Girls Beach Bound

Good morning (or afternoon or late night or whenever you make it to this post)! It is a Monday and the true definition of a fresh start in my world. After being away from home for a week, tucked away on sandy beaches with an endless supply of drinks in my hand, I am back into the swing of things. However, I wanted to be sure I made time for a post while everything is fairly fresh in my noggin'. With that - let's begin!

Sunday, June 20, 2021 - I got off work at 1800 and bolted to meet the girls at a truck stop nearby. I work at a location a few towns away from where we all live, so we decided to meet at that spot and take off to the KC airport from there. As procrastination had it, I hurriedly packed my bags the night before and the rush had not stopped since. Quickly packing bags followed by the hustle and bustle of a busy work day, then rushing to meet the girls, I was eager for a relaxing car ride to the airport. Energies buzzing and giggles galore, we jammed to some N'Sync and Taylor Swift to start our vacation. Arriving in KC we did dinner at Hooters, a decision that was close and a sit down restaurant without a massive wait; then proceeded to the hotel near the airport where we chose to get a room before our early 6am departure. One sleepless night, lots of giggles and a couple flights later - Destin, FL was waiting for our arrival.

Monday June 21, 2021 - The Day of Disaster. I say that with a slight chuckle and write this with a smirk. The first day was one for the books. As the designated driver for vacation, I drove an hour+ from the airport to the airbnb in a straight downpour and the beginnings of flooded roads. Once we found the airbnb (a story for another day) we discovered a mildly dirty house, location away from the beach unlike we had expected, as well as flooding in the bottom floor. With a little haggling, and a very persistent Jordan, we received nearly a full refund and started the hunt for another property. Without a place to stay and the day coming to an end, the clock was ticking on our window to locate a spot. Fun fact: this was something we had not considered too intensely before wanting to cancel. Destin is insanely booked this time of year for tourists and wild amounts of vacationers. We owe a massive thank you to God for answering our prayers - after a hundred searches and phone calls later, we stumbled upon one that had just had a cancellation. A beach side condo with enough space for all of us, good reviews and clean pictures - WE WERE TAKING IT. We had no idea when we got there we would be told how lucky we were to have snagged an OCEANSIDE view on top of the last minute reservation. We snagged a stay at the El Matador which happened to be booked until October! Talk about a twist of fate!

The next few days were filled with adventure and trying new things. We explored the Oskaloosa Island Boardwalk and enjoyed checking out lots of shops and tons of good eats. This spot was sort of one of several base camps for us, as we returned here for meals several times:

The first experience was at Rocking Taco's. This beach side restaurant offered some amazing outdoor seating with beautiful views. In a menu stacked with burritos, tacos and unlimited drink options - I opted for the Gator Tacos as seen on the Discovery Channel! It's always been a dream of mine to have a list of all the Diner's, Drive In's, and Dives places to check out when I travel so this choice was a no brainer. The gator tacos ended up being phenomenal and something I had never experienced. They were exotic and delectable enough the entire table was intrigued to try them. 9/10 on my scale, you have got to try them! My little sister opted for the Blackened Shrimp Burrito, also featured on the Discovery Channel. When I say this is a massive burrito, I mean Chipotle's burritos were put to shame when this arrived at the table. Since it happened to be 98 degrees out that day with an afternoon at the beach ahead, the massive hot and heavy burrito wasn't the wisest choice. She chipped away at about a third of it, we all took taste tests on the rest and the poor burrito never made it home. No one thought about how hot and heavy of an option that was before ordering it, goobers.

The next experience was at Floyd's Shrimp House where the waiter was a cute as the food was good ;) I started the table with an appetizer (big appetizer gal over here) with a shrimp and chorizo queso dip. Very delicious option for the group; however, the queso had a

very distinguished texture with chunks of shrimp. My cousin ordered gator bites for the table as an appetizer. We decided these were great but did not compare to the gator in the tacos over at the Rockin' Tacos. For dinner, we ordered the Kickin' Shrimp and the Coco Loco Shrimp - both technically appetizers. The Kickin' Shrimp was spectacular! It was tiny, bite sized pieces in what reminded me of a sweet chili sauce. The Coco Loco Shrimp was a classic coconut crusted shrimp with the traditional orange glaze/sauce. I ordered this appetizer as a dinner, quite a decision, and the plate arrived with about 10 pieces of large shrimp, corn on the cob, roasted potatoes and hush puppies. I could barely finish it and took the rest back to the condo for later. I enjoyed a classic Bahama Mama, my aunt got a Pina Colada and my cousin ordered a house special "Swamp Juice." It was a combination of several different alcohols in a souvenir cup, tasty but fairly strong.

Our last experience at this area was at Al's Crab Trap where I ordered the best crab cake I have ever had. Again, I ordered off the appetizer menu and had a Southern-Style Crab Cake that was covered in a southern sauce that was for the books. My sister ordered the Sweet and Spicy Calamari - another instance of the main course with a sweet and spicy sauce. Both of which were to die for! We often find two things we can't decide between and split them so we get to enjoy them both - that was a trend this vacation too. The Dreamsicle adult beverage was the sweetest frozen treat, reminded me exactly of the orange creamsicle popsicles we all grew up on. (I took a picture of the menu description so I could remember this idea for back home. It was that good!)

Per lots of recommendations we tried the Donut Hole for breakfast. An older styled classic diner with a full menu as well as quite a large selection for donuts. It was almost like a donut shop within a restaurant - pretty neat. There was a line outside about 35 people long which, according to the waitress, is fairly typical for breakfast. However, as she suggested, you can skip that line if you arrive a little later. We didn't test that theory but we did notice the line was nonexistent when we drove back by later in the day. The table ordered about 8 donuts and we did a little group sample type of thing amongst ourselves, cutting them into pieces and trying each one. Donuts were 7/10 on average for me. Pretty tasty but nothing INSANELY spectacular. The Donut Hole was an experience I would encourage every Destin tourist hit once for the sake of tradition, but I wasn't taken over the top to where I felt that I just had to go back a second, third and fourth time.

We attempted to enjoy The Yard, a well known fancy ice cream parlor in the area, but arrive at 9:30pm only to find out they took the last order at 8:30 pm before closing at 10pm. Yes. You read that right. They stopped taking orders an hour and a half early because the process is so intricate and the designs are so grand - HOW NEAT IS THAT?! I was quite disappointed we didn't make it on our trip, that was the top of my "must do" list for the vacation, but oh well. We located a normal parlor and still got our ice cream fix.

As for the rest of the vacation, we spent hours upon hours between the pool and the beach combatting sunburns and staying hydrated. About halfway through the week a church group with a hundred kids joined the resort, adding to the insanity at both locations. Although, watching the crowd around us jump around and kids laughing and playing was a neat experience. As someone that was blessed with the opportunity to spend summers at the beach regularly, it's a place I have come to feel oddly at home in. A similar feeling I get in the mountains. Maybe it's just an outdoors thing, a reminder of how great God's creations are and a little perspective at how miniscule mankind is in the grand scheme of things. Those beautiful sunrises and sunsets and the feelings that bubble up inside are beyond describable. Everyone has their things that fill up their cup, right? I guess maybe I've found a big part of mine ❤