We had been planning for awhile to go to the Destin area for the week after Labor Day, so we were excited to discover that our friends, The Reynolds, would be vacationing there that same week. They were a bit farther along than us in the planning stages and already had a place to stay at the Waterscape Condos on Okaloosa Island. As the dates of our vacation approached, we attempted to find a rental at this location but they didn't have any that permitted dogs. So we found a condo that fit our needs in Miramar Beach instead.
Since we are used to driving so much, it didn't bother us that we were staying 20 minutes away from our friends and we were thrilled to be able to meet up on two different days of our vacation.
Our first outing to see our friends was an invite to visit their condo's pool. They scored us the appropriate wrist bands and we went over in the morning. Unfortunately in our rush out the door, we left our cooler with drinks and snacks at home! Oops.
First up was the kiddie pool. Jack had a blast with Sadie and Charlotte on the slide. I think those kids could have done the slide all day. When the pool started to get crowded with more little kids, we moved on to the bigger pool so that the big kids could have some fun.
The big pool had a series of floating lily pads that you could try to walk across with a rope ladder hanging above to help you balance. Andrew and Sadie showed off their skills at this challenge.
Daniel attempted the lily pads but couldn't get close to standing or sitting on one of them!
Jack was also interested in joining the big kids, but he needs a few years before he will be even remotely capable to do this.
After the big pool, we went down to the lazy river and enjoyed floating and visiting. Jack was starting to get fussy. Cutting a tooth on vacation is never fun. Courtney got him some medicine and he started to feel a bit better.
Chris grilled hot dogs for lunch and then an ominous storm cloud rolled in. Thankfully it never did rain. in fact, we actually made it through the entire vacation without rain!
After lunch Jack was starting to lose it, so we called it a day and drove back to our condo. Daniel sat in the back to make sure Jack stayed awake. We wanted him to have a good nap! Thankfully he made it home and crashed as soon as I laid him down.
We have been told that vacationing with kids is not a vacation, but at this age, it worked out pretty well for us. This is the most "restful" vacation Daniel and I have ever had – probably because it included forced naps! We are normally just go go go doing activities, but with Jack we can only go so much.
After naps (and reading), I did a quick grocery run. On my way out of the parking lot, I realized that my window wasn't working properly. It was stuck part way down. This meant that Daniel had to take the driver's door apart in the parking lot and fix it before we could do anything else.
My view.
Daniel's view.
After he fixed it, we decided to bike to Pompano Joe's for dinner. It was just down the street from our condo and had a great view of the ocean (and good online reviews).
When we arrived there was a 20 minute wait to eat out on the porch.
We decided it was worth the wait. We put our names on the list and wandered down to the beach.
This was the first time Jack willingly stuck his feet in the water and wasn't bothered by the sand.
We hurried back in time to hear "last call for Moore, party of three."
I ran barefoot all the way to the hostess sand while Daniel trailed behind with Jack and our shoes.
Pompano Joe's was by far my favorite meal of the week. And we were sitting out on a porch with no distractions, just us, the breeze from the water and a gorgeous view. The food was excellent.
I tried the PJs Platter while Daniel had the Tuna and Strawberry Fields Salad (Jack ate a bit of everything). We finished the night by splitting a slice of fresh Keylime Pie. The entire meal was delicious.
After dinner we decided to ride a bit further. We ended up riding 4 miles. In the dark. Miramar Beach felt exceptionally safe and there was no traffic at 8pm. We really loved this area of beach.
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