Our 2024 30A Summer Beach Trip by the Numbers

We are home from paradise AKA the little strip of beach called 30A on the Gulf, and, as always, I’m recapping the whole trip by the numbers.  Here we go!

8 – Days we were on our trip

7 – Nights we stayed in the condo

7 – Little beach towns we visited while we were there (Panama City Beach, Inlet Beach, Rosemary Beach, Seacrest, Alys Beach, Santa Rosa, and Seaside)

1 – Time somebody yelled “cows” when they saw cows on the drive down… it’s our family tradition.  Apparently, nobody was into it this year.  Haha.

16 + 1 pitcher of margs – Adult beverages consumed (this was spread out over eight days between Brian and me.  We don’t drink like this all the time, I promise.  Haha.)

18 – Ice creams consumed (this is spread out among four people, although, I didn’t participate a couple of times… and 8 of those were ice cream cookie sandwiches that we’d bought at the grocery store to keep in the condo)

24 – Donuts consumed (We simply cannot resist Donut Hole!!!!)

1 – Time we got takeout for dinner and ate in the condo (our typical Saturday night Angelina’s Pizza!  It’s Jacob’s favorite and it’s the easiest thing to do the day we get there since we don’t arrive until at least 5 PM.)

7 – Restaurants we ate at on this trip (Pineapple Willy’s for dinner, Great Southern Café for dinner, La Cocina for dinner, The Pancakery for brunch, Duos at The Big Chill for dinner, Local Smoke for me and Duos for B and the kids at The Big Chill for dinner, and Old Florida Fish House for dinner)

5 – Times we ate outside at a restaurant (Pineapple Willy’s, Great Southern Café, Duos, Duos/Local Smoke, and Old Florida Fish House)

2 – Times we ate inside a restaurant (La Cocina and The Pancakery)

2 – New restaurants tried on this trip (The Pancakery in Panama City Beach, and Old Florida Fish House in Santa Rosa)

5 – Times we made lunch in the condo (sandwiches, chips, and fruit pretty much every day!)

23 hours & 15 minutes – Hours spent on the beach during the day

3 – Hours spent on the beach in the evening

9 – Walks taken on the beach

9.09 – Miles walked on the beach

7 – Crabs seen on our walks

2 – Jellyfish spotted on our trip

6 – Bottles of sunscreen that we went through

1 – Hole-in-one made during our mini golf outing… Olivia!!

4,363 – Tickets won at Dave and Busters (this might be their all-time record!)

7 – Times Olivia hit the big milk jug 1,000 point bonus in the milk jug toss at Dave and Busters.  The girl was on FIRE.

12 – Small shops visited on the trip (Duckies, Mercantile, Art of Simple, Modica Market, and The Seaside Style Sport in Seaside, Sugar Shak, Hissyfits Boutique, Disco, The Hidden Lantern Bookstore, and Rosemary Beach Collection + Kids Co. in Rosemary Beach, Seacrest Beach Trading Company in Seacrest, and Build-a-Bear Workshop at The Big Chill)

2 – Times that we saw groups of Gen-Z girls (probably late teens/early 20’s) using old-school point and shoot digital cameras… like the ones from the early 2000’s!!  Somebody please tell me – are these making a comeback?!  Like some sort of retro fad??  All of the girls had cell phones (that probably take way better photos than those old cameras), so we were really confused as to why a group of Gen-Z girls would be carrying digital cameras circa early 2000’s.  #ItsGiving2003

1 – Famous person we *almost* saw there.  Luke Bryan owns a bar in The Big Chill (formerly known as The Hub) where we eat dinner every year that we go.  People say that he frequents the bar during the summer, but we’ve never known him to be there in all of our years of going.  This year, however, when we pulled into the parking lot, we saw a SUPER NICE classic convertible Bronco (Luke collects classic Broncos… he even has a song about them) with big, fancy tires and a very expensive speaker system with a custom paint job and custom seats.  The Bronco was parked in the “owner parking” spot and the license plate on the back was for a state where Luke has a home/farm, so we are 99.99% sure he was there.  We obviously couldn’t go in the bar with the kids, so unfortunately, we’ll never know…

2 – Nights the Bronco was parked there

6 – Times we walked by and tried to peek in to see if he was in there the first night

30 – Minutes we sat in our car right by his Bronco one night hoping that he would come out.  Lol. 

3 – Books I read on the trip (the last half of Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating, First Lie Wins, The Mother-in-Law, and the first half of The Arrangement)

1 – Time we were asked if the kids are twins (this happens on almost every trip we take)

3 – Shark attacks that occurred literally right down the beach from us while we were there.  It is super rare for shark attacks to happen there in that area, so for three to happen in one day is unprecedented.

2 – People who were badly injured.  A 45-year old lady lost her left arm and had extensive damage done to her pelvis, and a young teenage girl lost her left hand and had to have her right leg amputated.  It’s just a horrific story and it’s been all over the national news if you haven’t seen it. 

1-ish – Mile down the beach that one of the attacks happened from us, and it happened while we were on the beach and in the water

4-ish – Miles down the beach that the other attacks occurred from us, and those happened while we were on the beach and in the water, too

1 – Time the sheriff came through and whistled us out of the water.  We had no clue what was going on at the time, and the sheriff was very vague, but word spread quickly about the attacks. 

Indefinitely – The beaches were shut down, though, I believe they are back open now with a single red flag and a purple flag indicating dangerous marine life

350 – Pictures taken on the trip with my iPhone (after I deleted all of the bad ones)

75 – Videos taken on the trip with my iPhone (after I deleted all of the bad ones)

?? – Shells found and brought home on this trip (haven’t counted them yet!)

68 – The lowest temp we saw during the whole trip (it was chilly that first evening on the beach!)

89 – The highest temp we saw during the whole trip (and that was just one day.  All of the other days it maxed out in the low to mid-eighties… it was perfect!)

1 – Friend that Olivia was reunited with on the trip… she met a little girl named Evelyn last year on the trip and they have been pen pals ever since then.  Their family stays at the same condo the same week as us every year, so they were reunited and got to play together all week!  It was so special.

1 – Friend that Jacob made on the last day of our trip this year

1 – Family that we met and hung out with for several days on the beach… they are from Atlanta and they’re big Georgia fans like we are… their grown kids were all there and they all graduated from UGA recently.  Their son worked with the football team several years back and he knew my cousin who works for the team.  Small world!!!!

And that’s about it!

As always, I’ll be recapping our trip from start to finish, so be sure to stick around!  And if you missed following along with us, you can always relive the whole trip in my “30A ’24 highlight in my Instagram bio. 

Happy Tuesday, y’all!