2023.06.30 – 07.04 Ft. Walton Beach & Destin, Florida
Ft Walton Beach / Destin
Fort Walton Beach and Destin, Florida is one of our favorite places to go hang out on the Gulf Coast. It is a day’s drive from home. The beach is pristine. The water is beautiful, warm, and relaxing. The food is amazing!
Our anniversary, June 30th, was on Friday this year. With Independence Day only being four days after our anniversary, this meant we could get away for a five-day weekend and only need to take two PTO days. FWB/Destin is the best option for us when we have a few days and can get away. We don’t have a real agenda other than just getting away and enjoying the sun.
FWB
We have found that lodging seems to be a little less expensive in Ft Walton Beach verses Destin. Plus we made some new friends on an earlier trip so we always try to stop in and say hi and have some drinks with them.
This trip, we stayed at the Pirates Bay condos through AirBnB. It wasn’t 5-star, but it was clean, well located, and reasonably priced. They had a nice pool. And it was also close out our favorite German restaurant, The Bavarian’s Wirsthaus. We arrived early evening on Friday the 30th. We ate dinner at The Shack.
After dinner, we headed down to the pool for a little bit. The local ducks decided it was a nice night for them to swim with us.
2023.07.01—Breakfast
Our breakfast on Saturday was at Asiagos Skillet in FWB. I had the Seafood Skillet and a Bloody Mary. Audra had the Country Fried Steak Skillet. Both were wonderful!
Destin
After breakfast we drove back to Destin for our dolphin cruise along the coastline. We used Destin Dolphin Cruise. We didn’t see a lot of dolphins on this tour, but it was not for a lack of trying. Our captain and crew worked hard to find them, but they just were not out during our tour. We did have a great tour of Destin Harbor, the Gulf of Mexico, and the world famous Crab Island.
After our tour we stopped for lunch at Boshamps Seafood & Oyster House. We had drinks and a lite lunch. I had a Three Lucky Dogs, a Maker’s Mark Private Selection and a lemon and local honey simple syrup. Audra had the Boshamps Margarita. It was Corazon Single Estate Blanco Tequila, organic lime juice with a J.F. Haden’s Mango Liqueur floater. (I am not a tequila fan, but this was amazing!)
Our lunch was light. We split the House Smoked Yellowfin Tuna Dip and crab cakes.
2023.07.02
PARASAILING! We are always up for new adventures. Neither of us had ever parasailed so today was the day we marked that off our bucket list. When went back to the Destin Dolphin Cruise for this adventure. WOW! What a rush! It is definitely something we would do again. I forgot my GoPro, so we only have pics of us leaving the boat and others taking off.
The boat has a large engine that is a little loud when you are in the boat. Once you are harnessed in and they begin to let you out, the sound of silence begins to drown out the roar of the boat motor. Quickly, you are 400 feet in the air above the Gulf of Mexico. You hear the breeze as it blows around you. You see other boats racing across the water. You can even see sharks in the water below you. (Most of them are not harmful to humans.) When you look out into the gulf, it is water as far as you can see. Deep blue to emerald green closer to shore. It is spectacular!
We were out for about an hour and a half as each one in the boat took their turn. We had several little kids in our boat. None of them chickened out, they all went their turn and loved it. I love seeing young kids doing things that challenge their fears. It truly makes for a well-adjusted person when they get older.
When we got back in, we had a lite lunch at The Edge Seafood Restaurant & Sky Bar. We shared the Duck Jalapeño Poppers and the Tomato & Burrata Salad.
2023.07.03
This was our last day in FWB/Destin, so we wanted to relax and get ready for the long drive home. Lunch was at Tailfins Waterfront Grill. Fish tacos, candied ribs, pina colada and a cold local beer.
We hung out by the pool most of the day. We absorbed a lot of sun, too! Dinner was at Dewey Destin’s Seafood.
2023.07.04
We do not normally travel on Independence Day, but our schedule required us to do so this trip. Our trip home was uneventful with minimal stops. Until next time, FWB/Destin!