Day on the Gulf

We've been meaning to drive west on the gulf to explore for awhile and haven't, due to weather or weekend plans, so we finally made that happen recently. We've had no beach weekends at all since summer officially began, just a couple in the spring, so it was time that we saw some sand and water, even if it was just to explore in real clothes.

We first went to Panama City. I expected dirty beach town, but it was cute. There were tacky tourist things, but it wasn't junky and gross like I expected it to be. I don't think that means we'll be back when spring breakers are out en force, but it was pleasant. 

And not too shabby.

Carson had a moment of "This is hot. Why didn't we bring swimsuits? (we'd just planned to explore) I don't want to carry our lunch. I need sunglasses." 

So he wouldn't cooperate. He laughed at this later and gave the okay to post though.

We sat on a little spot on the boardwalk and ate, watching people on the beach. He's giving a thumbs up, but the sun in his eyes makes him look grouchy (he wasn't at this point).

Not so bad, Panama City. Not remotely what I'd pictured.

We walked along the ocean down the beach with our feet in the water. It feels funny to wear clothes that aren't lycra (or whatever swimsuits are) at the beach.

We drove to Rosemary Beach next. A fellow bridesmaid at a wedding I was in last year told us about this place and since it was so close... why not? We got water and coffee inside a little shop in their downtown area.

It was so cute. And so something we can't afford. I think walking around places you know you can't afford give a little freedom though... we're not going to say "Oh you know what? I'm tired, let's just spend $375 on a room for the night!" when you know that there's probably a less-nice but still not bad place down the street in Panama City that's a quarter of the price (or less, probably). 

We wandered in little stores

And since we were so close, we drove down to Seaside, which has a similar feel, but is maybe more casual and is older. There were more people walking around here and you didn't need a code to get onto the beach (which we thought made sense but didn't like at Rosemary Beach).

A lady who was videotaping the beach asked if we wanted a picture of the two of us. We said yes and then she took lots of pictures and posed us. My smile looks a little fake because it's sort of weird posing forever for a stranger, and Carson was squeezing me like "Umm... can we just go?" but hey, pictures of us that aren't at arm's length!

There are a bunch of food trucks there and we contemplated getting dinner from one and then decided that a sno-cone was a much better decision. And it was. 

We got a sunset flavored snocone, which was strawberry and orange - I could eat one everyday, and I don't really like orange.

A successful weekend trip... and we quickly made plans to camp here, so you'll  be seeing that just as soon as we actually go camping and post the pictures :)