First couple days/ we had it coming

Hello! Checking in from the beach. Current view:

I’m enjoying the sounds of the waves and my tea and thought I’d give a little update.

Backing up to Saturday-

We drove basically all day! Here is a pic of when we finally let the boys take the wheel for a while. Asher drove my parents’ van and Ethan drove our van ahead of him with me and Ivan.

Asher did great!! He drove for about 2 hours through Alabama, including through a busier stretch through Montgomery as well as a brief but fairly intense downpour rain!! Lots of good experience building.

The overall drive didn’t feel too bad, although the final ~1.5 hour stretch on the local highway through the top of Florida always feels like it takes FOR-EVER…..

We got into Panama City Beach at close to 8 pm. (The actual drive time was around 9 hours but we stopped at Chick Fil A for lunch and other various gas stops etc…).

First balcony views from the condo! 🙂

We basically dumped everything and only briefly unpacked before heading out for FOOD!!

The condo is great- 3 bedrooms with 3 en-suites baths. Plenty of space and a HUGE wrap around balcony, plus it’s an end corner unit on the 11th floor so we have great windows.

It was already getting quite late, so we headed straight to Pier Park to find a restaurant. Ended up at the large, new Ford’s Garage restaurant which is known for their gourmet burgers and craft beer (though after Chick Fil A for lunch, I wanted something fresh and got a salad and an iced tea #pretendingialwayseathealthy 😆).

After a nice but pretty late “welcome to Florida” dinner, we headed back to the condo.

Checked out one of the pools (closed by then) and hot tub, relaxed for a little bit on the balcony and went to bed (late, again) too late.

Snapped this pic of our condo as I came in from the balcony at 12:33 am… oops again. 🤣

Sunday 8/3:

Now onto the bad part- the weather!! The forecast was pretty crummy for at least our first few days, sort of the whole week, really. But we’ve been to PCB many other Augusts and while we usually get some occasional storms, we’ve never had a bad week.

Well, it looked flat out gloomy and rainy when I woke up around 8:00. The radar showed big rain cells and storms for hours. Boooooo. 😩

I’d had a feeling, for some reason, that our weather wasn’t going to fully cooperate on this trip. We’ve just had SUCH good and incredibly fortunate weather on SO many (basically, all) of our trips for the last like, 5+ years. So I’ve felt for a while now that statistically speaking, we probably had some crappy vacation weather coming….

The temperature was amazing and the waves were still right below us, so it certainly wasn’t a bad place to be on the balcony.

Obviously I would have greatly preferred sunshine and blue skies, but what can you do. Some heavier rain did move in and looked like it would be around a while, so we made plans to go to a movie. Seemed like maybe would clear up by the time we were out in the afternoon.

We went to see the F1 movie at 11:15, which Ivan and I already saw, but no one else had yet. I liked that movie, so I was happy to see it again and eat popcorn and candy and relax.

The plan worked, and by the time we got back it was dry and semi-clear. Still more overcast but at least not raining.

The chair rentals weren’t out since the weather was iffy.

We even got some brief sunshine!! 🙌

It stayed nice all afternoon for us into the evening. We headed back up by maybe 6:30 and ordered pizzas for dinner. Everyone felt kinda tired and lazy after the late nights and driving etc and no one wanted to go out to dinner. Besides, it looked like bigger storms were moving back in soon.

Ivan and I ran to the grocery store to pick up some essentials while we waited for the pizza nearby, swung by for the pizzas, and made it back before the storms.

We got a huge thunderstorm with an insane lightning show out over the ocean. Like those sky to ground (well, ocean) bolts that were just CRAZY. Ethan said he’d never seen lightning like that in his life!! Impressive and pretty incredible.

We also cued up a movie on Netflix while we ate our pizza. 🙂

All in all, not the exact sunny beach day we’d envisioned, but it worked out to be a nice day overall!

Monday, 8/4:

Monday we had more mediocre weather for most of the morning. Again, it was overcast but very pleasant on the balcony, where we all hung out for several hours.

My dad, Ivan and I went for a short walk, making it back just before a storm moved in!

Asher did a little skim boarding in the rain until lightning showed up and I had to (forcefully) remove him from the beach. 🙄

It rained on and off but only stormed for a short while, so I read for a long while on the balcony.

Moved to my bed when it rained harder for a while….

Eventually we all showered and went out for lunch at The Brass Tap, a place we’ve been before and is really good.

After lunch, the weather dried up! Still overcast but plenty warm. (Still annoyed because it’s not Florida to me without sunshine BUT on the plus side, the temperatures have been soooo pleasant! Warm without being boiling hot like it often is otherwise.)

Spent the afternoon into the evening by the pool/hot tub/beach (yes, we still go in the hot tub in Florida! In the shade I usually get cool enough eventually to go in.)

The boys did boogie boarding and skim boarding and I sat in a chair on the beach for a long time. (The skies cleared up even more but my phone was dead by then.)

Back upstairs, we actually got a sunset!!! A gorgeous one, too.

I might love these post-sunset sky pics even better… so pretty.

We went back to Pier Park for dinner and walked around a bit, checking out what things have all changed since we were last here 5 years ago.

Got back and sat out on the balcony chatting with Ethan for a bit- he got his school schedule yesterday and needs to try and move one of his AP classes out of 8th period (he has to miss 8th period a lot for soccer and tennis, so having an important class then is not the best. He had requested a light class in 8th period in advance but I guess it didn’t work out… now he has to possibly swap around some other classes and change an elective to make it fit… we’ll see.)

And now, onto Tuesday! Forecast continues to be a bit meh but I suspect we’ll still have a nice time either way and it will all be okay. 🙂 (If it’s going to rain on a vacation, I guess I’d rather it be this one, a low key trip at a repeat destination, versus some of our other bigger trips…).

Just made some more tea (love our kitchen and big windows in the condo!) and I even see a sliver of blue sky and some sun right now!

Hoping for mostly a beach/pool day for at least part of the day if the weather holds. 🙂 Send sunny vibes. ☀️ (Seems really nice right now and getting nicer by the minute….? 🤞)

There are some things we don’t love about this place compared to where we always used to stay before- mostly related to the resort complex, not the condo itself, which we love- but I’ve already talked too much now, so I’ll save those thoughts for another time. 🙂