Mommy, Baby, Best Friend Beach Trip
Back in March, both Brad and my best friend's husband, Justin, were out of town for work purposes (separate trips however). Both of our husbands travel for work but they have never traveled at the same time. So we decided we should just go on a girls trip together while the boys were away.
We decided to go to Destin, Fl. We weighed a few different locations, but we based it on the condo options. We both love staying at Tops'l Beach and Racquet Resort. Brad and I actually got engaged and married there. We found a perfect room on the first floor at a great price at Tops'l, so we opted to stay there. I will write about our experience at Tops'l specifically later.
Lots of packing was involved for this trip. We wanted to avoid buying a lot of groceries once getting there, so we packed as much as we could. Emily and I also split up some of the common items to bring so that we didn't bring lots of duplicates. We also followed my travel checklist to make sure we didn't forget anything else!
Below are the outfits that I brought to wear. We were staying only 3 nights. So we literally brought just enough outfits for each day. We included cardigans just in case it was cool at night too.
And here are Melody's outfits...
Since it was just Emily and me, we decided to try and sleep some and leave around 7-7:30 am. Brad and I usually leave before daylight, but that was just not smart for us. We were hoping the girls would still sleep some at some point and would entertain one another. I have an extra carseat that we bought for Brad's car, so I installed it the night before. Justin brought over a few other things to install/load the night before too.
I loaded all of my stuff the morning of. Then I changed Melody and loaded her up. Emily only lives about a mile from me, so we were there around 7:15 or so. We loaded Lydia and finished loading up the rest of Emily's things. We had a stuffed car!! We left Emily's around 7:30.
We stopped and had breakfast at Jack's on our way out of town. We wanted to drive as much in a leg as possible. This also allowed the girls to move around a bit before being strapped in the car for 6 hours!
We started on our trek to the beach around 8:15 am from Jack's. Lydia slept part of the way in the beginning, and Melody watched Mickey Mouse. The drive went really smooth, and we didn't stop until close to 12 or so. We stopped in Andalusia, AL at Zaxby's for lunch. Luckily when we finished it wasn't too crowded, so we were able to let the girls stretched their legs some and walk/dance around Zaxby's.
We had about 2 more hours in the car before we would arrive in Destin. Melody slept most of the way after lunch. Lydia was awake but she watched Mickey Mouse.
We got to the condo around 3. Check in time wasn't until 4, but we decided to stop and see if they would go ahead and let us check in anyway. Thankfully, they did. Melody was beyond ready to be out of the car!
The room was exactly as described. We were able to park fairly close to the door, so I brought our luggage in while Emily distributed it and the girls played in the room. We let the girls jump around and play to burn a bit of energy after being cooped up.
We decided to go have dinner at Surf Hut since it was a very "open" restaurant in case the girls were still fussy from the car ride. We first ordered the shrimp and crab dip to start while we continued to look at the menu. I ended up going with the usual fried stuffed shrimp. It is my favorite meal there. I also ordered Melody some french fries to go with her peanut butter crackers. We had plenty of food that we took back to the room for lunch later.
After dinner we headed to Publix to get a few cold items and drinks for our trip. We put the girls in this fancy cart to help keep them calm, ha!
Once we got back to the room, the girls went wild! We unloaded our few groceries, and we relaxed.
Melody got up around 7:30 the next morning. I was able to hold her off from breakfast until 8. We didn't bring highchairs due to space and really the lack of needing them these days. We rarely get them nowadays when we go out to eat because she hates them!
We all got ready and headed down to the beach around 9:15. Our room was a short distance from the beach access. It was probably best for the girls to have some room to walk. Lately we are having trouble getting Melody to hold our hand when crossing a street or sidewalk. Well she has no problems with people other than her parents!
The girls were kind of skeptical at first about the beach. Lydia ran away, ha! And Melody acted like sand was the worst thing ever.
I was able to get Melody to at least touch the water with her feet. She loved the beach and water back in September, but this time was not the same at all. She cried and wanted no part. I will give her a bit of slack since the water was super cold.
I tried to get her to just play in the sand or on the beach blanket, but she wanted no part of that either. She wanted to go back to the room!
The beach was still beautiful though!
Melody was so upset, she did eat a few snacks, but she truly wanted no part of the beach. So I held her for a bit because I was determined to spend some time at the beach. Well while holding her, she passed out!
While Melody slept, Lydia played!
