we drove

ever since some random episode of Max and Ruby (blasted cartoons) the kids have wanted to go "TO THE BEACH". Sean had a 4 day conference in Chicago so I thought I would take the kids to the beach....I somehow conned my mom and my sister into going and we stretched the trip out so we could have more than ONE day on the beach. We left Monday and drove to the other side of Nashville, got up Tuesday and drove on to Destin....993 miles. We had W, Th, and F on the beach and then did the return trip Sat and Sunday. All in all it was a good trip. The hotel we stayed at (Holiday Inn Destin) was TOTALLY kid friendly...had the Buccaneers Club that had 2 planned activities daily. Think scavenger hunts, magic shows, movie night, family carnival, etc. And had Kid Suites which were 1 queen bed with a tv and a partitioned off area with a bunkbed/tv/dvd player/video game thing....
We did the typical touristy stuff....beach time, pool time, putt putt, arcade games, kiddy rides, local tourist restaurant (nasty food), shave ice, shopping.
Our last night there we went to an outdoor mall with a nice play area and water spouts. We took turns watching the kids while the others shopped.....perfect.

feeding the crocodiles at "FUDPUCKERS"....not the best meal in town, but kept the kids occupied while we waited 1 hr for our table. Fin had a melt down 45 minutes into it, but she was hot, tired and hungry. AND all she wanted to do was dance at the bar.....

Our best meal was Thursday night...we got sushi and thai food from some joint (80 dollars worth) and we ate it Thursday AND Friday night.....super good sushi and pad thai/pad se you (spelled phonetically) and worth the cash since we ate it twice.