Summer Vacation recap – Destin, FL

Well, I am back!  Having a hard time returning to normal life (or maybe I just DON’T WANT to return to reality just yet! 🙂  And yes, the washing machine is still busy washing loads and loads of clothes upstairs.  Before I get back into the normal DIY and craft posts (have the final reveal of my guest bath coming up tomorrow!!), I thought I might share some fun pictures from our trip.

This was our first visit to the Florida panhandle area and the white sand and clear blue-green waters were beautiful.  We actually stayed in Sandestin, but spent most of our time at the beach and shopping/sightseeing in Destin.

We happened to go at a time when the June grass or seaweed was on the beach and in the water.  It was a little unpleasant, but we were able to find some areas of beaches that weren’t overrun with it.  Was sort of surprised that no one talks about it as occurs in between May-August during prime tourist season and in some areas it was almost knee deep on the beach?

We went to the marina at Harborwalk village one evening and even though it was overcast it was beautiful!

One of the fishing boats had caught this rather large shark that day and had it displayed!  Glad we didn’t see any of these in the water where we were!

And we happened to be there on Thursday night when they shot off fireworks!  All fireworks should be shot off and enjoyed over water – love the reflections in the water.

We ate at some great local seafood restaurants!  (I had saved up some money I have earned from my blog so we could enjoy some nice meals while on vacation – so thank you, my readers, for that!)

This was at The Crab Trap right on the ocean at a public beach – we lounged at the beach, walked up had a fried fish basket for lunch (which was delicious!), and walked back to the beach to enjoy it for a few more hours till it started raining.  We also ate at The Back Porch (an ocean-side restaurant) one night for dinner and it was really good too!

I had wanted to capture a sunset or sunrise over the water while we were there.  Almost every evening was cloudy, rainy, and overcast so not any great sunset opportunities.  But I did get up one morning and sat on our balcony overlooking the bay (Horseshoe Bayou) and watched and captured a gorgeous sunrise!  These first pictures start about 15 minutes before the official “sunrise time”.

Finally the sun is peeking over the horizon!

Loved the reflection in the water!  Wish I had done this every morning (I did get up on our last morning but it was too cloudy to be pretty that day.)

The sunrise was beautiful!  But the day turned out to be  cloudy and overcast with storms on the horizon (as many of our days were.)  But that is just Florida for you!

This was our last day at the beach.  And yes that is all the seaweed in the background.

Loved these red and white chairs in contrast to the blue/green water and sky and the white sand.

I played around trying to get some pictures of the ocean, sand, and shells.  (No, this shell was not actually on the beach.  I bought it in a basket of shells at a local store and thought it would be neat to capture on the beach.  We actually didn’t find many shells at all on the beach – just some tiny ones.)

We went down to a state park to take some pictures and the beach was gorgeous there!  We even walked up on a wedding in progress – they rented white chairs and had a small audience.  The bride wore a white sundress and the groom had on a teal shirt and khaki shorts – so pretty!

And we tried to take a picture.  But I discovered something I sort of already knew about my husband on this trip – he HATES taking pictures as much as I LOVE taking pictures – not a great match!   He was so NOT into taking pictures of us at the beach.  This was actually the second night we attempted to do it – the first night it rained and we had better coordinating clothes on that night too.  Then this night it was SOOOO windy, somehow the auto focus had gotten switched off on my lens, and he only wants me take ONE shot so this is the best we got and yes we are not in focus.   I did it with my tripod and self timer so was having to run to get into the shot.  Oh well, at least we have a story behind this picture and actually have a picture to remember the trip by.  I will try to work on his picture-hating and maybe we can get a better picture next time

It rained/was overcast most of the time we were there but we still had a great week swimming at the pool, lounging on the beach, doing some shopping and sightseeing, and just enjoyed having uninterrupted time together!  I even read a novel and quite a few magazines – miss having time to read!  But now we are back to real life and a busy week trying to enjoy the last few weeks of summer!

Thanks for  taking time to view all my vacation pictures and listen to me ramble.

I’ll be back tomorrow with the final reveal of my guest bathroom.  And I am busy adding some shells, sand, and beachy goodness to my house so will be sharing that soon too.

Have you taken a vacation this summer? Where did you go?  Or what was your favorite vacation destination?

{cj}