True to our 2011 resolution, which inspired us to sneak off to Maui last year, this year we’ve road tripped down to Destin, Florida so we can soak up some rays and recharge our drill DIY batteries.
Turns out even if you love painting and sanding and stripping wallpaper, it’s nice to step away from the primer and the sawdust to reboot for a week with your family. And since we had already driven down to Atlanta last week for the Haven Conference, we figured why stop there when the beautiful gulf coast was a half-day drive away…
Destin was our destination of choice because our good friends the Bowers have said such great things about it. Oh, and did I mention the Bowers came with us?
We do plan to drop in a few times throughout the next five days with some posts that we wrote up before we left (we have an awesome $1,000+ international giveaway that we’ll share tomorrow morning along with some other things, like a sweet Reader Redesign). But our main goal is to recharge, put the laptops down, and show Clara a good time.
So we’ll just be stopping by every once in a while until next Monday (please forgive us if we’re not actively answering comments until then). We can’t wait to come back refreshed, inspired, and ready to tackle everything on our beefy to-do list. If only we could coerce our house sitters into painting some blue trim while they’re there (we have a few friends and family members who are taking turns moving in to stare at the wallpaper hang out while we’re gone).
What do you think the odds are of them surprising us with some painted trim when we return? Methinks it’s zero point zero zero. So we’re grateful that this is the only blue that we’ll be staring at for the next few days:
Naaaature! (said in the voice of Robert Goulet, of course).
Enjoy your vacation! You guys have earned it!
-Katie at AdventuringAtHome
Ditto :)
Have a great break all of you!
Enjoy some much deserved r&r!
Have fun! We went to Destin for our honeymoon last year and loved every minute – hoping to make it back down for our anniversary in a couple of months.
Enjoy your vacation! If you have time, you need to stop through GREENVILLE, SC :) Shameless promoting.
Have fun! I love Florida. Enjoy your time :)
Have a blast! :)
Have a great time!! Love the pic of Sherry and Clara.
Enjoy your vacation!
Looks like a great time! Enjoy it! :-)
My favorite vacation destination!!! Crab Island is the BEST!!! Love boating out to the underwater island and playing with all the little hermies!!! Have the BEST TIME!!!
Good for you ! Enjoy !
Happy Vacation! I grew up going to Destin every year for vacation, since we lived only 3 hours away in south Mississippi. Moving to Nashville put a cramp in our beach time, but we’ll be going to Destin this Sunday-woohoo!
You need to check out Another Broken Egg Cafe and Maguires Irish Pub while you’re there. They’re both fantastic! Also, if you feel like you’ve burned enough calories in the sand and sun, you need to get a filled doughnut at the Donut Hole Bakery. You will not be disappointed. Can you tell I basically go on foodcations? :)
Have a great time!
Thanks for all the suggestions guys!
xo
s
Yes to Another Broken Egg Café and the Donut Hole Bakery!!!
To add to Kristin’s suggestions, visit Crust Pizzeria for some AWESOME pizza. Pepito’s Mexican Restaurant has better fish tacos than Pompano Joe’s (and cheaper too!). And Fudpucker’s is just fun with the adjoining arcade for Clara.
Have fun!
We vacation in Destin every year. I love it! So I have to chime in with a couple other suggestions. The Red Bar in Grayton Beach is definitely worth the drive, and in the evenings, the little Seaside is a fun place to hang out. They usually have free concerts and other fun things going on in the amphitheatre. Seaside is also where they filmed the movie, The Truman Show. Have a great time!
Have fun on vacay, but please keep Clara OUT of the water near dusk and dawn – those are prime shark feeding times! Get good sunblock and go to the beach between 10-3 for the safest time in the water.
I am pretty sure they’ve been to the beach before and managed to avoid getting eaten by sharks (!!) or getting full body sunburns. Lighten up! People, you don’t have to comment with warnings on every post they make.
Sorry, but I grew up in Florida and many many times saw people letting their toddlers swim on the beach at dusk and dawn less than 20 yards from where people were shark fishing and purposely putting blood in the water. It is not a good idea to swim at those times.
There was actually a shark attack in destin a few years ago while I was there visiting my grandparents who live there, so fair warning
I get it but this is just kind of a running theme that I’ve noticed here in the comments. If they say they’re going to get their chimney fixed, there’ll be someone in the comments telling them that they better not because Clara might see workers on the roof and then try to climb up there one day and fall. Or if they’re eating snowcones, a commenter feels the need to let them know that sometimes kids can eat a snowcone and then go home and try to swallow an entire ice cube and choke and die. Seriously, these are two 30something adult parents who have managed to keep a kid alive for over three consecutive years without shark attacks. Enough with all the “helpful warnings.”
