Left Arlington, TX on Thursday morning and drove to Biloxi, MS, stayed in a new Hilton Home2 hotel which was nice, clean and friendly staffed. Biloxi beach was nothing to right home about, haven't been there since I was 9 yrs old.
Fri, Drove to Pensacola Beach to one of the east beaches with a bathroom and all. Great couple of hours at the beach! Drove on to Valparaiso to pick up friends from the airport that flew in from Wyoming, on to the Candlewood suites in Destin-room was clean but a bit worn. Early dinner at the Back Porch, good food, perfect window view of the sugary sand and aqua water
Sat, up for a great long walk along scenic 98 path, met friends from Texas at Dewey's at the harbor for lunch, good food, great bay view. I'm the crazy aunt and took 4 boys to the beach while their moms, gmom and great aunt went to Walmart-maybe not so crazy! Fun at the beach then on to our beach house as a little storm blew in. Our house was 6-8 house from the beach, very cute 3/3 with a sleeping loft and small private pool, lots of porches with tables and chairs and even a swing-good house. Walmarters made it to the house and then the last carload made it into town. We headed across to Nicks on the Beach for dinner-good food, friendly service, we love their cheese grits and their waitstaff! we got a key lime pie to go to much on during the week-yum!
Sunday morning was another long walk for me, checked out the neighborhood, it was looking like rain and as we were starting to get ready for the beach, in came the rain
we fixed snacks for the week-pimento cheese, ham salad, crab salad, tomato and feta salad, marinated pasta salad and more-nothing healthy on vacation! most of group headed to the movies, I waited it out and the rain passed and I spent a few hours at the beach, met a friendly group from Tennessee and had a fun time visiting with them! Poppyseed chicken, salad and bread for dinner tonight for the group since they'd been out most of the day to the movies.
Monday, another long walk for me to Gulf Place and back, wow it's hot and humid! I had to shower before getting ready to go to the beach! Fun time at the beach, water was perfect, lots of fun and a little too much sun for most of the group. Dinner at Christianos-I've been a couple of times but my friends were first timers and everyone loved it, the bread is fantastic, there are standard pasta favorites and a lot of seafood options, I had shrimp fra diavolo-yum! a couple had pizza and they are huge and really good, kiddos with cheese sticks were raving about them. Desserts to go, mostly tiramasu, I got carrot cake (last year was chocolate amaretto cake) you can't go wrong with dessert here!
Tuesday, another walk to Gulf Place and back, more with the hot and humid, a large part of our group was sunburned but a couple of us made it to the beach and had a great visit and just relaxed! Most of us headed to the outlet mall for a little retail therapy. Headed to Seaside for the kids to play, grown ups to shop a bit and eat from the food trucks, I had Meltdown and it wasn't very melty, tried a bite of hot dog and it was really good. Kids had a fantastic time running around!
Wed, I walked to Grayton Beach and back then on to the beach with the full crew to take photos and have some fun, the gmoms and great aunts took the kids back to the house and the girlfriends group got some beach time-it was great and so easy since we weren't watching out for kids! Dinner at Bayou Bills, not my best meal there, everything seemed a little salty. Crab lovers were happy.
Thurs, one carload had to leave early, I walked to Grayton and back again today. We went to the beach, I think all of us but the kids didn't last long so us girls worked on our tans a while. Paid the big kids to watch the little kids and headed to Seagrove to shop at 30A art and junk, picked up steamed shrimp from Goatfeathers and went to store to pick up new potatoes, corn, sausage and mushrooms for a crabless boil as well as bread-we had a great peel and eat spread for dinner.
Fri, walked the area, back to the beach for a while, some folks had to make a return trip to the outlet mall and some of us chilled at the house. Sad task of packing up and then to dinner at Goatfeathers, our crab lovers were very happy, I had a steak as I needed a seafood break, it was ok at best and our server was ok at best but the fried pickles were good.
Sat, carload headed back to Texas, I took a walk around the neighborhood and loaded up my stuff to move it to our condo for next week. The Wyoming crew and I headed to Seaside Farmers market and had brunch at Great Southern, great biscuits, good gravy, great pancakes and hashbrowns. Ran into a girl that lived in my dorm and on my floor at Texas A&M-small world! Took friends to the airport, picked my hubby up at the airport. Hubs and I backroaded across the bay and had late lunch at Nicks in the sticks, he had a great shrimp plate, I had a cup of gumbo that was good. We checked into our condo that was great and had a lovely water view from the master bedroom deck. Walked the beach with cocktails a good while then to The Pickle Factory for fried pickles and Pepperoni Pizza-yummy and a seafood break!
Sunday, got in my walk then came the rain, ran to store for snacks and drinks, more rain so I made breakfast and we relaxed then I headed to the beach for a while and chilled with my book and met a great group of ladies from Missouri and had a fun visit. Dinner at Stinky's Fish Camp-great meal, fantastic bang bang shrimp app, my usual crawfish pie and hubs usual smokey braised short ribs. Our fave waitress from another restaurant yrs ago is now at Stinky's and came up to us to visit-thrilled to see her again! We'll be back to sit in her section this week!
