John took me away on a little 50th birthday trip last week! I had lots of options, but going to the beach was at the top of my list, so that’s where we went. We left for Destin, Florida, at 6:15 AM Thursday morning, because here in Atlanta, you either need to leave before 6:30 AM or after 9 AM, unless you really love sitting in tons of traffic. Which we do not love one bit. The 5 1/2 hour drive took us through some cute little towns and pretty farm fields, and it was nice to just have some time alone.
And Destin didn’t disappoint! We haven’t been there before, but I’ve always heard how beautiful it is. Seriously…this water!
When we got to Destin, we hit up the local outlet mall, and the only person who got anything was Tyson! It is so fun shopping for a grandbaby, and it so hard to control oneself too.
After we checked into our hotel, we headed to the beach because I could not wait to put my toes in the sugar-white sand. We walked along the beach for awhile, and it was awesome! I love the sound of the waves and the smell of the water and the feel of the sand and pretty much everything about the beach.
We decided to try out something local for dinner that night (we’re really trying to be more spontaneous on vacation…it’s hard…), and we found a place with great ratings called “Buck’s Smokehouse BBQ.” It’s definitely a hole-in-the-wall type place, and the food was really good.
Here’s the sign as we walked up to the restaurant’s entrance:
Fun, right?
After dinner, I was really in the mood for some Halo Top Ice Cream, so we set out to find some. If you haven’t tried Halo Top Ice Cream, you are really missing out! It’s very tasty, high in protein, and you can eat a whole pint-sized carton for around 300 calories (depending on which of the many flavors you pick). We went to Walmart. No Halo Top. We went to Winn Dixie. No Halo Top. As we were leaving Winn Dixie, John said, “I wish we could catch the sunset.” I realized we were about a block away from the beach, so we hurried over and caught a beautiful sunset.
Still on a hunt for Halo Top, we went to Publix. No Halo Top. Feeling a bit stubborn, and not wanting to give up, I googled their website and after being very patient with a very slow internet connection, I finally found out that Whole Foods carries Halo Top in Destin. So we headed to Whole Foods and got me my ice cream. And it was totally worth the pain to find it! And I ate the whole pint because…vacation. ?
Friday morning John was really in the mood for a donut, and after seeing the dismal selection at Dunkin Donuts, he googled for a donut shop, and found this one:
This place was awesome. It’s like an ice cream shop where you get to choose your toppings, except you get to choose your frosting AND your toppings! They had quite the selection, and you can create your own too.
And these donuts were super yummy. If you’ll notice, every single donut we picked had chocolate frosting which, if you know us even a little bit, is not surprising at all. My favorite was the raspberry chocolate one in the upper right corner.
After maybe or maybe not eating all of those donuts (we rationalized that they are a bit smaller than regular donuts ?), we headed to the beach to walk off some of those donut calories and to enjoy the beach. We found a state park—Henderson Beach State Park—and it had clean restrooms, picnic tables, and a super nice beach. And it wasn’t crowded at all. I think we walked and talked for about 3 1/2 miles, and I loved every single step.
I had this vision in my head of how awesome it would be to just sit on the beach and read for awhile, and even though John really isn’t a reader, he brought a book anyway. He’s the best, I know. It was pretty windy Friday, and he tried to set up our beach umbrella, but the wind kept blowing it inside out. We sat and read for a little bit, but realized he was going to get baked, so we gave up on that reading-on-the-beach thing for this time. We googled for a dinner spot and found the “Surf Hut,” which was right on the beach. And the food was really yummy too!.
Then we caught another beautiful sunset and headed to Whole Foods for more Halo Top Ice Cream. I know, we really live on the edge.
We sadly left for home Saturday afternoon, and we really enjoyed our weekend of beach walking, yummy food, movie watching, and just spending time together.
And looked who turned 7 weeks old on Thursday! I just love his facial expressions, and I must admit that I look at all of my hundred+ Tyson pictures quite often. ?
Grandbabies are THE best!
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