(Tuesday, April 11th – Friday, April 21, 2023) – We embarked on our adventure on a Tuesday morning with a sense of excitement and anticipation, heading to our 8th visit to Florida in the past 12 years! We enjoyed the two days of traveling across our beautiful country – taking in all the sights and finding green grass and flowers. We finally found Spring (it was in Missouri about 600 miles from home) with flowers blooming, leaves on trees, green grass & temperatures in the 80’s!
We arrived at Pensacola Beach on Thursday afternoon where our adventure began!
“Lord, you have made very many different things! You were very wise in the way that you have made them all. The earth is full of the living things that you have made. Look at the sea, which is deep and wide! It is full of living things, that are both large and small. They are more than anyone can count.” – Psalms 104:24-25
On Friday we went on the Jolly Sailing Dolphin cruise in Pensacola Bay. It was a lot of fun – we were able to see a pod of Dolphins up close!
Our next adventure was a Glow Paddle kayak outing in Little Sabine Bay. It was at dusk and with the see-through kayaks we could see small fish swimming directly below us. The lights glowing on the kayaks were a fun experience as the sun set and it got dark out.
Saturday was pool/beach day and later in the afternoon an adventure to tour Fort Pickens located in the Gulf Islands National Seashore.
On the way back from Fort Pickens we stopped at Langdon Beach where we enjoyed the powder like soft sand
Our Florida adventure came to an end on Sunday as we traveled to Alabama to visit Orange Beach. We discovered our favorite restaurant of the trip – Doc’s Seafood Shack, where the best fried shrimp in the civilized world is made!
Our trip home included a visit to Bellingrath Gardens located near Theodore, Alabama.
Trip Information:
Restaurants we ate at along the way:
Wild Carrot Cafe; Waverly Iowa (Yum! – Grilled Cheese & Soup)
Sadie’s Restaurant; Foristell, Missouri
Steak ‘N Shake; Cape Girardeau, Missouri (Yum! – Burgers, fries & milkshake)
Nick & Al’s Pizza; Meridian, Mississippi
Foosackly’s Chicken Fingers; Saraland, Alabama
Red Fish/Blue Fish; Pensacola Beach, Florida
Shaggy’s Seafood; Pensacola Beach, Florida (Yum! – Crab Cakes, Crab Stuffed Grilled Trigger Fish)
Hungry Howie’s Pizza, Gulf Breeze, Florida (Yum! – Stuffed crust pizza)
Doc’s Seafood Shack; Orange Beach, Alabama x 2 (Yum! – Fried Shrimp & Seafood Gumbo)
D’Michaels Sandwiches; Theodore, Alabama
Long John Silvers; Dyersburg, Tennessee (Yum! – love the fish with malt vinegar with hush puppies)
Fiddlestix; Hannibal, Missouri
Dave’s Restaurant; Charles City, Iowa (Yum! – All day breakfast menu)
Places we stayed:
Quality Inn; Forestell, Missouri (Don’t go here)
Sleep Inn; Meridian, Mississippi x 2 (both legs of the adventure)
Holiday Inn Express; Pensacola Beach, Florida
Perdido Beach Resort; Orange Beach, Alabama
Sleep Inn; Hannibal, Missouri
Miles Traveled: 2,831 miles
Some photos from our travels are below:
This was another great Florida adventure! We missed our puppy Daisy, and it was great to get home also (except for having to wear winter coats again – on April 21st, seriously!).