the donuts in the condo for breakfast, and then we headed out for our last beach day.  Rather than using the chairs that come with the condo, we opted to use our own that day, so we had a bit more space to spread out.  The weather was gorgeous, the water was gorgeous, and it was just an ideal last day there.

Brian caught three mole crabs in the water using our net, and then Brian and Jacob caught two fish in the net, too.  That was a first for us, too… we’ve never brought nets along!  Jacob also made an alligator in the sand and it was SO impressive.  He did this straight from memory... no pictures at all.

Just before lunch, Jacob asked if he and I could go for another walk, so we left Brian and Olivia playing in the water.  My little girlfriend would stay in that water all day, every day.  She is a true mermaid.  She never gets tired of it!

After our walk, we headed to the condo to make sandwiches for lunch, and then we went straight back down to the beach to spend our last three hours swimming and soaking up the sun. 

The kids played their little hearts out while B and I sat in our chairs, and I was able to sneak in some good reading time.  Olivia spent most of her time on the boogie board since it was our last day, and she didn’t want to leave when it was time to get ready for dinner.

We opted for The Hub The Big Chill for dinner again, but this time, B and I grabbed dinner from Local Smoke, the barbecue place.  I just wanted a bunch of sides, so my dinner was mac n cheese, baked beans, and coleslaw, and MY GOODNESS, it was so good, y’all.

Here we are, just sitting in one of my favorite places, in one of my favorite cities, eating some of my favorite foods, drinking one of my favorite beers, and listening to my most favorite song… oh yes, they did just happen to play #41 by Dave Matthews Band while we were there.  See it on the screen below?!  Whoever is in charge of music at The Hub The Big Chill obviously has impeccable taste in music.  What a way to end our last night at the beach! 

At 6, a DJ came out on stage and started a DJ dance party, so we hung out for that for a bit, too.  I was going to skip out on dessert since I was so full, but I just couldn’t resist having one of my all-time favorites – Pirate’s Bounty – one more time.  I swear, all of my very favorite ice cream flavors are down in 30A and we can’t get them at home.  Pirate’s Bounty, Banana Crème Pie, and now, that Toasted Marshmallow.

We decided to head back to the condo shortly after that, and we were glad we did, because we had no clue that it was about to storm a big one.  We made it inside our condo door right as the bottom fell out, and I mean, it POURED.  Thankfully, it passed within about 20 minutes, and we were able to go for one last sunset beach walk.  The rain had cooled things off tremendously and I ended up being freezing the whole time we were down there.  Not what you’d expect in June in Florida.

 

When we got back from our walk, the kids watched another episode of Walk the Prank and I got started packing since we were leaving the next day.  We all headed to bed early, because we had an early morning on Saturday to hit the road for home.

Saturday, June 11

Typically, we stop at Big Bad Breakfast on the way out of town, but this year, we opted out to save time.  That place is always packed, and we always have to wait forever, so we got up early, packed up the car, hit the road, and we were back home by lunchtime.

It was another amazing beach trip, and I’m so grateful for all of the special memories that were made with B and the kids in one of our favorite places on earth.

Happy Wednesday, y’all!