Blue Sky & Emerald Water

My alarm once again went off at the ass crack of dawn & we once again took our sweet time waking up & getting to the car.  After a breakfast of hotel waffles we were on our way.  Destination Anywhere.  Just kidding... that's Bon Jovi... our destination was Panama City, Florida.

Before I get into the recap though...I wish I had heard of Air BNB before we left for our trip.  Mr. Hipster told me about it a couple of days ago & apparently so did one of Kickass Cousin's friends.  If only they had told us sooner.  For those of you that haven't heard of it it's basically like couch surfing except people rent out rooms/whole houses to people.  So instead of staying in another sketchy hotel in Panama City for somewhere between $60-$80 we could've stayed in a beach front house in Panama City Beach for $85...  Although the sketchy hotel did lead to a good story...  Like my daddy always says "Memories...they aren't always good ones..."

(AirBNB didn't ask me to write anything about them...however if they wish to send me on a trip somewhere so that I can test out their services I'd be all for it!)

Anyway...

Before getting out of Louisiana we stopped at a road side stand where Kickass Cousin bought honey & a mixed berry jam called Traffic Jam.  I bought peach pecan jam & muscadine jelly.  They are both amazing!  I love road side stands.  On our first trip 3 years ago we had tried boiled peanuts from a gas station.  This man told us that gas station boiled peanuts were crap & we needed to try some fresh ones.  Despite Kickass Cousin's previous statements of hatred of them, this time around she said they weren't terrible.  He had us try regular & cajun...the cajun were definitely better.  This stop of course also led into jokes about man nuts because we're mature like that.

Eventually we made it into Mississippi where our first stop was Long Beach, MS Pass Christen, MS.  We turned at the wrong beach.  But as soon as we realized our mistake we traveled the 7 miles down the road to get to Long Beach.  Long Beach was another place we had stopped on our last trip.  Last time there were tons of dead jelly fish that we got to poke with a stick.  This time there were 0.  There was a dead sting ray though so I guess it evens out.  We of course had to have the peeing on each other discussion in the event that we should encounter a live sting ray...

(Luckily no one was actually stung)

Back to the beach!  It amazes me how different the sand & water are from beach to beach on the same body of water.  There is a definite difference in the Gulf from Galveston, TX to Holly Beach, LA, to Long Beach, MS, to PCB, FL.  Even from Pass Christen to Long Beach, which is only 7 miles, the sand is so different.  One had far more broken shells than the other.

Mississippi also saw stops at a Walmart for sandals as well as in Biloxi for postcards & a bathroom.

Next on the map was Alabama.  Alabama saw nothing more than a stop at a gas station.  The gas station was a failed attempt at finding post cards but a score in finding dirt for our bottles.  Someone apparently knew we were coming & on a mission for dirt because there was a nice big pile.  Oh!  I also finally got a birthday cake shake from Zaxby's.  It only took driving all the way to Alabama to get one despite living less than 4 miles from one for the entire year prior...

Finally we made it into Florida.

We decided to drive through the Gulf Islands National Seashore.  Y'all the water was so gorgeous.  We stopped along the way to play in the sand & the bright emerald green water.  Of course driving through a national seashore also slowed our time getting to Panama City because you can only drive so fast when there's flightless chicks, both of the human and baby bird variety, out & about.

By the time we got to Panama City Beach...and realized we were actually staying in Panama City...we decided that we should just stop & go hang out at the beach for awhile before actually heading to the hotel.  We spent a lot of time in the water & just laying out before heading out to get supper.  We ate at a place right on the water where we got amazing seafood tacos.  It was at sunset so the view was gorgeous.  Afterwards we headed to the hotel.  We had planned on going out again for a couple of drinks & some fresh oysters but because it was a weekday most places were closing within the next 30 minutes so instead we just drank wine & hung out at the hotel.

New Orleans to Panama City should've been another 5 hour drive.  However, due to stops along the way & traffic that made me stabby...we didn't get to Panama City Beach until around 4-4:30...nearly 8 hours after we had left.