When we were stationed in Colorado Springs I had a group of friends I met at church that was just the best. It turns out we were all military wives too which inevitably means we'd be saying goodbye to each other. The first to leave was Janel, then Amy, then me and then Becky. None of us live in Colorado anymore, but since we parted ways we'd been talking about a girl's weekend for ages. However, Janel had a baby and then Becky did, then PCS moves like Alaska and DC, and then of course Covid! With the potential of our family going overseas soon we finally decided to make a girl's trip happen!
Initially we had thought about doing something like Disney or Vegas, but in the end we all really just wanted to be able to hang out, catch up, and get some sun! We decided on Destin, FL as our location and got to planning!
We all started traveling towards FL on Thursday the 25th, and boy did that turn out to be a really long day for all of us. Janel and Amy who live in Washington had to get up at 3:45am just to make it to the airport in time for their first flight. They had a long layover in Houston and then finally got to the hotel in Destin around 9-10pm! Becky didn't start flying until like 5 and had a layover in Nashville. Our flights actually lined up and we were going to meet up in Nashville and fly the rest of the way together to Pensacola. Well my flight from San Antonio left late because the Houston airport was backed up. I stayed on the plane in Houston and we tried to make a quick turnaround to shave some of the lost time to Nashville....but the weather had other plans. There was a huge line of severe storms and it actually shut the Nashville airport down! We were stuck circling in the air for an extra hour. I thought it meant I was going to miss my connection in Nashville, but so many planes were diverted and delayed that our plane didn't get in until about 11:30pm. Becky and I got to hang out for about 3 hours in the Nashville airport and begin our catching up! We finally boarded our flight at midnight, fully expecting the car rental place to be closed and leave us stranded in Pensacola. To our shock and amazement, they had kept the counter open for our flight and we were able to drive to Destin and scare our friends at 3:30 in the morning, lol!
The calm before the storm? (view of sunset from the plane)
It's pretty fascinating to watch storms from the sky
The flight tracker clued me in to what was going on well before the pilot did!
Even though we were all exhausted, we were so ready to get our Beach Trip started! Friday we spent a lot of time with some of Janel's friends, one who actually lives in Destin, and got to eat out at a yummy breakfast/lunch spot and try their famous beignets!
Can you spot the little lizards?
We were supposed to go to a boat/dolphin tour that evening at 5, but it got cancelled due to the dense fog. Instead we checked into our airbnb at 4:00 and finally got to see the beach!!
Look at that white sand! It was so soft and clean!
Our airbnb was in an amazing location. The area is called Crystal Sands Beach, and we literally could walk right out onto the beach from our back patio. This is what I've always wanted to be able to do. You can stay at places that are a block from the beach, or a 5 minute drive, but nothing beats already being there. You can just hop out and walk around whenever you want. You can open the door and listen to the waves. You can witness sunrise and sunset with ease!
Becky pulled off this amazing yoga/handstand at the perfect sunset moment too! Instaworthy!
Even the jellyfish were crystal clear!
Saturday we spent a cold, foggy and windy morning on the beach looking for shells, bird watching and of course talking.
That afternoon was our rescheduled boat/dolphin tour and an escape room! I found this particular boat tour on Tripadvisor. It was a hydrojet that went very fast, but held a lot of people. Turns out it was the party boat too, because we were like the only boat that had music going. Unfortunately the water was still extremely choppy, so they couldn't take the boat out into the gulf where most of the dolphins are, but we still saw a few right on the edge of where we were allowed to be. Those waves were no joke! We had a blast :)
Check out the shirts I made for our trip! :)
Not sure if the picture gives the right scale, but these pelicans were HUGE.
Here's our boat with the prior tour members still aboard.
Check out the pirate ship you can tour on!
If you know my family, you know we really enjoy escape rooms. Amy and Becky had only ever done one room, and Janel had never done one, so it seemed like the perfect idea to me! Ours was called Mystic Mansion, and we had to discover why the place was haunted and escape before becoming trapped. It was definitely the hardest room I've ever done. Turns out it only has like a 25% success rate, lol. We decided afterwards that it was fun, but each clue was lengthy and took so long to decipher that if any of them slowed you down or took a bit too long to figure out, there's no way you'd make it out. We had already worked through i think about 8 lengthy clues and still had 3-4 to go to escape.