Monday, another walk to Gulf Place, then to the beach, hubs came down around lunch and we took a nice walk on the beach then headed up to condo to snack a bit. Dinner at Christianos, it was great again, I had amazing shrimp alfredo, hubs had chicken parmesan-all wow, key lime pie to go, also wow.
tuesday, another walk and then to beach, hubs actually hung at the beach a good while, visited with the Missouri group again, fun times! Headed for a late lunch at Seagrove Market cafe, fish on fish tacos were good but no pico or anything that I expect on a fish taco, shrimp poboy was good, fries good but hub hated potato salad so we swapped sides. Stopped at 30A Art and Junk and bought 2 paintings and had a great visit with Debbie, she's funny, talented and has an amazing eye for fun items and can repurpose like there's no tomorrow, when I move down here I want to go into business with her!! Headed to Seacrest to Pearls Gone Wild where we met and had a great visit with Richard Arriago and met his son as well, found a necklace that I hope my hubs buys me. Richard is amazingly talented and does everything himself, he silversmiths and everything-just wow!
Wed, here comes the rain, no walk, made breakfast and layed around watching movies all day, dinner at Stinky's again. Sat in our friend's section, we got a chef's amuse bouche-we're special like that! I had 3 course with their fantastic wedge, super rich shrimp and grits with roasted summer corn and key lime pie (to go), hubs had grilled amberjack that was beyond outstanding amberjack.
Thurs, more rain, did some shopping around Big Hula Mama's and shops by them, lunch at Stinky's Fish Camp of shrimp basket and surf n turf sandwich-not in love with their turf on the sandwich, a shrimp poboy would be better. Drove around a while through different neighborhoods, did a little shopping at a giant beachy store of booths up on hwy 98, picked up a screw in our tire (we realized later). Dinner at Grayton Grill since we had a screw in our tire and didn't feel safe going far. It was ok, we both got burgers and fries and they were good but not great, our service was nice but not great, they have the potential there but their kitchen and managers need to tighten it up a bit. Back to condo to pack, we're leaving a day early due to rain not going away.
Fri, still raining, tire flat, hubs put on spare and went into Destin to try and get it plugged-3 hour wait to get seen so he did it himself in the rain, poor hubs, he's wet and unhappy when he gets back, we load up, dry him off and head out. It rains on us till the Alabama line
Stopped in Jackson, MS to visit friends and spend the night at part of next day then on home. Had fantastic Mexican food in Ft Worth Sat night!
The weather at the end was a bummer, I'm so sad I missed the fireworks because they were amazing the year before and made us book this week. Can't help the weather and I love 30A and am ready to return!!!
Fri, Drove to Pensacola Beach to one of the east beaches with a bathroom and all. Great couple of hours at the beach! Drove on to Valparaiso to pick up friends from the airport that flew in from Wyoming, on to the Candlewood suites in Destin-room was clean but a bit worn. Early dinner at the Back Porch, good food, perfect window view of the sugary sand and aqua water
Sat, up for a great long walk along scenic 98 path, met friends from Texas at Dewey's at the harbor for lunch, good food, great bay view. I'm the crazy aunt and took 4 boys to the beach while their moms, gmom and great aunt went to Walmart-maybe not so crazy! Fun at the beach then on to our beach house as a little storm blew in. Our house was 6-8 house from the beach, very cute 3/3 with a sleeping loft and small private pool, lots of porches with tables and chairs and even a swing-good house. Walmarters made it to the house and then the last carload made it into town. We headed across to Nicks on the Beach for dinner-good food, friendly service, we love their cheese grits and their waitstaff! we got a key lime pie to go to much on during the week-yum!
Sunday morning was another long walk for me, checked out the neighborhood, it was looking like rain and as we were starting to get ready for the beach, in came the rain
we fixed snacks for the week-pimento cheese, ham salad, crab salad, tomato and feta salad, marinated pasta salad and more-nothing healthy on vacation! most of group headed to the movies, I waited it out and the rain passed and I spent a few hours at the beach, met a friendly group from Tennessee and had a fun time visiting with them! Poppyseed chicken, salad and bread for dinner tonight for the group since they'd been out most of the day to the movies.Monday, another long walk for me to Gulf Place and back, wow it's hot and humid! I had to shower before getting ready to go to the beach! Fun time at the beach, water was perfect, lots of fun and a little too much sun for most of the group. Dinner at Christianos-I've been a couple of times but my friends were first timers and everyone loved it, the bread is fantastic, there are standard pasta favorites and a lot of seafood options, I had shrimp fra diavolo-yum! a couple had pizza and they are huge and really good, kiddos with cheese sticks were raving about them. Desserts to go, mostly tiramasu, I got carrot cake (last year was chocolate amaretto cake) you can't go wrong with dessert here!
Tuesday, another walk to Gulf Place and back, more with the hot and humid, a large part of our group was sunburned but a couple of us made it to the beach and had a great visit and just relaxed! Most of us headed to the outlet mall for a little retail therapy. Headed to Seaside for the kids to play, grown ups to shop a bit and eat from the food trucks, I had Meltdown and it wasn't very melty, tried a bite of hot dog and it was really good. Kids had a fantastic time running around!
