Panama City Beach 2012

Yes, we are insane. But we survived to tell our tale of a 2 day car trip to Panama City Beach one way (with a really fun stop in Biloxi!), and a straight shot home (11.5 hour drive) back. And we'd do it again.

Panama City Beach was great. We stayed at the Aqua Condominiums, on the 23rd floor (oh joy)- they were really nice condos with amazing views, great pools, right on the beach and this little bar that made delicious mango daiquiris. We could see dolphins and sting rays from our room, it was pretty awesome.

We went over to St. Andrew's State Park one day for some super calm water snorkeling and swimming- we saw colorful fish, crabs and even a lobster.

One morning we rented a pontoon boat to go fishing and snorkeling. It started of pretty rough, being that we were in the middle of a freaking thunderstorm, but my dad called it a great "life experience". We survived and it turned out to be a great trip, but the first part was pretty freaking scary. We did some snorkeling and saw a ton of sea urchins, Zack saw a "huge, long crab" which to most people is a lobster. And we docked at shell island, or more appropriately crab island, where we saw hundreds of hermit crabs and little one strong armed crabs on the beach. It was crazy! We even saw a horseshoe crab and puffer fish (which was really cool). On the way back we saw a dolphin jumping in the wake of a boat, a huge school of sting rays and a shark.

And otherwise we hung out in the condo and played games, sat on the beach with the kids and every so often snuck in a few chapters of a book, drank, cook, ate, and discovered some delicious restaurants. It was a great trip, and look forward to doing it again next year!

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Panama City Beach 2012