Giant chairs in front of the t escape room called for a photo-op!
After the escape room we were starving. It took a few tries but we finally found the perfect spot for dinner- Lulu's. It was right on the beach, had a very large seating area but somehow still had that local restaurant feel. Just another opportunity for us to chat away and have a good time.
By the evening both Amy and I realized just how sunburnt we were from our morning chat session on the beach. The wind and fog and clouds sure fooled us. (I should know better!) From mid-thigh on down, nothing but red! It still is pretty darn burnt. Also each evening we did some beach time, chatted and played games. I think we ended up playing 5 different games during our stay there.
Sunday was our relax day with some in-person church, zoom church meetings, and more chilling on the beach. I mean, when you're paying to have a beachfront property, you gotta take advantage!
Amy and I happened to have the same fabric on our swimsuits!
Water is always chilly at first!
Can you see my very burnt legs? Ouch!
There was a brief moment that morning that they were actually letting us go far into the water, and I'm so glad I had the chance. Look at these waves! They were strong and knocked me over a few times, but I really enjoy being out in the waves. Thanks Becky for the photos!
Our view from the patio!
That afternoon we decided to have one more sightseeing moment, and followed the suggestion of Janel's friend to go to Eden Gardens State park. Before we hit up the park, we also checked out a local cafe that apparently had chocolate chip pecan pie. Amy was dying to try it so we had to make that happen! The cafe didn't disappoint, but the pie kind of did, sadly! It was very very sweet. My key lime pie, however, was really really yummy!
Eden Gardens State park was really beautiful. It has an old plantation house that a lady bought in the 60s, renovated, and completely overhauled the landscape into what it is today. There was a little path you could follow and learn about the large variety of plants the had on the premise. They're known for their azalea gardens and camellia flowers as well. This made for some beautiful scenery for a whole lot more pictures!
I loved the fern growing on the trees. It's called a resurrection fern because it can lose 93% of its water and still survive. That's my kind of plant
Lovely ladies by lovely azaleas!
Smelling the cedar tree
We asked an older gentleman to take our picture by the famous Wedding Tree. He was hilarious and told us he charged 50 cents. I looked at the pictures later and he got a shot of us all walking towards the tree, and then this shot of us so so far away! Lol
Camellia
Honeysuckle
This is the kissing tree- aptly named because two separate kinds of trees ended up joining together almost like Siamese twins!
Sending the kissing tree some love!
Sunday evening we happened to spot a wedding happening on the beach right outside our airbnb! I'm sure that wedding party was super worried the whole weekend that their plan would be ruined by weather. Up until that moment it had been really foggy, windy, and overcast. But everything seemed to clear out just for them, and it was a beautiful evening on the beach for everyone.
Monday we decided to get up in time to see the sunrise, since it was our last day. What a gorgeous spot, with gorgeous friends, and gorgeous weather. Monday really was the nicest day in Destin. The water was much calmer (most times there was a double red flag warning meaning we couldn't get in the water), and the skies were clear. Even though our weather wasn't perfect the whole time, none of our plans were ruined by it either.
Even the moon was beautiful for our sunrise adventure
Sunrise in Destin
Turned around and got a pic with the moon
Btw- the sand was pretty cold that morning! The water was actually warmer
These were tiny little bird prints in the sand
That moment that we realized Becky's legs were also a little burnt, and she had left a nice sunscreen handprint tan behind
Man, the water was so clear and calm on Monday, you could actually see into it!
The first video below is of a unique thing the waves were doing. I think it's because there was a significant undertow, so the waves that had already been to shore and were headed back- they collided and made a cool streaking effect across the water.
This video was from Monday morning. The waves were so much calmer and we realized you could see dolphins about as far out as I had been the day before!
After our early morning sunset we got all packed and cleaned up and drove Janel and Amy to the Destin airport and Becky and I made our way to the Pensacola airport. I didn't want to say goodbye already! Who knows the next time any of us will be able to do something like this! It was all of ours first girls getaway. We really can talk about anything and are there for each other through all the inevitable hard times that come in life. I miss them, and the white sandy beach, but I miss my friends more than anything else.
Thanks to all the hubbys for not even wincing about allowing us this opportunity, and for being rockstars while we were gone. Couldn't have done it without you!
