Bert and I usually take a short (1 or 2 night) anniversary trip, but wanted to do something a little extra special for our 10 year anniversary. We decided to spend a relaxing week in Panama City Beach at my parents' condo, and left the kids with Linda for half of the week and then my mom came up to get them for the other half.
We picked the week of our girls' fall break so that they would only have school 3 days that week. It was still a little stressful trying to get the girls all organized and ready before we left, but totally worth it! I left Linda pages of notes about what to sign for homework and when, what time to leave to pick them up from school, etc. I'm a detail-oriented person, so it was impossible for me to not leave lots of details. I told her she could roll her eyes as she was reading each days notes if she wanted to. Ha!
I took a picture of my handsome hubby while we were on the way down to PCB because I was so excited (and could hardly believe) that we were on vacation together, with just the two of us, for a whole week!!
We made it down to Panama City about 9pm Panama City time (10 GA time) and still had time for a beach walk because we were so excited to be there!
On Sunday we went to dinner at Pineapple Willy's. I don't think we've ever been to this restaurant in all our years of coming down to PCB. We had awesome seats at the end of the pier (part of the restaurant) and really enjoyed our food. I've heard the wait in the summer is crazy long, which I believe because they were really busy in mid-October. This was probably the busiest restaurant we went to the whole week.
We took a couple trips to our favorite ice cream place!! I love ice cream and I really love this ice cream so I was a very happy person when Bert took this picture!
We played putt-putt golf on Sunday night too! The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed talking with another couple that was also on an anniversary trip. They are actually the ones that took this picture. They have 5 kids and live in Pensacola.
Bert and I are both competitive but he usually beats me in mini golf, which is annoying. I was actually playing well on this particular night though and I GOT 3 HOLE-IN-ONES!!! You can see from the score-card that he still won by 3, but I like to think that we basically tied because I got 3 hole-in-ones, and that has to count for something! Ha!
I spent the mornings sleeping until 8 or 8:30, which is late for a mom with 4 kids. Bert's body doesn't allow him to sleep later than 6:30 or so, so he was up early. He would have his quiet time out on the porch before I ever woke up and then I would get to go out and have a long quiet time too! I loved our slow peaceful mornings. After our quiet times we did different things. One day I went to get a pedicure, one morning we played golf together (Bert played...I putted), one morning we went shopping for a gift for our girls, etc. Several mornings we walked laps around the par-3 golf course at the condo. It was peaceful and a fun time to get a little exercise and talk.
We ate breakfast and lunch in our condo everyday and then headed over to the beach after lunch. It was in the low to mid 80's every day and absolutely beautiful! We both love to read so we LOVED relaxing on the beach in the beach chairs. We spent hours reading and sometimes taking afternoon walks on the beach and sometimes just people-watching and listening to the waves come in. We got in the water several days, but it wasn't so hot that you needed to, we just wanted to.
Relaxing on the beach our first afternoon there!
One night we decided we'd come back over to the beach after we got ready to go out for dinner and watch the sunset. It was beautiful.
I feel like this picture doesn't do it justice and this picture is really pretty.
We went to Captain Anderson's one night. We go there most every summer, but we really like it so we decided we'd go again!
One morning we decided to head over to St. Andrews State Park, which is about 15 minutes from our condo. The beaches there are beautiful! We packed a picnic lunch and kind of wished we had brought beach chairs so that we could have stayed all afternoon. We spent 3 or 4 hours there though and really enjoyed it!! Isn't this a beautiful picnic spot?
We took a loooong walk on this beautiful beach!
We got back to the condo mid-afternoon and headed straight to the beach for more relaxing reading.
We went to this fun "locals" restaurant called Finn's Island Style Grub, and I had fish tacos for the first time! It was a really fun atmosphere, and I'd love to go back there during the summer.
Our last night there we went to an amazing steak restaurant named Angelo's Steakhouse. We've only been a couple times in the last 10 years, but we enjoy it every time. I so loved all of our dinner dates! Angelo's was Bert's favorite and Captain Anderson's was probably mine.
We hit the road early on Saturday morning and made it back to Toccoa about 3:30 (GA time). The kids were so excited to see us and we were SO excited to see them too! Mom caught our reunion on camera. We loved getting away and loved every minute of our trip, but we were so happy to have our babies in our arms again!!
So thankful we were able to take this fun, relaxing trip together!! We came back Greenville refreshed and rested!! I highly recommend taking anniversary trips together, even if it's only for a night or two...it's worth figuring out childcare for your kids and it's worth every penny you spend!
