A Boat, a Museum and our Valet Parking Experience // Vacation Day 6

For our final day of vacation, Daniel and I decided we wanted to get out on the water. We considered our options – sailing, kayaking, a dolphin tour, or renting a pontoon boat. 

When we looked at the prices and time involved we decided that a pontoon rental was a good fit for our family. We also liked that we could invite our friends to tag along on our little day trip.

Luther's Pontoon in Destin had excellent reviews and amazing prices. As a bonus, prices had dropped even more because it was after Labor Day. In addition their low prices INCLUDES gas. We made a reservation and met up with our friends at 9am on Thursday morning.

The staff at Luther's were really friendly. Once they gave us some information about the boat and a map and tips for the harbor, we were off.

Daniel drove us out to Joe's Bayou first in hopes of catching some fish. Chris had stopped for bait and Luther's provided fishing poles for the kids for free.

Unfortunately the only thing that got caught was the anchor. It was a good try by Andrew though!

The kids all enjoyed testing the waters with the fishing poles. After the first round of bait had been nibbled away by the fish, we rode around the harbor and back to Crab Island to take a dip in the water.

Crab Island is a sand bar out in the harbor that is completely underwater. People anchor their boats there and enjoy getting in the water. There is even a floating hamburger stand during the busier season.

We hopped in, but this was clearly a thorough fare for jellyfish at the time of our visit. Andrew and Sadie were not fans of this, so they stayed on the boat and acted as spotters, pointing out where the jellyfish were to the brave souls in the water.

Thankfully jellyfish are slow and you can easily get out of their way. I was still a bit nervous about being in the water with them though!

After our 4-hours on the water, we parted ways with our friends and headed to the Air Force Armament Museum in Fort Walton Beach.

Daniel was excited to see this museum and could have stayed there all day. Jack enjoyed looking at all of the big aircraft and running around to his little heart's content.

Another big hit for my boys was getting to sit in the A-10 Warthog Trainer. So many buttons and gadgets to look at!

We finally got home and the guys napped while I finished my book and figured out where we could eat dinner. 

We decided on Stinky's Fish Camp in Santa Rosa Beach. When we arrived we discovered that the only parking available was valet. Normally we would flee from anywhere that mandated valet parking, but we were caught off guard, so we hopped out of our car and handed the keys over to a young guy.

We opted to sit on the second floor porch overlooking a small pond – I think I prefer gulf view for my water view. It was still a nice setting though. I think the porch was the default seating area for families. There were lots of little boys sitting in chairs, glued to gaming systems.

Before we ordered, Daniel ran outside to make sure the car was locked (he is paranoid about this). The car was not locked. The valet told him they never lock the cars... Daniel was not impressed since we had a GPS and radar detector in the vehicle.

For our meal, Daniel had the Fried Fish and I tried the Taste of Stinky's plate. It was decent food, but seemed overpriced to us.

To round out our valet experience, when we left the restaurant, the guy that had parked our car, 1) handed us our keys to our car that was parked 10 feet in front of where we got out of the car for valet parking and 2) apologized for not backing into the spot and 3) said that the owner's don't like them to handle stick shifts...

 

So from this, we took away that he probably didn't know how to drive a stick... we didn't offer to tip and the guy didn't seem to act like he should be tipped. Not to selves: Maintain policy of not using a valet.

We were blessed by such an amazing vacation. We really needed this time as a family. It was fun to do some new things and to introduce Jack to new experiences.  

2013 Florida Vacation Recaps: Day 1 // Days 2-3 // Day 4 // Day 5 // Day 6

Gulfarium // Vacation Day 5

On day 5 of our vacation, we drove back to Fort Walton Beach to check out the Gulfarium. First we stopped at the Donut Hole Bakery and Cafe in Destin to grab breakfast.

We had driven by this cafe several times earlier in the week and there was always a long line that extended out into the parking lot. We hoped that a mid-week visit would mean not having to wait.

This ended up being another excellent suggestion by my sister's mother-in-law. Our mid week choice allowed us to get right in (that and the fact that Jack no longer sits in a high chair!). Daniel ordered the chocolate chip pancakes and I ordered the western omelette (we like to share our plates, so everyone gets a taste of everything). It was all really good. My only regret was that we didn't try a donut!

Our biggest dislike of this eatery was the process for paying the bill... you have to wait in line with everyone who is there to purchase donuts from the counter. Which means it takes forever to leave. But it was great food and worth the stop.

Visiting Gulfarium in the off season was another good decision. There were no lines to see the animals and we had great seats for both the dolphin and sea lion shows.

General admission is $19.95 for adults and $11.95 for age 3-12. Jack was under age 3 so he got in FREE. 

We stayed about 3 hours and really enjoyed the shows. I think it was worth the price. 

They also offer additional packages that allow you to have more interaction with the animals – you can swim with dolphins among other things. But Jack is too young for this type of experience. I think it would be fun to do some day.

We really liked that Gulfarium was on the small side and didn't feel overly commercialized. 

This probably has to do with the fact that it was built in the 1950s. 

We had a great time seeing all of the animals and I even picked up our souvenir Christmas ornament* in the gift shop.

The rest of our day was pretty low key. Jack crashed in the car on the way home. 

Thankfully we were able to transplant him directly to his pack-n-play... he must have been really worn out because he proceeded to sleep for over THREE hours!

After naps, we headed out to eat at Don Pedro's Cantina for supper. 

It was located a few blocks from our condo and had good ratings as a local Mexican restaurant. It was pretty good. Daniel wasn't that hungry so he just had a burrito while I ordered the Fish Tacos and a fruity margarita. I thought it was all tasty, but we both thought the chips were a bit stale.

After we ate we wandered over to the outlet mall where we picked up a few things for Jack. Another fun day in the books for the Moore's Florida vacation. 

*Harborwalk Village was the only other place in this area that we saw souvenir Christmas ornaments and they were pretty generic.

2013 Florida Vacation Recaps: Day 1 // Days 2-3 // Day 4 // Day 5 // Day 6 

Where In The World Are The Moore's?

If you are Facebook friends with me, or follow along on Instagram, you might have noticed daily photos last week popping up with the hashtag #whereintheworldarethemoores. 

Since we are traveling so much right now for Daniel's work, I thought it was an appropriate tag. Our family knew where were and a few people guessed our whereabouts correctly. 

If you are still in the dark, we were staying at Miramar Beach, just east of Destin, Florida. 

This was my first trip to the Florida Gulf (also a first for Jack). On our drive down, we made a pit stop in Lakewood, Florida to check out the highest point in the state – making it the 9th high point I have been to on my way to crossing #5 off my life list.

As an added bonus, our friends, the Reynolds, were also staying in Destin this week and we were able to meet up a couple of times.

This trip provided us with some much needed rest and relaxation (we are back in Chattanooga this week). In the coming weeks, we will have our noses to the grindstone (on the weekends) trying to get our house ready to put on the market as soon as we can.

I'll be writing about our trip over the next week. Stay tuned, we had some great experiences and tasted some excellent food!