2014 Vacation: Snorkeling with Dolphins

The last time Daniel and I had an opportunity to take a dolphin tour, I was pregnant with Jack. This experience was a little different in that we were able to get in the water with the dolphins.

I don't know what it is, but dolphins in the wild mesmerize me. Every morning, I would drink my coffee on the front porch of our beach house in hopes of a glimpse of the pod that swam by several times a day. It made me down right giddy to catch a glimpse of their fins and I even saw one jump out of the water.

Daniel and I debated for several days whether or not we wanted to do a dolphin tour. I really wanted to, but it was $39/person and you needed a minimum of 4 people (we had 3) and we weren't sure if Jack would enjoy it. In the end, we agreed that we would enjoy it, and at the very least Jack would enjoy the boat ride.

Daniel contacted Mexico Beach Dolphin Tours to see if we could get out on the water. We had to wait for them to call us back – they were going to try to find another person to go with us. In the end, we met our captain and boat at the Panama City Marina and we were the only people on the tour!

It was pretty cool to go out on the water, just us. Jack called our captain "The Pirate" for the duration of the trip. Thankfully The Pirate took it well. The Pirate was a firefighter that moonlighted as a tour guide when he was off duty. He also had 4 kids of his own and was very sweet to Jack.

The Pirate took us out past St. Andrew's Bay State Park and then to Shell Island. Since it was off season, it took a little while to find any dolphins, but we enjoyed our ride out on the open water.

When we finally found a dolphin, I was surprised that the Pirate encouraged us to get in the water with it. I guess I missed that part of the sales pitch. So Daniel and I took turns donning snorkeling masks and slipping into the water for a chance to see the dolphins up close.

At one point, one of the dolphins swam right under Daniel – almost within reach!

On one of my turns in the water, all of a sudden a second one appeared out of nowhere! It was an amazing surprise to see two up close like that.

Jack got brave and got in the water with us a couple of times, but I think it made him nervous and I'm not really sure that he saw any dolphins.

After the dolphins went their way, the Pirate took us to snorkel a small shipwreck off the coast of St. Andrew's Bay State Park. 

We had a wonderful experience and it was definitely worth the $39/person to be able to get in the water with the dolphins. This is an outing you shouldn't pass up if you have the time and are in the Panama City area.

2014 Florida Vacation Recap: Trip Overview // Restaurant Reviews 

Biking St. Joseph's Peninsula // Snorkeling with Dolphins // Time with Family

2014 Vacation: Restaurant Reviews

Before my family joined us at the beach, we opted to eat at some of the local restaurants on the Forgotten Coast. Following is an overview of the places where we ate. With the help of Urbanspoon and Trip Advisor, we found some great eateries. 

Mexico Beach, Florida

Mexico Beach is a blip on the map – which was great for skipping the crowds at the beach, but didn't give many options for food. Several restaurants were closed, I'm not sure if this was because it was off season or they were no longer open. We did find a couple of places that were a couple of blocks from our beach house.

Graba Java was our first stop for breakfast after driving all night. While Daniel slept, Jack and I went in search of food. The sign outside this little shop actually says, "The Internet Cafe" – which I thought was hilarious.

The food is made to order, but involved a bit of a wait since there was only one cook. The ladies working the shop were very friendly and complimentary of Jack. The place seemed to be filled with mostly retired locals. We chose the breakfast sandwich and I had a coffee. It was a little expensive (to be expected at the beach), but tasted great. 

Beach Pizza looks like a total dive, but we decided to give it a shot since it was within walking distance of our house. The pizza was actually really great.

We went back with my family for ice cream on our last night. If you get ice cream, ask for 2 scoops, it is the same price whether you get 1 or 2 scoops on a cone! 

Port St. Joe, Florida
Port St. Joe was 11 miles down the road from Mexico Beach and had some really amazing restaurants. We would actually consider staying here in the future just to have a little more accessibility to restaurants, grocery stores and beaches that dogs can access.

Joe Mama's Wood Fired Pizza was our first dinner in Florida. Jack passed on our the drive to Port St. Joe and proceeded to sleep through the entire meal.

