Recently, we took a family vacation to Florida. When we booked the trip in December, we had no idea there would be a tropical storm in the middle of June, but we survived the winds and still had a great time. By the way, if you go to Florida for a vacation and there is a tropical storm, just know that you won’t be able to get in the water because the riptides are so bad. The coastguard put out double red flags which means you cannot get in the water, and not even on the wet sand. Good thing we had a pool close by…

When we booked the trip, we looked up several vacation properties. We have a family of 11 (two sons and their wives, 5 grandkids and my husband and me) and we like to stay in a house together. Therefore, we knew we needed at least 4 bedrooms. We ended up renting a great beach house from Panhandle Getaways. They were a great company to work with and were quick to answer any question or concern that we had upon arrival.  The home we rented was in an area called Prominence at 30A and it was the Key Lime Pie house. Isn’t that so appropriate for a house in Florida! The house was perfect for our family. It had a master bedroom on the bottom floor, the living room and kitchen on the middle floor and then three extra bedrooms on the 3rd floor. It was plenty spacious for all of our family dinners and it even came with 4 bicycles and a golf cart.

The best part of the house was that it was right beside the pool! We were able to go back and forth to the house quickly if we needed anything. Since the beaches were closed a couple of days that we were there, we hung out in the pool more than anything.

The house is located in an area called “The Hub at 30A“. The Hub has a great coffee shop, bicycle shop, clothing store and several restaurants. One night while we were there, they had an outdoor concert and the grandkids had a blast dancing to the great music. The food trucks were a great hit as well!

The one negative thing about this house was that it didn’t have direct beach access. You had to drive about a mile to the nearest beach access, but it really wasn’t all that bad. We just loaded up the cars with all the sand toys and chairs and headed down to put our toes in the water.

When you are anywhere in or around Destin, you have to visit a great souvenir shop and try your hand at a round of putt-putt golf. The grandkids talked Poppa into giving them each $20 and they went shopping at Alvin’s Island and then headed to Big Kahuna’s to play golf.

Some of our favorite seafood restaurants included The Back Porch, Boshamps, and The Crabtrap. Since our house came with a grill, we also enjoyed cooking out by the pool and just relaxing at home.

This is our fourth year to go on a beach vacation and I always look forward to the wonderful memories that we create on these trips. However, next year, the adults decided that we want to plan an adults-only trip. What is one of your favorite adults-only trip that you have taken with your grown kids? I would love some ideas! I’m ready to start planning for the next time that we all get to travel together!

Be blessed,