Show us your ideal vacation spot. Why is this your ideal vacation spot?
Venice, Italy is one of my favorite places in the world. It’s so peaceful and romantic. When I visited in 2003, I loved taking the gondola rides, and venturing through all of the small alleyways throughout the city.
I cannot wait to visit there again with James.
Even though we enjoyed the beach and didn’t want to sit in the car for almost 8 hours…we are happy that we are back home from vacation. It is nice to be just the 3 of us again, and to be able to sleep in our own bed with just the two of us in the room tonight. I am sure Sawyer is ready to get back to his crib and his normal schedule. He was incredibly ill on the way home today and cried about half the way. He was really good on the way down so we were hoping it would be easy on him again. I think the week of random naps and getting up earlier than usual (his own doing, not ours) is starting to take a toll on him.
We thoroughly enjoyed our last day of vacation, leaving the room around 11am and not returning until almost 8pm. We drove down to Destin to do some shopping. I got some great deals on fall and winter clothes for Sawyer. I picked up a brown zippered hoodie from Old Navy for $1.47 and navy pants from there for $3. The Children’s Place had long sleeved t-shirts for $2.99 so I got a couple of those. He also got a polo from The Children’s Place for $3.99. We also went the Old Navy (not an outlet) and got him a pair of jeans for $8 and a polo for $5. Overall, we spent a little over $30 on clothing for him…which wasn’t a bad deal for what we got.
After shopping we went to an early dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. It was just me and James, as mom wanted to give us an afternoon and evening to ourselves. I had the “I’m Stuffed!” Shrimp, and it was SO good!! After eating we headed back to Panama City Beach. We had to return James’ swim trunks that I had bought him from a souvenir shop earlier in the week. He wears a Large in trunks, but these were really big still, so he was able to get a Medium. We also stopped at Alvin’s Island to check out the funny tee shirts and to grab some ice cream, and back by Pier Park to get him a new hat from Aeropostale. His current one is almost 2 years old, so it was time for a replacement!
We got back to the condo and started to pack up our things. I decided to go ahead and do laundry last night so we wouldn’t have as much to do when we got home. After the one load was done, we packed up the suitcase. James decided to load the car with everything he could so it would be less work to get out the door this morning. We left this morning around 8:40am Central time. Three stops later (one for gas and a diaper change, one for lunch, and a final one for a snack and diaper change) we are back to our lovely abode!
James had to run get Charmin from the kennel so we wouldn’t be charged for an extra night. He had about 45 minutes to get there by the time we got home, but luckily the kennel is only about 20 minutes from here. I’ve already gotten 90% of the things unpacked and the remainder of our dirty clothes combined with the clothes that were in the hamper already are in the washer. I plan to get them dried and folded tonight so that tomorrow can be day of the lazies!!
So we got here to Panama City Beach yesterday around 4pm central time. Sawyer was so good on the almost 8 1/2 hour drive. He slept for a couple hours and occupied himself the rest of the time with toys. We left at 9am eastern, stopped for lunch, stopped twice for gas – only because the first gas station we stopped at had just run out of gas, and made one stop because of what we thought was a dirty diaper. Turned out to be a false alarm though! 
My mom and sister were ready for dinner when we got here so we quickly unpacked the car and then left again. We picked up my brother from Walmart – he was there with my uncle and cousin (their family came down this week too and are staying in the condo beside us). We then went to Deadeye Dick’s Steakhouse, a new restaurant here. It was so not worth the money. Everything was priced a little higher than traditional steakhouses, and the food was mediocre. Plus, only one basket of bread is complimentary and then you have to pay for the rest. Not cool.
After dinner, we made a quick grocery store run for breakfast food, sandwich stuff, and a few snacks. When we got back to the condo, Mom put Sawyer to bed while the rest of us too a walk on the beach. This morning, we are about to head out to grab Sawyer a bucket and shovel so he can enjoy his first trip down to the beach!