This meant we had an unexpected date – no fussing over a toddler. Daniel held Jack through the entire meal. The beach air wears a toddler out.

The food was excellent and the service was great. Fresh ingredients, but not your typical American style pizza, which was a nice change.

Pepper's Mexican Grill was our second dinner that Jack slept through. Score for two date nights in a row!

Since it was off season, we walked right in and had great service. The food was fantastic.

I enjoyed a seafood Chimichanga that was simply divine, and the chips and salsa at the beginning of the meal were deliciously fresh.

Sunset Coastal Grill was the closest we came to eating on the beach. We almost tried Toucans in Mexico Beach but it had terrible reviews. Sunset Grill is on the bay, but didn't have outdoor dining. In terms of eating out, this was my biggest disappointment (not in Sunset Grill, but that we didn't eat on the beach). Also, I really wanted some clam chowder, but they didn't have that.

Anyways, Sunset Coast Grill had good food – their fish and hush puppies were tasty. The restaurant felt a little outdated, like somewhere our grandparents would like, but overall we enjoyed our meal and the service was good. They even brought Jack a bowl of grapes while we waited.

Panama City, Florida
At 30 minutes away, Panama City was a bit of a drive. At the beginning of the week we made the drive to get groceries and had lunch at a local restaurant. A friend had recommended we eat at Captain Anderson's but we didn't have a chance to go. Maybe, next time.

Bayou Joe's was probably my favorite restaurant of this trip. The restaurant is floating next to a marina. All of the tables are outside and we watched as fish and birds came right up to the boat in hopes of some food. 

The hardest part was keeping a hold of Jack so he didn't fall in the water since our table was 2-feet from the water. 

The food was great, though the fried corn was a bit much, the restaurant was packed when we arrived but we barely had a wait and our service was surprisingly quick.

Overall we had a great dining experience while on vacation. Once my family arrived, we decided to cook at the house so that we could spend more time at the beach. 

2014 Florida Vacation Recap: Trip Overview // Restaurant Reviews
Biking St. Joseph's Peninsula // Snorkeling with Dolphins // Time with Family

2014 Vacation: Mexico Beach, Florida

Vacation this year had a bit of a bumpy start. We were packing up our car on Sunday afternoon (so that we could leave first thing Monday morning) when I decided to review my check-in information. 

To my chagrin, I realized our check-in time was 3pm Sunday, not Monday. So we decided to finish packing and drive through the night. This meant we arrived at 3am Monday morning. 

I'm glad we went ahead and drove down, but we spent the first couple of days of our trip recuperating from our night-time drive. Lesson learn: make sure you know the dates of your trip!

We ended up choosing Mexico Beach (about 30 miles east of Panama City) as our destination because my sister and her family moved to Tallahassee earlier this year and we wanted to incorporate a family visit as a part of this trip.

Mexico Beach, and this part of the panhandle, is called The Forgotten Coast and is a lot less crowded than the Destin area that we visited last year. We really enjoyed our Destin trip, but loved the low-key area of Mexico Beach. 

As an added bonus, this area has amazing stars – you can see the Milky Way at night because of the lack of development on this section of the coast. 

We also had the pleasure of watching a pod of dolphins swimming in the gulf every day of our stay. This is probably because of Saint Joseph's Peninsula and the bay form a bit of a sanctuary for the dolphins.

There were very few people because it was off season, which we loved (we typically travel in off season to avoid crowds and to get better deals), and our house was right on the beach. We enjoyed the calm gulf waters and gorgeous sunsets. Jack was thrilled to spend every day digging in the sand. 

The first half of our week, we spent as a family of three. We enjoyed restaurants in Panama City, Mexico Beach and Port Saint Joe. We biked the St. Joseph Peninsula and had a fun experience snorkeling with dolphins in the gulf near Shell Island. 

At the end of the week, the rest of my family joined us for some beach time. It was such a treat to be together at the beach (our first trip for the Voyles family). Now that my sister lives in Florida, I see more beach trips in our future.

2014 Florida Vacation Recap: Overview // Restaurant Reviews

Biking St. Joseph's Peninsula // Snorkeling with Dolphins // Time with Family