Vacation Coffee Chat

Hey friends!  If we were on vacation in Destin together, I would have loved to meet you for breakfast at The Donut Hole.  We love their donuts and one day when the kids are older we'd like to try going out for breakfast.  That just doesn't sound fun right now.  I've got lots of vacation topics to chat with you about today.  Grab your iced coffee and let's chat.

 

1 // Donut Hole Donuts - if you ever find yourself near Destin, Florida, you have got to try these donuts.  We love the angel donuts with the pretty icing on the left.  Kevin loves the white and I prefer the chocolate.  Their glazed are yummy along with their chocolate icing, cake and bavarian cream donuts.  They are all so good.

2 // Mesh Zipper Bags.  You know that I love these bags so much.  I've used them for over a year and they help keep everything from snacks to art supplies to toiletries organized.  This trip I packed a little differently.  I dedicated a bag for each type of toiletry.  A bag of all of our tooth care supplies.  A shower bag.  A make up bag.  A sunscreen bag.  This was much better than trying to do kids bags and adult bags.  I just organized all of it in my toiletry bag and this system worked great.

Here's my Amazon link to these amazing bags!!  The set of 24 is on sale with a coupon you can clip.

3 // One on one time.  Leo requires a lot of attention all of his waking hours these days.  Mostly trying to keep him safe and entertained.  Olive is very understanding, but loves when we can find moments to give her some extra attention.  One evening we went for a walk around the property where we were staying.  We admired the flowers.  Laughed at the tiny palm trees and enjoyed the pastel skies at sunset.  We both agreed that we'd bring our walking shoes on our next vacation and sneak out for walks like this again.

4 // Whataburger.  We'd been eager to try this restaurant for the first time since it was close to our resort.  We got it on our last night and it was a mistake.  Most of us got burgers and Fletcher got a grilled cheese kids meal.  The rest of us felt varying degrees of sick afterwards.  Fletch was fine and he got a cookie with his meal.  Olive and I recovered okay and Kevin had a pretty miserable next day.  We say avoid Whataburger and stick with Freddys or Culvers if you're in the mood for a burger.

5 // If you are vacationing with little ones - plan ahead and eat in the room or on your property as much as you can.  We got groceries to eat breakfast and lunch in the condo and then got take out most nights for dinner.  It was much more relaxing than loading up the crew, waiting for a table at all the busy restaurants and then waiting for food.  None of that sounds fun with little kids in the heat.

6 // If you've got older kids, ask them to snap your picture!  It worked out great :)  Also, rent chairs and umbrellas if you're staying for the week.  It's so nice to just walk down to everything set up instead of having to trek all the way down to find a spot with all of your gear and then having to set it up.  It felt like a real treat to not have to lug all of that down with us each time we went to the ocean.

7 // If you love gummies and Jolly Ranchers, you've got to try this combo.  These gummies were so good.

8 // The key to keeping everyone happy at the ocean is snacks and cold drinks.  We packed cans of lemonade, local beer and ice cold Capri Suns.  Then we did individual bags of Gardettos and Goldfish for the kids.  They work better than full size bags at the beach because they stay fresh and it's not a big deal if someone drops their little snack bag.

We bought these portable beach chairs last year when we flew to Ft Myers for vacation.  They are so comfy and so each to carry.  The kids and adults love them.  We rented beach chairs and brought our set of these chairs for everyone to share.  They fit inside a big suitcase if you're flying and are so easy to travel with on road trips.  This is our second summer using them and they still look brand new! 

9 // I love crab cakes!!  I got these at Pompeno Joes and we also love the crab cakes at Tommy Bahama.  Stay tuned for a Destin Restaurant Round Up post coming soon!

10 // We always try to give ourselves plenty of down time in the condo.  The kid read, played on theri tablets, watched shows, played games and did art.  One evening we all piled in bed and watched a chipmunks movie.  The adults watched Where the Crawdad's Sing and we all loved it!  I'm reading the book now.

11 // We had great luck shopping at the local outlet mall.  We found great new shoes at the Crocs store.  I found the cutest jean jacket at GAP and the kids each picked out a new t-shirt.

12 // Not everything goes as planned on vacation, but we did our best to roll with it.  Let me explain.  We arrived at our hotel halfway to Destin and were surprised to find it under construction.  The halls were a total construction dust mess.  Thankfully the room was okay and it was just for one night.  Leo was up really early so we just got back on the road early.

Kevin got food poisioning from Whataburger and felt awful on our drive home.  I drove us for several hours while he was trying to survive.  The kids were great travelers (even though they sang at the top of their lungs, yelled for foot rubs and had some sketchy bathroom stops along the way).

I misplaced Leo's puddle jumper on our first day in Florida.  Whoops.  I was really bummed because I had just purchased it for this season and he had only worn it a few times.  Lucikly, Kevin found it in the van when we'd run down to grab something on the way to the ocean.  I must have set it down without thinking.

We ended the trip with two days of double red flags (no one allowed in the ocean) and we still had fun.  The waves were wild so we just walked the shore line, found a couple of crabs, built sand castles, lounged and swam in the pools.

Thanks for chatting with me!