My good guy friend, Darrell, invited us to spend a week in Seaside with he and some of his family this year. Bob was not able to get off work due to it being budget season but I didn't have anything keeping me at home so I went with our friends anyway. We stayed in the home of Darrell's friend just a block off the Gulf of Mexico. It was a 3 story home with 5 bedrooms and bathrooms. It was just beautiful! The third floor had a veranda where you could look down the street at the gulf. My bedroom was also on the third floor so I could get up each morning and take a look at the weather and listen to the birds.
Every floor had a porch with furniture, swings or hammocks to relax. There was plenty of room for the 5 of us to spread out although we usually spent all of our time together.
This the view from the third floor veranda looking at the Gulf. The beach was just a hop and a skip away from our front door as well as lots of little specialty shops and quaint little eateries.
There were just 3 of us there for three nights of the trip. We ate at The Boatyard in Panama City Beach our second night there. Me, Darrell and his cousin Peggy.
After grocery shopping I did some baking for the week before going to the beach. I made Hawaiian Wedding Cake, Oreo Truffles and Chocolate Chip cookie bars.
My 4 friends on the beach the first day we were all together.
I bought some hats while on this trip. The guys helped me pick out his red number and was referred to as Mrs. Howell for the rest of the trip. Ready for the beach!
One of our favorite things to do was to hand feed the seagulls. Here me, Darrell and Timmy are feeding them popcorn.
Cousins....Peggy, Darrell, Angel and her husband, Timmy on the pier in PCB.
We rented a pontoon boat for the day and went to Shell Island then rode around in the bay dolphin and bird watching. It was so much fun!! We packed a cooler and at lunch on the boat and enjoyed watching the dolpins swim by. Darrell was the captain and except for one incident when a huge wave nearly capsized the boat and got all of us soaked, we had a lovely day. ha ha!!
Angel and Timmy
Darrell on Shell Island
At Firefly restaurant on our last night in Florida enjoying our martinis. This food was truly delicious! One of the top 3 best meals I've had in my life. I'm going to do another post on the food we ate on this trip as I took pictures of nearly every dinner we had.
At Dick's Last Resort in PCB one evening. My hat says "Fake blonde, real dumb" and Timmy's said, "My pink thong hurts" ha ha!!!
Before going out to dinner one night
Before getting on our pontoon we saw the SS Minnow
I haven't vacationed with friends since I was in college and it was truly one of the most fun trips I've ever taken. No stress and just a lot of laughs all day long. We all have adult or nearly-adult kids but this was a kid-free trip so that also made it kind of nice. We only had to worry about ourselves and pretty much kept the same schedule of going for walks in the morning then hitting the beach by around 10 everyday. Some days I went back to the house earlier than the others to take a nap or retreat from the sun and to get ready to go out at night. We went out to eat nearly every night and shopped, played putt putt and went to Ripley's one night. Tropical Storm Karen did not bother us at all. It did cause some bigger waves for a couple days but otherwise we never had any rain or cloudy days.
I'm planning to return to Seaside next year with my friends again and hope to make it an annual trip. Hopefully Bob will be able to go with me next time!!
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