Panama City Beach
I have always had very fond memories visiting Florida as a child and teen. My in-laws recently moved to Panama City Beach, FL and we just had to visit!!
We landed and headed over to Bubba’s Pizza! It was this little hole in the wall pizza shop and as soon as we walked in the owner was super nice and welcoming! We ordered crab and margarita pizzas to go. I was watching the guy make our pizzas and wow is he talented! Both pizzas were delicious with so much flavor!
spencer was having lots of fun trying out his dads cameras! these pics turned out great!
My in- laws live in such a gorgeous and peaceful spot! The next day we spent most of the morning biking around their neighborhood. We were trying to get to the boat house and got lost a few times but we truly didn’t mind because we were in heaven! The weather was amazing, the whole community is surrounded by lots of nature and its truly so peaceful and quiet.
Later that day we all headed over to the beach. It wasn’t crowded which is always nice hehe. The weather was absolutely perfect! If you’re new to following me I live for the beach and nature. Ever since I was little I always felt a strong connection to it and while living in the city can have its fun, I truly miss living by nature every day. The beach felt like home to me and I was just taking in every single second of it! Spence had a lot of fun boogie boarding the waves and eventually I gave it a try as well. I was a little hesitant in case the water was freezing cold but I’m so glad I did it! It was a blast! After a few hours at the beach we headed over to Pier Park. It was such a fun area! I definitely felt all the beach vibes haha. From little shops, to restaurants and dessert shops. It had it all. We went to the Margaritaville Restaurant for some food. We all got some Fajitas and shared. I got myself a pina colada! For some reason I had been craving one for like literally every day for a month and It seemed fitting to have one while on the beach! It was delish!!! My mother in- law is a huge dessert person. Since meeting her I now LOVE eating desserts haha. For dessert she was so excited to take us to Buttermilk Sky Pie Shop on the Pier and I’m so glad she took us! I got myself a big chocolate chip cookie. It was yum! We walked over to the beach again and ate our dessert while watching the sunset. Florida sunsets are actually some of my favorite… if not my favorite. I love the bright pastel colors!
The next day was the most adventurous one of them all and my favorite. But first… we stopped by a coffee shop called Lucky Goat Coffee and I got an iced coffee obvi and a cinnamon stick. Since my in-laws live right on the lake, their community has access to some kayaks to kayak over to the beach. It took us about 30 mins to kayak there and my arms are still feeling the heat of it hahah. We stationed our kayak over on the side once we got to the beach. The beach was pretty empty and I loved it! We chatted and tanned for a few hours. We then were ready to kayak over to Camp Helen State Park that was on the lake and really close by. It took us about 15 mins to get there. (Side note: if you’re wanting to kayak to the beach we went to, you can actually drive over to Camp Helen and they have some kayak and paddle boarding rentals available.) Camp Helen was yet another beautiful and peaceful destination. They had a lot of cute bungalows where people can just chill, watch over the lake and have picnics. They also have some trails to walk and we took a short one over to where we were before (close to the beach). It was just so so beautiful! They do have some alligator signs but we didn’t see one (thank God!) I was literally getting ready to fight one off hahaha.
Our last day- Spencer has had this dream for the past few months of going fishing and then cooking up the fresh fish he catches. He mentioned this to his dad in conversation and his dad was so sweet to book a deep sea fishing tour with Southern Dawn Charters. This made me so so happy because I know how badly Spencer has wanted to do this and I’m really glad he got to experience this with his dad (and me hehe). This was a first for all of us. I don’t think I’ve ever gone fishing so I honestly had expectations that I was going to be no good. To my surprise I caught like 4-5 fish the first 20 mins! DANG. Who would’ve thought! haha. Also who would’ve thought fishing could be hard!!! We were all expecting it to take a while before catching any fish but it was all so fast and you really had to use those muscles. As time went by I started getting a little motion sickness so I had to take a little break. We headed back to the bay and as we headed back the guys on the boat were so nice to cook us some sashimi! It was delish! Once at bay we caught some more fish there. I caught the first blue fish of the season apparently. Go me! This was probably my favorite part because the dolphins were chasing the fish we were catching, therefore, we got to see some up close and it was just a little fun competition game between us and the dolphins lol. We caught about 40 fish and we took them all home and cooked some of them for dinner. Yay! Spencer got to live his dream! 🤍
After a long day out fishing we got home to cook some yummy fish for din! While we waited for the food to cook- spence wanted to do a little sunset photo shoot at the lake. I love the way the pics turned out. Also really loved this pic of my mother in law and I.
The following day was time to head home. We felt super grateful to be able to spend time with my in-laws. They are such beautiful and fun people! 🤍 We also feel so so grateful to experience the beauty that is Panama City Beach. If you are ever in the area get ready for a fun time and definitely check out these places!
