Dispatch from the beach :)

We made it to the beach! Our family’s “recurring” destination (though not always every single year), Panama City Beach, Florida.

We drove, per our usual tradition, even though it’s far from Wisconsin- about 16 hours plus stops!

We left home Friday morning about 10 am. My sister, her family and my parents had headed out the day before so they could stop off at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky on the way.

Our traditional “on the road pic:

After weeks and weeks without rain, of course it finally rained on Friday. 😆

Fortunately it stopped after a while. We drove about 10 hours! Made it to Athens, Alabama before we pulled off for the night at a hotel and ordered pizza at 10:30 pm.

Slept, had hotel breakfast then back on the road by 9 or so.

Good drive on Saturday- uneventful! Only traffic/construction in a few spots (usually Nashville is always bad for traffic, plus some in Montgomery and Birmingham).

Stopped at a PACKED Chick Fil A for lunch. Man those spicy chicken sandwiches are delicious.

Spent the ride mostly listening to music, chatting (doing some initial scheming/planning for Ethan’s graduation trip next summer- current front runner destination is Japan!), and reading. I drove maybe 2 hours out of the 16? Haha.

Pulled into our condo at 3:30 and met up with my parents and sister who arrived shortly before us. My parents and my family are in the same condo we stayed in last year; my sister and her family have one just one floor above us. (Staircase right outside our door so it’s really easy!)

Ahhh the beach outside my window! Love.

Asher said, Ahhh we made it! It’s worth the drive. 🙂 I love that they love coming back to Florida and have happy memories of this place.

My sister and her husband were off buying some groceries as they had a slightly later check in. We hung out and got situated, then had some chips and pico that my BIL whipped up with drinks on the balcony.

Eventually we all walked down the beach to a tiki bar.

We thought we’d just keep it casual and grab some easy dinner there, bring the first night and all. But the tiki bar restaurant seemed to be out of a lot of things! In the end, the adults got drinks and the kids got hot dogs etc.

There was karaoke going on, and they also have pool tables and ping pong and corn hole. The kids had fun playing around.

Some clouds gave way to a gorgeous sky, too.

The boys, Ivan and I faced off in a game of corn hole which was fun, haha. Ivan and I just lost. 😦

The littles playing around on the beach:

Eventually we walked back! I chatted with my sister on the way.

Dusk on the beach:

Since we kind of struck out on dinner, we, the boys and my parents ended up going out to find some food. The younger kids were tired (and already fed) and needed to get to bed.

We tried a new brewery type place that wasn’t here last year that was nice. A little “foodie” for us haha but good overall.

Then back to sit on the balcony for just a little while before in to bed!

Today, Sunday, the weather had looked very questionable- some bigger storms forecasted. We took it easy this morning and had our tea and coffee outside (windy and cloudy but no rain at first and very pleasant temperature ):

Later it did start to rain and we got a gorgeous rainbow!

It was supposed to rain for a few hours (boo, this happened last year on our first day, too!) so we all made plans to go to the new Minions movie at 10:50.

The show was cute, silly, but entertaining! Afterwards, my sister’s family was dying for Chipotle, so we went there for lunch.

From there, we split up- my family ran a couple errands while the others went back.

Asher needed to get another TB skin test done at the CVS minute clinic. He’s starting an intensive Certified Nursing Assistant course next week (which lasts most of August…) and he still needed his 2nd round of TB testing done. From there we hit up Walmart (so. busy!) for groceries. Good to get that out of the way and now we’re stocked with some necessities.

Now it’s later in the afternoon; my sister’s family and kids are at the pool, I’m just drinking some coconut tea quickly that I bought and regrouping for a minute, and the weather has cleared up nicely!! Forecast looks good the next few days. 👌

That’s all for now! Ahhh I love being at the beach. 😍 More later!