Wed, I walked to Grayton Beach and back then on to the beach with the full crew to take photos and have some fun, the gmoms and great aunts took the kids back to the house and the girlfriends group got some beach time-it was great and so easy since we weren't watching out for kids! Dinner at Bayou Bills, not my best meal there, everything seemed a little salty. Crab lovers were happy.
Thurs, one carload had to leave early, I walked to Grayton and back again today. We went to the beach, I think all of us but the kids didn't last long so us girls worked on our tans a while. Paid the big kids to watch the little kids and headed to Seagrove to shop at 30A art and junk, picked up steamed shrimp from Goatfeathers and went to store to pick up new potatoes, corn, sausage and mushrooms for a crabless boil as well as bread-we had a great peel and eat spread for dinner.
Fri, walked the area, back to the beach for a while, some folks had to make a return trip to the outlet mall and some of us chilled at the house. Sad task of packing up and then to dinner at Goatfeathers, our crab lovers were very happy, I had a steak as I needed a seafood break, it was ok at best and our server was ok at best but the fried pickles were good.
Sat, carload headed back to Texas, I took a walk around the neighborhood and loaded up my stuff to move it to our condo for next week. The Wyoming crew and I headed to Seaside Farmers market and had brunch at Great Southern, great biscuits, good gravy, great pancakes and hashbrowns. Ran into a girl that lived in my dorm and on my floor at Texas A&M-small world! Took friends to the airport, picked my hubby up at the airport. Hubs and I backroaded across the bay and had late lunch at Nicks in the sticks, he had a great shrimp plate, I had a cup of gumbo that was good. We checked into our condo that was great and had a lovely water view from the master bedroom deck. Walked the beach with cocktails a good while then to The Pickle Factory for fried pickles and Pepperoni Pizza-yummy and a seafood break!
Sunday, got in my walk then came the rain, ran to store for snacks and drinks, more rain so I made breakfast and we relaxed then I headed to the beach for a while and chilled with my book and met a great group of ladies from Missouri and had a fun visit. Dinner at Stinky's Fish Camp-great meal, fantastic bang bang shrimp app, my usual crawfish pie and hubs usual smokey braised short ribs. Our fave waitress from another restaurant yrs ago is now at Stinky's and came up to us to visit-thrilled to see her again! We'll be back to sit in her section this week!
Monday, another walk to Gulf Place, then to the beach, hubs came down around lunch and we took a nice walk on the beach then headed up to condo to snack a bit. Dinner at Christianos, it was great again, I had amazing shrimp alfredo, hubs had chicken parmesan-all wow, key lime pie to go, also wow.
tuesday, another walk and then to beach, hubs actually hung at the beach a good while, visited with the Missouri group again, fun times! Headed for a late lunch at Seagrove Market cafe, fish on fish tacos were good but no pico or anything that I expect on a fish taco, shrimp poboy was good, fries good but hub hated potato salad so we swapped sides. Stopped at 30A Art and Junk and bought 2 paintings and had a great visit with Debbie, she's funny, talented and has an amazing eye for fun items and can repurpose like there's no tomorrow, when I move down here I want to go into business with her!! Headed to Seacrest to Pearls Gone Wild where we met and had a great visit with Richard Arriago and met his son as well, found a necklace that I hope my hubs buys me. Richard is amazingly talented and does everything himself, he silversmiths and everything-just wow!
Wed, here comes the rain, no walk, made breakfast and layed around watching movies all day, dinner at Stinky's again. Sat in our friend's section, we got a chef's amuse bouche-we're special like that! I had 3 course with their fantastic wedge, super rich shrimp and grits with roasted summer corn and key lime pie (to go), hubs had grilled amberjack that was beyond outstanding amberjack.
Thurs, more rain, did some shopping around Big Hula Mama's and shops by them, lunch at Stinky's Fish Camp of shrimp basket and surf n turf sandwich-not in love with their turf on the sandwich, a shrimp poboy would be better. Drove around a while through different neighborhoods, did a little shopping at a giant beachy store of booths up on hwy 98, picked up a screw in our tire (we realized later). Dinner at Grayton Grill since we had a screw in our tire and didn't feel safe going far. It was ok, we both got burgers and fries and they were good but not great, our service was nice but not great, they have the potential there but their kitchen and managers need to tighten it up a bit. Back to condo to pack, we're leaving a day early due to rain not going away.
Fri, still raining, tire flat, hubs put on spare and went into Destin to try and get it plugged-3 hour wait to get seen so he did it himself in the rain, poor hubs, he's wet and unhappy when he gets back, we load up, dry him off and head out. It rains on us till the Alabama line
Stopped in Jackson, MS to visit friends and spend the night at part of next day then on home. Had fantastic Mexican food in Ft Worth Sat night!
The weather at the end was a bummer, I'm so sad I missed the fireworks because they were amazing the year before and made us book this week. Can't help the weather and I love 30A and am ready to return!!!
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