Destin Vacation - continued...

For Monday and Tuesday's excursions, see previous post. :)

Wednesday: Went to the beach in the AM for our family beach photo shoot. Such high hopes I had. Fail. SO WINDY. The wind had our hair whipping us in the face.

Larry went to go change into his swimsuit and I changed AC into hers so she could just play.

That night was definitely a highlight. We went to Old Bay Steamer. Best meal we had the whole time, with the exception of the meal Larry made Tuesday. It was also the most enjoyable experience I've had dining out with Larry and Anna Claire since she was born. Everything was so thoughtful. They gave her crayons, there were crackers, little plates for her to try our food, and her meal even included fun kid food like string cheese, oreos, and berry apple sauce. Larry and I devoured lobster, crab, beer, and more Royal Red shrimp. Can't get enough of those!

Thursday: Spent the morning at the beach. Windy, but not as bad as yesterday. Anna Claire is so much more comfortable getting in the water and playing in the sand. We did not stay out long, as she seemed somewhat fussy, and we had many things on our agenda for today and didn't want her to be too tuckered out.

We thankfully decided to go to Destin Harborwalk. It is wonderful. It reminded me of being back in San Francisco near the Fisherman's wharf and Aquatic Park area. I loved to share that type of atmosphere with Anna Claire. She was able to see the boats docked at the harbor, and there were ramps everywhere so we could just relax and push her in the stroller. We stopped at a little cafe there and had a picnic lunch outside. Anna Claire loved eating outdoors and enjoyed her first ever smoothie. She had a children's pizza and we had sandwiches and chips, but of course everyone shared one another's food.

Back to the condo, then dinner. We went to AJs, hopeful that it would be a good dinner spot. It was outdoors, at Destin Harbor. The view was spectacular, but the wind was rough and they had no high chair. Anna Claire wallowed all over Larry. We did get to split 2 dozen oysters and down a beer. Despite our best efforts to occupy her, (taking her for walks and even buying her a stuffed monkey at their gift shop) she really worked us over. She was pretty good though considering we waited for an hour 20 minutes for food. We finally left, as it was getting close to her bedtime, settling for McD's. McD's is never "settling" in AC's mind though. I'm pretty sure if you asked her what her favorite restaurant is, that would be the answer.

Friday: My goal for the day was to somehow figure out a way for Anna Claire and her best friend Abby to somehow meet up before leaving Destin. We knew they were staying within 10 minutes of our condo. However, when I texted Abby's mom, she said they were already headed home. So disappointed.

We decided to venture out to Destin Commons, an outdoor mall with a fabulous play area for toddlers. We had just placed our lunch order at Johnny Rockets, and I was walking AC around the grounds to occupy her while we waited for our food. She saw the choo-choo train that tots can actually ride, ran over to it, and we saw a little girl there with her grandpa. I looked up at the little girl and said, "Abby?" It was Abby! The grandpa looked up at AC and said, "Anna Claire?" He remembered her from Abby's birthday party last month. :)

The girls had a ball riding the train, picking flowers, playing in the fountain, and climbing in the play area.

Then it was time for Abby to eat lunch and go home. We knew there were sprinklers built in the ground there, so we planned ahead and had packed a swimsuit. We changed AC and let her play in the water. Once we changed her back, we did some shopping. We got her new Crocs for winter, Coldstone Creamery ice cream, Starbucks, an Icee, and other things to spoil her I'm sure, that I'm just not remembering right now. Other people spoiled her as well. The Sephora lady gave her free samples, and the concessions lady saw how pitiful she was when I stopped her from eating a gummy bear she found on the ground. The lady gave her an entire cup of gummies!

We went back home for a bit, then went home and did some laundry and packing before hitting the sushi buffet. AC did try sushi. She will try anything which is fabulous.

Saturday: Headed home. Had to load up car and check out by 10am. We stopped off at Walmart to buy AC her first laptop (My Own Leaptop). She is liking it! It says and spells her name and we can even email her, and choose the music it plays.

We stopped at Sonic for lunch before heading out. Made stops at Peach Park (loved it - I could write an entirely separate blog just for it), and a nostalgic dinner stop at the O'Charley's at Fultondale exit, where we always ate with my dad.

At O'Charley's we tried having her sit in a booster seat. This lasted about 10 minutes. By that time we were begging the waiter to move us to a table where we could have a high chair.

Our big girl kept the same pull-up the entire 10 hour car ride home. She went potty in every public restroom we stopped at.