Destination Vacation

I am posting today from Destin, Florida. The kids are on Fall break this week for so are taking a vacation at the beach. A much needed one too.


Yesterday we drove down. I used Mapopolis on my Axim X5 to provide on the fly directions during the trip. The PDA was attached to my handheld GPS. It is pretty cool. It talks and provides directions as you drive. It will even tell you when you leave the recommended path and calculate a new route as you go. This is pretty cool unless you have just turned off the beaten path to stop for lunch. Then it can be annoying, but fortunately, the PDA has a volume control. I setup one of the buttons to toggle the automatic routing on/off as well.

We left the house yesterday just after 8:00 AM. The drive is right at 6 hours but we made two stops: the first was for a snack and restroom break, and the second for lunch at Sonic.

The condo we are staying at is called Sun Destin. Jordan thinks it is cool because it has 18 floors according to the buttons on the elevator. He only counted 17 while standing outside.

The condo is on the beach. We are staying on the fourth floor overlooking the pool and beach. There are two pools here. One outside, and another one which is indoors and heated. This is what we call the contingency plan. There is also a hot tub around here somewhere.

And WiFi. The connectivity is not free but the rates are pretty reasonable. I think it was $16 for 3 days. At first that seemed pricey but then I considered the amount of entertainment it would provide me and how disconnected I would feel without it.

After arriving yesterday, we made a trip to Wal-Mart to pickup some supplies. Among those was Brianna's birthday cake. She was celebrating her 5th birthday.

Last night we had dinner at the Fishermans Wharf. Sounds like a good place to eat while at the beach. We had a nice table by a window overlooking the water. A nearby marina was visible so we got to watch some ships come in. Outside on the deck, some newly weds were apparently having their wedding reception. Nothing says classy like a tattoo on the brides back that says Heavy Metal Heartbreaker.

I would not recommend the Fishermans Wharf to a friend. The prices were as to be expected for a tourist area. Entrees around $15-$20. Kids menu was $4-$5. The food was reasonable, but the service was lacking. Save your money and head on over to Burger King.

[Update] Today for lunch I had some shrimp and fish leftover from last night. Believe it or not, this stuff was actually better nuked today in the microwave than it was fresh from the kitchen last night. This just shows environment is everything.