My Trip to Florida

My trip to see my sister and her family in Florida in April was a lot of fun. I went with my brother, Hunter. Greg and the kids stayed home. To save money on airfare we flew into Atlanta, my brother waited until the last minute to get his plane ticket so he didn't get into Atlanta until midnight. We weren't going to drive to Florida that night so I booked a hotel from hotwire, not really sure where we were staying until after I already booked it. It ended up being a Sheraton and was super fancy. The room rate on the door said it was $499 a night and we got it for $75!

While we waited for my brother to get in my sister and I went to dinner. We looked up what restaurants were in the area and decided to eat at a Ruby Tuesdays, we got in the car and turned on the gps and headed out. It turned out that the Ruby Tuesdays was right across the street from our hotel, lol we could have walked there. Dinner there was ok, we went back to our hotel to wait for Hunter and ended up watching a marathon of wife swap on lifetime.

We woke up bright and early to make the trip down to Florida. It was fun getting to see some of the country in Georgia, Alabama and Florida. Most of it is very beautiful with lots and lots of trees. Other parts of Alabama and Florida were just like I expected - old and run down looking but I didn't see one alligator. One thing that struck me as odd is we would see this billboard about hitting a teacher and going to jail all over in Alabama, made me wonder do they have a problem with that there?

We made it into Florida just a little after 11.  While driving through Florida my brother was so shocked to see cows! LOL I'm not sure what he was expecting but he was acting like we had gone to a different planet.

When we got to Brandi's we relaxed for a bit and then we sang happy birthday to Hunter since his birthday was in February.  Ryan, Brandi's husband even made him a cake!  It was awesome.

After relaxing and taking a nap for a bit we went to Mexico City Beach just before sunset. It was a cute little area with a beautiful beach. The water there was so warm and the sand was so white and soft. It is so different then water here or on the Oregon coast, brrrr.

On Friday Brandi took Jayden to the sitters so we could have a relaxing day with out kids. Her and I went shopping at a local kmart that was going out of business. Everything was 60-70% off. I got some great deals for the kids' birthday gifts and some clothes for this winter. Then we went to Panama City Beach. This area is very touristy with lots of cute little shops, dining and large hotels. We walked around the Pier Park for a bit and then met Ryan and his brothers family for lunch.

 

After lunch we went to the beach and played in the warm sun and water.  The water was really green and beautiful.

 

We picked up Jayden and went to dinner at Pineapple Willies, it was really good and nice sitting by the water. After dinner we went to another part of Willies and listened to some live music. After that Brandi, Hunter and myself wanted to go somewhere to get a drink. Ryan dropped us off at a bar right by my sisters house. The moment we walked in I knew we were out of place. It smelt like cigarettes so bad and there was some terrible karaoke being sang by a couple of woman. We had found the Florida rednecks. We saw a guy not wearing shoes and a couple of mullets. When we asked the bartender what they had to drink she just pointed to a refrigerator behind her. We were only there long enough for Brandi to down a Corona and then we walked to her house. At her house we played some beer pong and hung out. I don't remember but I think Hunter and I won both rounds of beer pong. Poor Hunter though, I don't drink much and I don't drink beer so he was having to drink for the both of us. He started to get a little crazy and show us his hilarious white boy dance moves.

 

On Saturday it rained the whole day.  It was really nice getting to just relax around Brandi's house.  We ate Chic-fil-a (man I wish they had one of those here) for lunch and just hung around her place the whole day. That night we went somewhere to watch some UFC fights, the place we were at smelt like smoke so bad my sisters eyes were watering, eventually we left and went some where else that wasn't so smokey. We went to a place called No Names and it was fun. It was right by the water and had a cool atmosphere.

On Sunday we went to the beach on the air force base. It was another beautiful beach and there were not a lot of people there which is nice. It was really windy though. Before you take this long walk down the the beach there was a sign that I thought was funny. I was wondering where in the heck we were going after reading it.

 

 

 

Trying to get a family photo.  Jayden was not cooperating but I did manage to get a pretty cute one anyway.

Jayden had been running up and down the beach with Ryan. We took a walk to look for sea shells and he ran the entire time. He crashed pretty quickly after that and feel asleep on Ryan. It was so cute.

After the beach we went to the commissary on base.  It was pretty cool going there.  I have never been on a military base before. I got stuff to make enchilada soup for dinner and a few more things for the kids. We went back to Brandi's and hung out for the rest of the night. On Monday we did a little bit more shopping down by the beach and then headed to Alabama to stay the night at Ryan's brothers. We had to be at the Atlanta airport at 5 am on Tuesday so we just stayed up on Monday night and watched movies. Then we left at 3 am for Atlanta. I couldn't believe that my time in Florida had already gone by. It went by so fast. I was happy to be heading home to see my family though. Thank you to my sister and Ryan for driving us to and from Atlanta, letting us crash at their house and showing us a lot of fun, I love you guys. And thank you to Ryan's brother Brandon's family for also letting us crash at your house!!