Emily and Lydia headed back to the room around 11:45-12 to go ahead and get showered and eat lunch. Since Melody was still asleep, we stayed down at the beach. Melody finally woke up around 12:30, and we took a few pictures then gathered everything and headed back to the room too.
We got back and ate some lunch...
While Emily attempted to get Lydia down for a nap, Melody watched Mickey on my iPad while I took a shower.
After my shower, I gave Melody a quick bath and went ahead and changed her into her night clothes. She wasn't acting very sleepy, but I didn't want to risk waking Lydia. So I put Mickey on the iPad, and we laid in the bed. Next thing I know she is asleep!
Surf Hut and Stinky's were the only two "must do" restaurants for us. Stinky's is one of those places you want to get to early. Well the girls slept kind of late during their nap. By the time we were all ready to go it was after 5. So we decide to go to Pompano Joe's. We wanted a shrimp basket type place, and this was ideal for us.
We ordered the tuna dip for an appetizer. Then I ordered the crab cakes for dinner. All the food here was great. It has been quite a while since we have eaten here, so it was really nice to return.
After dinner, we decided to go spend some time at the outlets. We knew the girls wouldn't be up for an entire day there, so we decided to split it up and squeeze in time when we good. We first went to the Disney Outlet. I love going to the Disney Store. However, you have to be careful what you buy at the Disney Outlets though. I have found that some things are also sold at stores such as Walmart and Target and are cheaper there. But I always buy things on clearance it seems like. Melody was over shopping not long after we arrived though. She hates the stroller, but then she wants to walk only where she wants to walk. Hence the meltdown below.
We decided to end the shopping there. One store. We did run and grab a gourmet apple from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. We went back to the condo and let the girls play some before bed. Oh, and the apple was delicious!
Melody was up and eating breakfast by 8:30 the next morning.
This was our last day, but it was REALLY cold out. So cold that the beach really wasn't an option. So we laid around the condo some and eventually got ready to head to the outlets. They didn't open until 10, so there wasn't a huge amount of rushing that we needed to do. So we let the girls play some before leaving.
Because the strollers went awful the night before, we opted for the leashes. I use a leash I got from Amazon that is a wrist-to-wrist leash. Of course my kid found a way out of it within the first store we went to. So I gave up and let her walk. Of course that proved to be an issue when we crossed the street, but she did hold Emily's hand, so there's that. [Emily also bought Lydia's leash from Amazon. It is a backpack one.]
We went back to the Disney store to buy a few things. And Melody didn't do any better. Instead she wanted to take everything home!
Our last stop before heading home was the playground. Silver Sands Outlets has an amazing playground setup. They have one side for younger kids and one side for older ones. This was perfect for the girls to be able to burn some energy and play before heading back to the room and napping.
After we got back to the room, we ate lunch and let the girls play a bit before we put them down for naps.
After naps, we got situated and headed to one of my favorite restaurants, Stinky's. Surprisingly, they were not doing valet this evening. It wasn't busy, but we have been there during less busy times and still had to valet. Oh well! The girls were able to color some while we ordered and waited on our food. I had the blackened grouper to change things up and added a house salad to it. The fish was delicious! The salad was also really good. They have amazing ranch dressing. If you are ever anywhere near Stinky's, go! You will NOT be disappointed!
After dinner, we came back to the condo and let the girls play outside. Since we were on the first floor, our condo had a patio that overlooked the pool and a grassy area. I brought bubbles, so we played with those for a while.
We finally convinced the girls to come back in. They enjoyed some time playing in the kitchen floor while we packed.
Then we got them ready for bed and let them watch some Mickey while we finished packing up what we could.
We got up around 6:30 am or so, and we started to get ready and load the car.
The girls ran around the condo for the last time while I loaded the car.
And then it was goodbye to Tops'l for now!
We stopped at McDonald's on our way out of town for breakfast around 8:30 am.
We were back on the road by 9 am. The ride was really pleasant and the girls did really good between napping and watching Mickey Mouse.
We stopped outside of Birmingham and had lunch at Arby's. We loaded them up with sugar too, and they ran around a bit before getting back in the car.
Overall the trip was a lot of fun and huge success for us, ha! I can't wait for us to all get to go again. Tops'l ended up being the perfect condo for us, and Destin is also a favorite location. The girls also did exceptionally well on the drive down and back. I think it truly helped to have one another in the car because they knew they were in this together, haha!
