Familymoon (First Family Vacation and Honeymoon)
I am so late doing this post, but better late than never. In my last blog post I told you all the details about our wedding, so now it’s time to talk about our Familymoon. We had our First Family Vacation planned for a while, so when we set a date for our wedding it just made sense to make our first family vacation our honeymoon, well familymoon. We had the absolute best time and it wouldn’t have been the same without our sweet B.
Ready, Set, Familymoon
We didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for our familymoon, after the wedding my in-laws flight back home was on Monday. Blake worked all day on Monday, I dropped my in-laws off at the airport, and we had football practice, then we finally got everything packed up late Monday night. We hit the road bright and early Tuesday morning and of course our first stop was at Buc-ee’s, I think it’s a law in Texas when you see a sign for Buc-ee’s you have to stop! 🤣 We grabbed breakfast and headed towards our first destination Louisiana.
First Stop New Orleans
Once we made the 8 hour trip to Slidell, we got ready and drove into New Orleans to explore and get dinner. We took Brody by the Superdome, Blake is a die-hard Saints fan, so naturally B thought this was super cool! We parked on Saint Peter St. near Canal Place and took off on foot towards Bourbon St. Brody was intrigued by all the action in the French Quarter! Last time Blake and I went to New Orleans I absolutely loved it, but my anxiety was in overdrive and this momma-bear was feeling overwhelmed because it’s such a dangerous area, needless to say we didn’t explore long. We decided to eat at the Oceana Grill and let me tell you we were wowed by this place, everything was delicious. We ordered gator tail and Oysters Rockefeller and Blake and I shared the special it was a blackened red fish on top of a crawfish jalapeño and cheese cornbread topped with grilled shrimp and a cajun cream sauce. The cornbread was out of this world, look for a post down the road I have already re-created it, because it was that dang good! We made it back to our room and everyone got in bed, about 30 minutes later the fire alarm went off, mind you we are on the fourth floor, I went into a panic trying to throw clothes on and B never even heard the alarm. 😳 Blake picked him up in his underwear and we all hit the stairs to get out. We got to the lobby and it turns out the guy in 312 burnt a bag of popcorn and set the alarm off. 🤣 So we got back up to our room and got some sleep, we had to be up early the next morning for our swamp tour. Before the tour we hit the Creole Bagelry known for their fresh never frozen bagels, the homemade blueberry cream cheese spread is so bomb. We booked our swamp tour at Honey Island Swamp Tours, this was really cool and we actually saw some gators!
On the Road Again
When our tour was over we started the final leg of our journey to Panama City Beach. We stopped in Mobile, AL at MeatBoss, it was recommended on Food and Wine’s website, and the barbecue didn’t disappoint! I was so hungry I ate my food before I took a picture of it. 😳 After lunch we were only a short distance from Panama City Beach we drove the scenic route down the famous 30a to take in the sights, the water was absolutely gorgeous!
Take me down to Panama City…
We finally made it to Panama City Beach, we stayed at the Long Beach Resort on the 9th floor, our condo had floor to ceiling windows with breathtaking views! We unpacked and hit the beach for a bit, when we got back we showered and ventured out for dinner. In the morning’s we enjoyed our coffee from our balcony overlooking the stunning emerald water that Panama City Beach is so famous for. We spent our days living like beach bums, hanging out in the water, boogie boarding, sipping frozen drinks, and lounging in beach chairs soaking up the sun and taking in the views. For dinner we took turns choosing and tried a different restaurant each night.
We tried the following places that Panama City Beach was famous for.
Hammerhead Fred’s – Try the seafood dip it was amazing. We didn’t care for the other food, if you like fried seafood this is the place for you. They had an amazing patio seating area with live music. I would go back because the atmosphere is awesome, but for apps and drinks not dinner.
Pineapple Willy’s – I love this place, the atmosphere is everything, they have live music and a deck to watch the sun set over the ocean. The drinks were on point, I got a Miami Vice (Pina Colada and Strawberry Daiquiri mixed), make sure you keep the souvenir cup, you can go back and get refills and enjoy your drink on the beach, our resort was in walking distance to Pineapple Willy’s. I would go back for the drinks and atmosphere, the food was good, but I did not like that they had pre-packaged cocktail and tartar sauces, it takes seconds to make homemade cocktail sauce, so it makes the quality of the food seem cheaper if that makes sense and there was nothing cheap about the prices. They also have a cute little gift shop attached, we all got shirts to take home as a reminder of our first family vacation/familymoon.
Runaway Island Beach Bar & Grill – This place was fantastic we loved everything about it and not to toot my own horn, but “toot toot”, this was my pick. The restaurant is situated right on the beach, the outdoor seating has spectacular views, there was even a wedding going on while we were there. Perfect private view of the sunset on the beach with access to walk the beach while you’re waiting. I got the runaway grouper and it was amazing the fish was fresh and the green beans were fantastic. Blake got the Creole Redfish it was yummy too! Funny thing, it started to storm on us right after we got our dinner so we ended up having to take it to go, but I would go back in a heartbeat, the drinks were great too!
Margaritaville – This was the worst place we went food wise everything felt like it was frozen and fried. Only prop I will give is my drink was absolutely amazing, I got the Havanas and Banana’s!
Sharky’s – The drinks at Sharky’s were stout they did not play around on the amount of alcohol they put in their drinks. I loved the band they had playing and the atmosphere. We ate family style we ordered a few things and shared, I would definitely go back.
Kilwin Chocolates – The boys got ice cream in homemade waffle bowls and they said it was great. I got a box of sea salt caramels and they were fantastic. I’m actually contemplating ordering some, but lord knows I do not need them! 🤣
Thomas Donuts – Everything I saw on Pinterest and websites when researching raved about these donuts, so of course we had to give them a try. They had a really big selection, they were good, but they definitely were not the best donut I’ve ever tasted. We got a selection so that we could try out a few different flavors.
We had the best time on our familymoon, I fell in love with Panama City Beach and I cannot wait to go back! We are trying to decide between Panama City Beach and Clearwater for our next summer vacation, when we figure it out I’ll keep you updated.
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until next time..
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