I am not the kind of person that really loves surprises. I don't know why, but I just like a little bit of notice before being thrown into certain situations. Thankfully, I have married a man that understands this. Chris told me 2 weeks ago that he arranged for us to have a 3 day minivacation at Panama City Beach (PCB), although 2 of those days were actually driving. So-yay! A surprise trip to the beach with 2 weeks notice-gotta love it!
Hailey stayed with my sister and brother in-laws and got to play with her cousin Evan and Tuesday we drove...
Chris, proving he is all man...didn't look up directions first. Just plugged in the GPS. Which was fine for the first 2 hours on highway to Montgomerey, but then it took us on a 2 lane road through a whole lot of nothing...through a no town called Pintlala and Sweet Gum Head...for 3 1/2 hours!!! There was no place for gas, no place to use the bathroom, no place to get out and stretch. Let me tell you just how awesome that was! However, at about my breaking point (that is I wanted to throw the GPS out of the window, and look at a map!) We came into a small town that-yes was close to where we were going.
5 hours of driving we rolled into PCB! It was beautiful! This was my first trip to a beach-EVER!
We stayed at Edgewater Condo's, had an amazing view of the water, but tacky furnishings and flat hospital sheets that only 1/2 covered the bed.
We had dinner at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, where the man on stilts made me a balloon giraffe. Then we crashed back at the condo for the night.
The next morning we went to a diner for breakfast, then planned the entire day to do nothing but hang on the beach.
After about an hour on the beach we realized we were not prepared enough to spend the day on the beach-so we made a run to Walmart for water, sunglasses, etc. Then it was time for lunch, but when we came out from lunch...it was thundering, lightening, and raining!!!!! Great! Finally all geared up for the beach and the sun went away! I was so upset! There was no way we drove all the way to the beach so I could go home as white as I came! Oh well! Guess you can't control the weather. But we went and sat on the beach anyway while it was barely sprinkling and watched the dolphins jump in the water.
To top off our good luck, we decided to wash clothes before we went back. Well, Chris put in a new beach towel with our whites...and turned EVERYTHING PINK!!! I'm not talking light pink that will wash out either-awesome!
Because of our crazy drive down we decided to take a different way home. One with more places to stop-through big towns on a 4 lane Highway. Well, it added 2 hours to our drive time! We were so exhausted by the time we got home, but we had so much fun and I am so glad I finally got to see a beautiful beach! We definately want to head back soon, only with a little more time in the future.