You can take the girl out of Florida...

but you apparently can't take Florida out of the girl!

Having grown up on both coasts of Florida, the beach was always a 'day trip' to me, not a vacation destination. When I was younger, we regularly went to the beach (at least it seems regularly in my mind--Mom??). I have fond memories of playing in the waves, building endless numbers of sandcastles, collecting shells with my Gaga and eating sandy picnic lunches. I think I took the beach for granted and because I had been so often, didn't really even miss it much when I went away to college in South Carolina. While there, I learned a lot of things-- one being that going to the beach was a real and much anticipated summer vacation destination for many southerners (and likely northerners too-- there just weren't that many of them at Furman). For the first time, I heard about places such as Destin and Panama City Beach (Really? Those are in Florida?? Who knew?!) and Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head... when you grow up with a beach 20 minutes away, you don't generally (or at least we never did) travel to another beach destination for a vacation.

Since becoming a 'grown up' and living in Georgia, I have discovered that this 'beach vacation' thing is still quite popular with the locals. And in the past 15 years, we have taken a few trips that have included the beach as part (or all) of the destination-- but not usually because any of us was just craving the waves, sand and sea breezes-- those were generally just an 'added perk' of the trip.

However, as of this past weekend, I can officially say that that has changed. This Florida girl was hit with a craving for time on the beach like I have previously never known!! We had our vacation plans set for the year and they did not include salt, seagulls or sandy picnics. Everywhere I looked it seemed that people were going to, at or planning to go to the beach... except for me and I MISSED IT!!! This Florida girl needed to get to the ocean ASAP!!

(for my sister-- the only picture of me that I have is blurry!)

We are blessed to have a friend who owns a condo right on the gulf in Panama City Beach and let us rent it for just a few days (very uncommon in the height of the 'summer season'). We headed down to there on Father's Day and spent the next three days soaking in the sun, listening to the waves crash, searching for seashells, building sandcastles and relaxing.

(Calypso Towers)

The condo was fabulous-- on the top floor (23rd!) so the view was fantastic and located right next door to one of PCB's newest attractions, Pier Park--an outdoor shopping/restaurant/entertainment complex. We enjoyed several meals there as well as walking around the cute beach shops. This was our first time to visit Panama City Beach and we were pleasantly surprised at how nice it was (with it's reputation of being the "Redneck Rivera"!!). We were on the west end of the city and it was surprisingly not overrun with t-shirt shops, airbrushing studios and go-cart/putt-putt locations.

(Pier Park)

(Watching fireworks from the balcony-- we were higher up than them!)

Our favorite things were the simple ones:

relaxing under the umbrella...

playing in the the waves...

shell collecting...

reading a book....

and eating THE BEST DONUTS on the beach (and probably the planet!)...

We were all sad to leave... our little beach getaway ended all to soon. But we made some great memories as a family and have decided that our future definitely needs to continue to include the beach as a vacation destination.

And this Florida girl couldn't be happier.