This year for Fall Break in October we went to Port St. Joe, Florida for our family vacation. We had never been to this area before, but chose it based upon doing a lot of research and reading online. We were hoping it would be great-it's hard to know when you're going to a new beach-and this by far exceeded expectations!! We were interested in vacationing in this area because it was not too long of a drive for us (with no stops it would have been about eight and a half hours). We were also attracted to this area because it claimed to be a great family spot with not a lot to do other than play on the beach! We wanted somewhere that wasn't really touristy where we could go play on the beach all day since that's really what the kids (and John and I) enjoy the most anyway! Everywhere we read about this beach described it as very, very uncrowded.
Port St. Joe lived up to all of these descriptions, and the kids constantly ask when we can go back. We left early Saturday morning and took our first long trip with Clayton. He did awesome-as did everyone else! Other than our June trip to Atlanta, this was our first family trip just the 6 of us! Really everything about the trip ended up being just perfect-we could not have asked for better weather-sunny all week. We had the beach practically to ourselves every day. Our condo unit was on the first floor (which was actually the second floor) and we had our own set of steps off of our oversized porch/balcony which went right down to the pool. So many afternoons when some kids were napping either me or John would stay up with the nappers while the other adult took the awake kids to the pool and it wasn't a big deal to be back and forth to the room for snacks, water breaks, or short rests. The balcony was also close enough that the person listening to the nappers could also talk and watch the swimmers so we didn't feel totally separated during afternoon naps. The huge balcony had two ceiling fans and got a good amount of sun in the afternoons so the person listening for the nappers could sit in the sunshine too. The big porch had a table big enough for all of us to eat at--and I think we ate every meal there except for 2 the entire week. Our favorites were eating breakfast out there. The porch also had a grill and enough room for the kids to play out there, so we spent a lot of our time not at the beach, still outside just on the porch. The condo had three bedrooms and the boys were thrilled that their room had bunkbeds like their room at home. Nora Kate was excited that she had a big bed (a queen) and then Clayton slept in his pack and play in our room.
The pictures are a little out of orden...
This is the view of the pool from our balcony. Then the beach is right down the wooden boardwalk on the left. This area was very natural and walking to the beach on that boardwalk was like walking through a butterfly garden! There were all kinds of fragrant plants and butterflies flying around.
Breakfast and Coffee on the porch one morning.
One morning we got up and drove about 8 minutes down the Cape to the St. Joseph Peninsula State Park. It was absolutely beautiful!
Here are the pictures...
We decided to take a little walk on a nature trail at the state park, but it was VERY natural. After seeing lots of these signs AND seeing tons of hiding areas for alligators-we decided to turn back! Haha!
One evening we all went on a sunset cruise. This was Clayton and Nora Kate's first boat ride. They all did great and LOVED our sunset cruise. We saw dolphins, a huge shrimping boat leaving the port, and more. Here are a few pictures from the cruise.
The beach in front of our condo is where we spent almost every waking hour. We basically had it to ourselves all day every day. We set up our sun shade tent, chairs, toys, etc. next to this big piece of driftwood and the kids had fun playing on it too. It was so beautiful!
We took Clayton's little swing and he enjoyed swinging on the beach (usually in the shade) every day.
AH, that blue sky! Our first beach trip as a family of 6!
The kids got this huge float/boat at the Cape Store the first day and had SO much fun in it!
There were crabs everywhere! The kids were determined to catch them all!
We built sandcastles...
Played ball
Got tired and rested on the beach...
Went on walks...
Got cleaned up a couple of times and went out to dinner. Although we mostly stayed in to eat most nights because it was easier and it gave us LOTS more beach play time!
The path from the beach to our condo.
Walking from the condo to the beach.
Like I said, these are out of order. On the way to Port St. Joe, we stopped at Waffle House for breakfast...the kids love Waffle House and were super excited.
Mr. Baby was such a happy traveler!
This was the day we got to the beach. As soon as we got in the parking lot, we hopped out of the van and ran to the beach before evening checking out the condo! The kids were SO excited!
Nora Kate wanted us to turn her into a mermaid on a daily basis!
Off on another crab catching adventure!
Beach naps are the best naps.
The boys decided to fly a kite.
Best beach hair award definitely went to Nora Kate
We fed the birds
Rested some more
and found the biggest shells I've ever found on a beach before! Sorry for a picture of my worn out flip flop, but I had taken this to show how GIANT these shells were. We found TONS of this size and bigger shells!
Oh, and we saw horses on the beach a couple of times a day! The kids thought it was so neat!
There were not a lot of stores, shops, or even restaurants-just beach-but there was a tiny little donut shop on the Cape where we stayed. We went to Weber's Tiny Donut Shop twice. The first time as we were waiting on our donuts to be made, one of our friends and person who takes ALL of our family photos pulled into the parking lot! How crazy that we live a couple miles away from each other, traveled to the same beach, at the same time, and went to the same donut shop at the same time! She was so nice to take our picture in the giant Adirondack chair by the donut shop!
This was at the state park. The kids used little nets to catch fish and crabs. Look at Nora Kate's sweet hands holding this tiny fish!
More pictures from the state park...
they caught these tiny crabs at the state park...and then released them!
Clayton snoozed in the ergo carrier while the kids caught fish at the park.
We had one morning it was slightly overcast so we drove to the lighthouse.
And the port
John found this hilarious mask and we decided this was the face we were all going to make when we had to go back to reality after this best vacation ever!
My day to stay on the balcony and listen for Mr. Baby napping, and I was watching John play in the pool with the kids! They played so hard every day and slept great every night!
The kids took about a million pictures of crabs that they caught while we were there. They liked this one in particular because the said he was the happy crab because he was smiling haha!!
My brown eyed boys snuggling after a long day on the beach!
At the marina waiting on the sunset cruise.
Someone snoozed part of the sunset cruise in his carrier like this.
We got to see this huge shrimping boat leaving the marina. The kids still talk about this too! He was leaving for a trip that could last as long as 15 weeks, so it was neat that we got to see the boat.
more sandcastles...
One night we had dinner on the beach
AND A FIRE!
We had never done a fire on the beach, so this was new and fun for everyone!
The second time we went to Weber's Donuts! YUM!
Clayton's first time in the float. He loves the water!!!
Life had been way too busy for everyone in our home for a couple of months leading up to Fall Break, and it made our trip even more awesome! We really all got to relax, rest, play, laugh, and spend LOTS of time together! John, the kids, and I all agreed this was our favorite vacation! SO fun! Sad it's over, but so glad we got to take this trip! We will definitely be going back to this area!
No comments:
Post a Comment