Our Days in Destin, Part 1

(One year ago we began planning a beach vacation to Destin with Noonie and Poppie.  Plans started out with visions of a beach house on the water for a week.  Beach house quickly turned into camper.  Rusty decided rather than spending a $1,000 on a vacation rental he would rather finally make a purchase we have talked about for 12 years.  In comes pop up camper.  Here is the Destin beach 2012 saga.)

For our vacation posts, I am going to start from the night before we left.  With plans to pull out of the driveway at 4 am, us grownups didn't even make it to bed until nearly 11pm.  Colton then decided at 1:30 AM he should wake screaming and refusing to go back to sleep.  By 2:30am, we were having breakfast and watching cartoons.  This trip was starting off with a bang to say the least.

By 7:30 am, we were pulled over with a flat tire.  In one of the last towns WITHOUT a Super Walmart (who would carry the tires and be open this early).  We did have a spare that held up while we drove to the closest Super Walmart.  After 2 new tires and breakfast, we were finally back on the road about 2 1/2 hours behind schedule.

I set out with a plan to avoid, when possible, eating at chain restaurants.  So for lunch we used UrbanSpoon to help us decide where to eat.  We read great reviews for Bonnie C's in Slidell, LA and decided to give it a try.  Jambalaya, Catfish Po boys, cheeseburgers, liver and onions (NOT had by me :), very yummy food!

15 LONG hours, albeit quite hours thanks to kids choosing to ride in Noonie and Poppies car, we were arriving in Destin.  Exhausted and cranky, us girls went straight to Big Daddy's Pizza to grab dinner while the guys started setting up.  One of the main reasons we choose Destin over Pensacola and Panama City (where it would have probably been less crowded) was because of Henderson Beach State Park.  INCREDIBLE state park!  Gorgeous sites, wonderful bathrooms and the beach was worth paying just for the day if you choose to stay elsewhere.

The park had a wonderful 1/4 mile boardwalk that began right beside our campsite and lead you straight to the water.

Since we had chosen to go on vacation over July 4th, we got to enjoy a firework show visable from our campsite every evening.  Here is the show our first night in Destin.

To be continued...