On Saturday, we took a trip to Seaside and Destin, Florida to visit a friend who lives in Texas and was visiting his family there. You definitely don’t need to twist our arms for us to get in the car and take a day trip!
After Brett’s morning photoshoot, we hopped in the car and headed out. We had another friend along with us who sat in the front seat while I sat in the back with Trent. We watched Mickey Mouse and Jake, ate some snacks and played games. He did really well.
Our first stop was Seaside - you may know this little town as the place where The Truman Show with Jim Carey was filmed. I actually didn’t know that until yesterday, but I just knew it as a nice little town that looks like a nice relaxing place to vacation. There’s lots of little shops and places to eat just a hop away from the beautiful beach. I mentioned our last visit to Seaside last summer and we were glad to spend a little more time here this time around.
The first thing we did was take a stroll around some of the shops and the park area where we came across some unique and interesting treasures along the sidewalk…
How cool is this firepit? Would love to have this in our backyard.
While the constant sound of wind chimes would drive me crazy, these were very interesting.
Neat trees.
We didn’t even bother taking the stroller out of the car…Trent just wants to walk on his own everywhere…with his sheep.
Trent found his favorite place of the entire day…a toy shop with a big duck out front!
This same duck was outside when we were here last year…so please excuse me while I tear up at how little Trent was…
And now…well past his limit on being forced to smile for photos. Now we just get the blank model stare.
There were other toys to play with too.
And because I can’t help it…here’s Trent on the same toy last year.
But our little Goldilocks had to try out all the sizes before deciding this blue one was just right…and then he proceeded to carry it around the store.
I didn’t want to spend $50 on a toy that day, so when he wasn’t looking, we hid it. He started looking for it and I felt so bad…Mother of the Year over here. So we found something that looked almost the same, but on a much smaller scale.
And he absolutely loves it.
Next, we took a quick walk on the beach…shoes and all. We are so glad Trent seems to be fine with the sand now. Last year, he did not want to touch it one bit and now he started walking on it towards the water all on his own. He didn’t even want us to hold his hand. I see plenty of beach trips for us this year.
He had to include Sheepy in his adventures.
Next up…lunch. After much indecisiveness from the group, we decided to eat at Bud & Alley’s Pizza Bar.
Bud & Alley’s has several restaurants in the area, including the Taco Bar and their main location, the Waterfront Restaurant and Rooftop Bar. I’m glad we picked the Pizza Bar, we had a nice table out on the deck where they have nice cushioned benches that Trent could move around on…because it has been impossible to get him to sit in a highchair at restaurants lately. I wish we would have take a photo of the patio area…it was really nice sitting out there.
Brett and I split an appetizer and a pizza. Our appetizer was the Frito Misto, which was fried Grouper, Gulf Shrimp and calamari. It was served with pizza sauce and a mayo-lemon dip and was delicious.
We had the Bianca pizza with Ricotta, Fresh Mozzarella, Cream, Basil & Oregano. Every last bit of this pizza was consumed…I think the addition of the cream made it much better than other “white” pizzas we’ve had lately.
Our tablemates also split an appetizer and a pizza. Their appetizer was the calamari, which was like our appetizer without the grouper and shrimp.
They had the prosciutto and arugula pizza. They didn’t eat most of the arugula, but enjoyed the rest.
With our tummies full, we headed back towards the car to make our way to Destin and took some more photos along the way.
The only pink construction vehicle I’ve ever seen. The back said “Digging for a Cure.”
They are improving the central square area that was a large grassy area with a stage.
I would also love to hit up these food trucks one time…they have a grilled cheese truck, a BBQ truck and a flavored ice truck…among others.
After a short drive to Destin, we went to the Silver Sands Outlets. I love the idea of outlet malls, but many of the stores here don’t seem to be true outlet stores. I go in expecting deep discounts on stuff they don’t/couldn’t sell in the main stores, but was met with a mere 25% off discount on the only thing I bought…a pair of shoes for Trent at Osh Kosh B’Gosh. I can get more of a discount with a coupon. But he needed shoes and that’s why we went there. I went into Motherhood Maternity hoping to get a few much needed maternity items, but they had the same “deals” as their main stores, so I couldn’t justify getting anything just because I was at an outlet store. Nothing really screamed my name, so I left empty handed. Oh well, at least I looked and maybe I can find some good stuff online.
The sun was starting to set, so we made our way to the Emerald Grande. Our friend highly recommended going here for some gorgeous views and he was right. Just take a look at some of these photos Brett took with just the short amount of time we had before it got dark.
The Emerald Grande is this huge, absolutely beautiful hotel right on the water in Destin. The viewing deck had glass all around it, so Trent could enjoy the view as well…although it made my heart race a little. I get nervous and I can’t help it…I’m a mom!
We didn’t get any photos of them, but there were several dolphins swimming around right in front of us.
Anyone can visit and walk around the area, especially because they have the HarborWalk Village…a walkway with stores, restaurants and fun activities for kids. Being it was February and we got there late in the day, most of the activities were closed, but all of the shops and restaurants were open, so we just strolled the area and let Trent walk around. We didn’t even know this place existed and now it’s on our list of places we’d like to stay at.
We weren’t quite ready to eat dinner and we still had one more stop on our trip, The Village at Baytowne Wharf. This was another place we had never heard of…a bunch of shops, activities and restaurants on the bay side of Destin. It was dark by this point and Brett probably didn’t feel like carrying his camera AND tripod, so we don’t have any more photos…but we took a walk out on the pier and looked at grossly expensive yachts. Then we ate at Hammerhead’s Bar & Grille…because I wanted snow crab legs 
{Photo from the Hammerhead’s website}
The snow crab legs were good, but disturbing to have paid $28 for them lol. I also ate 90% of an entire large platter of chips and salsa. Ummm, I’m pregnant, so I’m allowed to! Trent’s grilled cheese came out in a fun little boat with fries and cookies…too bad he didn’t touch the grilled cheese and Brett “had” to eat it. Everyone said the food was decent, but with the amount of seating available, you could tell it was just a touristy-seafood party place during the summer.
After dinner, we said our goodbyes and headed home. It was a fun-filled day and Trent only had a few outbursts when I tried to pick him up when he wanted to walk. A toddler wants to do what he wants to do!
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