We took the gang plus one to Panama City Beach, Florida last week. The plus one was Macy's friend Stephanie. We have never taken an extra on such a long trip but it worked out pretty well giving Macy someone to pal around with.
We also have never taken 2 cars on vacation but that too worked out pretty well. We separated the two kids who are like oil and water. The 2 boys ( ones in the first picture below,in a rare moment of peace and harmony) who get annoyed with each other if the other breathes too loud or looks their direction. It made the drive a lot easier for everyone involved.
Much to our disappointment the seaweed arrived the week before we went down and the ocean was all yucky. It didn't stop sand castles from being built and playing in the sand still happen. But there were no days and days of walking the shoreline ,chasing waves or hours of body boarding . Something about the ocean that I love is to set up camp and watch the kids entertain themselves for hours playing in the tide and wearing themselves out.
The pool was our refuge from the heat and it was plenty hot. We tried to space out our activities to keep the vacation fun but reasonable. We mainly cooked our meals in our condo which worked out really well. I had planned easy to prepare meals and there were no complaints from the group. Eating out wasn't high on the MUST DO list for the kids so it made this vacation easier to not have that burden. Tables for 9 would take forever every night during prime dinner time anyways.
The night we did all go out to eat we planned ahead. We picked a reasonable touristy place (Pineapple Willies), we picked an early dinner time (5 o'clock) and we look forward to it and appreciated it all together.We turned our last night in into a special meal too. We grilled out steaks and had both shrimp cocktail and grilled shrimp out on the patio area of the condo and ate as the sunset. The kids all pitched in with helping prepare for the picnic style meal. Oh and the fresh grilled shrimp were AMAZING!
One night after our dinner in we walked down to get ice cream at a local shop. It was a good bit of ice cream for our $2-3 dollar a cone. So much so I tossed about 1/2 of mine in the trash because I was full. We spent an entire day at Shipwreck Island Water Park, the seaweed was to blame for this extra outing but we all longed for a little more activity than being pool side all day. After Molly and Collin brought back a handful of pamphlets from the lobby one day Brian and I researched mini golf in the area. There was one within walking distance that had rave reviews and a pretty reasonable price so another night of fun. Our last big to -do was take a boat ride out to see the dolphins and visit Shell Island. This took up a good portion of our last day and it was nice way to wrap up our trip together. We finally did get our time to play in the ocean as the seaweed at Shell Island wasn't bad at all.
The condo was our first vacation spot where I think we had enough room and comfortable fit for everyone. Plenty of bathrooms and beds is very important with a group our size. I liked to convenience of PCB because everything we needed was within a short walk or drive from the condo. Taking food and buying easy meals was a huge help which I will do again. But Brian has declared he is tired of the sun, heat,sand and sunscreen. He wants his next vacation to include snow. I told him I am willing to try it out. But trading sunscreen for snowsuits seems like alot of hassle too.Overall it was a nice trip! We came home with a few souvenirs, some sunburns and a lot of great memories. I love my family.
