We've only been coming to 30A for two years (and have bought two cottages and hope to be coming here for the next 50 years or more) and here are out favorite things to do with kids (we have an 11 and 13 year old):
1. They love going to Angelina's for lunch -- go during the weekdays (check which ones) and they have lunch specials that are very good.
2. They love going to the Red Bar.
3. We all love going to Grayton Beach State Park. It's about $5.00 per car and you can spend all day there because they have bathrooms, showers, grills, picnic tables. And you can see what the coastline in that area looked like before development because there is no building at Grayton Beach State Park.
4. For cheap souveniers we take the kids to one of the dollar stores on Front Beach Road in Panama City (go early - traffic is nasty) because they're going to lose all their souveniers anyway and I'd rather spend our money on good food on 30A.
5. For good souveniers (sp?) there are lots of stores but we like the one named Wilhemena's at the shops of Grayton. I'm going to try Pickets near Seagrove Village Market next time.
6. Mostly we spend our time at the pool, porch, beach.
7. We all like going to the beach every night to watch the sunset which I understand is called "teatime" along 30A. We bring something to drink, snacks, dinner, etc.
8. The kids like catching tiny white crabs with a flashlight and bucket at night but be sure to get a flashlight with red light or it's bad for the turtles. We stopped using flashlights to catch crabs until we found one with a red light.
We can't wait to get back there ourselves!