Fun Festivities

Sometimes, when I travel, my natural instincts are to pack as much fun as possible into every single moment.  I will peruse guides and pamphlets, looking for just the right combination of activities for our family.  Although in Destin I did briefly consider visiting the local aquarium, taking a cruise on a pirate ship, and a few other more pricey interests, I will say that luckily we opted out of those options.  Instead, we focused more on relaxing on the beach and swimming with the kiddos at their leisure.  Anything else we did was just icing on the cake for us.  And that, I believe, made all the difference!

One thing we knew we wanted to do was putt-putt.  Both Ava and Hudson enjoy this, and there happened to be a really cool place called The Track just minutes from our resort.  It had two courses: The Island Course (think lots of fun water features) and The Mountain Course (plenty of cool caves to keep off the heat).  We played the first option after dinner one evening, then went back the next day after lunch to play the other one.  Since no one else in our travel party wanted to putt-putt, this gave us a nice opportunity to spend time together just the four of us.  Plus, it was a beautiful space to get our golfin' on.       

 

Of course, my favorite moments were those spent at restaurants around the Destin area!  If you know me at all, you're surely aware of my deep love of food. It's always fun to try out new places, as well as revisit familiar beloved chains.  We did a little bit of both during our vacation.  For the kids, this meant a lot of chicken tenders and French fries; neither one of them is a very adventurous eater.  Although I would have liked for them to branch out a bit, especially try some seafood, I had to remind myself that they are seven and four.  If chicken tenders and French fries keep them happy, then so be it.  Plus, we did visit a Mexican and a pizza place, so at least that forced them to try a few new options. 

 

(On a good note: now that we're home, we're back on the healthy train and eating good combinations of food again, so no harm, no foul.)     

 

 

Just for my own sake, here's a list of some of the yummy places we ate.  This is one of those areas that may bore others, but these are the details I enjoy reviewing long after the trip has ended. 

 

Merlin's Pizza (as delivery on our first night there)

Hog's Breath (great atmosphere and BBQ food)

Joe's Crab Shack (always a favorite!)

Shakes (best ice cream and shakes)

Pepito's Mexican (delicious cheese dip!)

TGIF's (Erik's pick, but at least the kids got slushies)

Outback (can't go wrong here)

McDonald's (a quick lunch with the kids)

The Mellow Mushroom (Hudson's favorite!)

Fudpucker's (Ava's favorite!)