We usually go to Florida for Thanksgiving. The first time we decided to do this was in 2004 and Jon chose to propose to me Thanksgiving night on the beach. My grandmother put this trip together and decided to make it a tradition. She passed away in 2008 and we have tried to keep it going. This trip holds a very special place in my heart and I want to share this tradition with my kids.
This year we went to Panama City Beach and stayed at Grandview East. The weather was amazing all week long. We played sand volleyball and paddle boarded one day. We also got to celebrate my uncle Chad's 40th birthday! Our Thanksgiving meal was amazing as always and we ate some really yummy seafood. I really liked Dee's and Schooners best. Breaking Dawn part 2 came out over the weekend so we got to go see that. We usually go to the movies once or twice when we go. It was a super fun trip. We only had one incident. And it was a big one. For our first dinner out we decided to go to Dusty's Oyster Bar. Jon had decided before we came that he wanted to see how many oysters he could eat. You know where this is going. I cut him off at five dozen (and $30). Everything was going fine for a while. The next day we played on the beach and we had a mexican fiesta for Chad's birthday. It wasn't until 36 hours later that it started. Food poisoning. Poor Jon was sick as a dog for the rest of our vacation. He didn't even get to eat at Thanksgiving. I felt so bad for him. He stayed in the condo most of the rest of the vacation. The only upside was that when the kids napped we didn't have to decide who had to stay with them and who got to go to the beach. : ) It took him four days to get over it.
Anyhoo, back to the fun part. My favorite activity of the trip (besides playing games which is always my favorite) was paddle boarding! Two of the people we went with rented paddle boards for the day and we all took turns using it. I went twice and didn't fall down once. I loved it. It was fun and so peaceful once you paddled out pretty far. Of course the gulf is super clear so it was really cool to go out and watch the fish underneath you. I had a school of sting rays riding with me at one point. I'm going to have to start renting paddle boards on vacation. I looked into buying one but they are mucho dinero!
Here are some favorite pictures from the trip
