Spring Break Trip to Destin - Day 1

We had a hard time coming up with a spring break destination this year.  We originally had booked a trip to San Diego, but when the hotel we wanted to stay at went under construction, we decided maybe we should look for a different destination.  We hopped on Southwest.com and pretty much looked at every warm place they flew and landed on Destin.  We hadn't been to Destin in 5 years, so we figured this would be a perfect time to go back.  We planned our trip to leave early Tuesday morning and come back late Saturday night.  Those were the dates we were told there would be no soccer games for Emily.

We flew out around 9:00 am Tuesday morning.  The corona virus just started making headlines around the time we were leaving, but it still didn't seem like too much of a big deal.  However, with that, our flight wasn't full.  I'd say it was only about 3/4 of the way full.  We flew into Panama City and then rented a car.

Leading up to the week, I had been watching the weather and I was so nervous that it would be cold while we were there.  I actually packed a ton of cold weather clothes.  But thankfully, we totally lucked out.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect.  It was sunny and in the 70's most days and it was definitely warm enough for shorts / swimming.

We landed around lunch time and made our way over to Pampano Joe's in Panama City Beach for lunch.  We wanted some place right on the beach to eat and this place was perfect.

After lunch we drove about 45 minutes to our hotel.  We stayed at the Hilton Sandestin Resort.  Unfortunately, our room wasn't quite ready yet, so the kids changed into their suits and we had the bellhop hold our bags for us.  Since it was already afternoon, we decided it wasn't worth renting chairs on the beach, so we hit up the pool instead.  There were 3 pools on property - 1 indoor and 2 outdoor.

After a few hours of swimming and lounging by the pool, our room was ready.  We got all settled in and then headed out across the street from our hotel to Baytowne Wharf.  It was full of shops and restaurants.  We checked out a few of the shops and the piers before picking a place to eat dinner.

The room was a perfect setup for a family!  It had 2 queen beds and a set of bunk beds.  It had a full bathroom and then also had a sink and counter outside of the bathroom too.  

I think we had ice cream every day of the trip!