Spring Break 2017: Tallahassee Eats

One of my favorite things to do when traveling is to try out new places to eat. Our recent trip to Tallahassee provided several great opportunities to do this. Thankfully the kids typically do really well in restaurants and this trip was no exception.

Our first opportunity to eat out, my sister and her family took us to one of their favorite pizza joints: Momo's Pizza. Their tagline is "slices as big as your head" and they really were huge! You buy your pizza by the slice. I chose a supreme slice for myself and a four-cheese slice for the boys to split. It was so much pizza! And so delicious. We could have split one slice between the three of us. The leftovers were great too, though.

Second up was Angelo & Son's Tropical Shrimp Trader Company. This restaurant was in Panacea not Tallahassee, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. This was our big seafood day after an afternoon of beach play.

Angela and I both picked a seafood platter to split with our kiddos. I also ordered an extra order of hush puppies for Jack. We managed to finish it all. Fried seafood at the beach is one of my faves!

Our third opportunity to eat out came in the form of brunch on Sunday after church. We attempted to eat at two different Canopy Road Cafe locations but they were slammed. As a back up we ended up going to Jenny's Lunchbox  and it was a big hit (even if we were crammed around a tiny table).

As a bonus we let Jack and Levi sit at their own table and they were perfect little gentleman. They even ordered their own food (pancakes) and didn't bother anyone (us or any other customers) for the duration of brunch. It's hard to believe that these two little 5-year-olds are capable of eating on their own at a sit-down restaurant!

I am a sucker for breakfast out and Jenny's Lunchbox did not disappoint. Jack had pancakes and I had fried eggs with ham and toast and also a side of biscuits and gravy (that I shared with Isaac). This little dive is worth a visit if you love a good home-made breakfast that you don't have to make yourself.

Finally, on our last day we drove up to Thomasville, Georgia on our way home so that we could go to Jonah's Fish & Grits. My sister had been raving about it, so we thought it would be a good way to end our trip.

Angela and I both had a grouper sandwich and it was out of this world. Their hush puppies really were the best ever, and the chowder I tried was divine. It's hard to find chowder in the south and man, this was good soup. It was a perfect way to end our trip.

Before leaving town we walked the kids down the block to The Mix for frozen yogurt.

If I'm being honest, this was probably the top pick for the kids in regards to food for the entire weekend. We let them pick ice cream and a reasonable amount of toppings and they were in kid heaven. Perfect way to end our spring break trip to see cousins!

Spring Break 2017: Gulf Specimen Aquarium and Alligator Point

Jack will often tell me that he wishes we lived closer to cousins, and while that would be nice, there are perks to getting to visit family in a different state. On these trips to visit family, we always spend as much time as possible visiting and playing, but we also make sure to do something fun.

On past visits we have gone to St. George Island to swim, taken an alligator boat tour at Wakulla Springs, visited the Tallahassee Jr. Museum, and gone spelunking at Florida Caverns State Park.

On this particular trip we had a jam-packed day planned for Saturday. Our initial plan was to visit the Gulf Specimen Aquarium in Panacea, Florida. We grabbed lunch at Momo's Pizza in Tallahassee before making the 30-minute drive to Panacea. I'll share a food post later, but the pizza slices at this place are gargantuan!!

At the aquarium there were quite a few touch tanks where the kids were able to touch and examine various sea creatures including all kinds of crabs, starfish, sand dollars, and much more.

There were also look only tanks that housed fish, several nurse sharks, sting rays, a large sea turtle, and even an entire tank devoted to octopi.

Izzy and Levi, my niece and nephew, loved the touch tanks and we very interested in touching every possible creature.

My sister, Angela, was accommodating and helped to get any creatures that they had difficulty picking up or were just too afraid to grab – like the horseshoe crabs. I was impressed by her willingness to touch everything.

Jack was a little more cautious with touching the animals. He was curious but didn't necessarily want to touch it all.

Isaac mostly wanted to do his own thing, pushing the stroller around to where he wanted to go. He did touch a few things and even held a couple of shells containing small crabs.

Overall it was a successful outing.

When we finished at the Aquarium, we thought it would be good to find a park to let the kids burn some extra energy before heading home.

However, we made a wrong turn and missed the park that Angela had in mind. As we drove, we realized we were close to Alligator Point and that we might be able to find a beach.

So on a whim, we decided to drive out to the end of Alligator Point. It was a beautiful drive, though part of the road was washed out next to the beach which involved a detour, but even that was kind of neat to see.

Since we had not planned on going to the beach, we didn't have swimsuits (though we did have one towel in the car and several changes of boys clothes). Angela and I thought we had enough to make the beach worth it, so we found a beach access and walked out to the Gulf, fully clothed.

Angela and I enjoyed sitting in the sun, watching the waves and two kite surfers. Izzy combed the beach for shells and briefly waded in the cold water.

Jack and Levi managed to get completely soaking wet from wading in the waves – which were a decent size and pounding the shore quite furiously. 

And Isaac discovered that maybe sand isn't so bad and even spent some time plopped down and digging (a first for him!).

When we got back to the car, we used water bottles to clean sandy feet, we dried Jack and Levi off as best we could with the one towel and then changed the two of them into dry clothes (yay for extra clothes in the car!) and then we were on our way.

The car was surprisingly sand free by the time we were on our way, which was a bit of a miracle considering our lack of beach preparedness!

We enjoyed Alligator Point and are glad to know that there is a nice beach for swimming within an hour of my sister's house. On our way home we stopped at Angelo & Son's Tropical Shrimp Trader Company for dinner and then we found that playground that we were originally looking for!

At the playground the kids burned the last of their energy. They had a foot race out to the pier and chatted up a fisherman, who kindly answered their questions and didn't seem annoyed that three busy kids were asking him all kinds of questions.

Jack informed him that he wanted to go fishing and he planned to catch a shark and then eat it. The fisherman laughed and said that he wanted to go fishing with Jack!

It was a lovely, though busy, day. Isaac was asleep as soon as we got in the car. And we played a comical game of "Would You Rather" with the other three. Example: Would you rather be eaten by a shark or a hippo? The kids all came up with funny questions and it was a fun way to pass the time on the ride home.

We arrived home with four tired kiddos. They all were tucked in shortly after taking baths. Another successful cousin day in Florida.