Amanda-
I wasn’t aware of that, I was just responding to the shot of Clara in the water at sunset. A lot of people take littles to the beach at sunrise and sunset to avoid sunburn and are oblivious to people shark fishing nearby. A lot of hotels and resorts have safety guides that warn people NOT to swim at dusk and dawn for that reason. Avoiding the water when people are pouring in chopped up fish to create a feeding frenzy is slightly less obvious than typical common-sense safety if you didn’t grow up on the gulf coast. The truth is that sharks swim all around you at the beach all day long – sometimes they’ll even bump into you. But you’re unlikely to be attacked unless it’s at dusk, dawn, or there is blood in the water.
Eat at the Red Bar in Grayton Beach!! It is fabulous and there is so much to see there so the kids will love it. Lots of live music and cool eclectic art. And the food is superb.
I second that, Red Bar is my absolute favorite!!!!
I third that suggestion – along with a pre-or-post dinner drive down 30A to see all the fun little towns. Be sure to go all the way to Alys Beach. Have a wonderful vacation! :)
Yes, the Red Bar is a must! We go to Destin (well, actually Blue Mountain beach) every other year with my husband’s family. It’s a wonderful beach!
You should also hit up Seaside, a cute little town that you all would love about 15 minutes from Destin (also near Grayton Beach and the Red Bar).
Agree!! Its right off hwy 30A in Grayton, turn at the blinking red light and you can’t miss it. Ask any local and they’ll give you directions!
while on 30A stop at Blue Mountain Creamery….the best ice cream and homemade frozen yogurt!!! bring cash
Also Bud and Alley’s in Seaside
Wonderful! Enjoy!! Well deserved – and please don’t respond to this comment :)
Destin is only 40 minutes from me! Be sure to check out Baytown wharf, lots of cute little shops and a playground for the kids.
Enjoy your vacation! And don’t worry, your readers (just like that blue trim) will be here when you return!
Haha!
xo
s
See, if it was me house-sitting, I would totally paint some of that trim while you were out just to see the looks on your faces when you got back. :)
Haha! I wish!
xo
s
Destin is GORGEOUS! The beautiful water and soft sand they have there is so different from the eastern beaches of Florida. Enjoy your vacation!
The picture of you and clara on the beach is absolutely beautiful! Perfect frame picture!
It really is a perfect photo. It’s almost like a painting.
Y’all deserve a break! Enjoy getting your rest on. So great seeing you and Katie again this year at Haven! Have a safe trip!
Thanks Beth! It was so great to see you too!
xo
s
Good for you!!! Enjoy your much needed time away!
Enjoy your vacation. You guys deserve it! I just got back from my beach vacation and am back to work today. I’d much rather be sitting on the beach sipping an iced coffee.
SO Jealous. We go to Destin every year, and I will be there in less than four weeks. SO bummed we weren’t there at the same time…although, I’m sure you aren’t, because I would have been on Petersik watch the entire trip. :-)
Enjoy! I loved our vacation to Destin. So gorgeous!
Ahhh – someone needs to come up with a paint color called Destin blue…..it looks so peaceful. Enjoy your down time!
I hope the Haven conference was awesome! Have a great time on vacation!!
GORGEOUS picture of Sherry and Clara.
I was thinking the same thing! This one’s worth framing, for sure!
I think of Pauly Shore in “Son in Law” saying “Na-ture!” :)
I’m local. I’ll come help paint the trim. :-)
Haha! Trim painting party at our house. Everyone’s invited.
xo
s
Well, I’m gonna have to pass on the painting the trim party. ;)
Driving 10hrs one way to paint, doesn’t sound tempting.
LOL!!!
I’ll just keep to reading about it! Here in SW Ontario, Canada.
Haha, you’ll be there in spirit!
xo
s
Have fun!
Go to the end of Destin near Ft Walton and take the kids to the Jetty! I always find tons of shark teeth and awesome shells!
I agree with Lindsey, you totally should frame that shot of you and Clara. Beautiful! Enjoy, you so deserve this break!
Have fun! Destin is a beautiful place to be.
Enjoy! We’ve lived in south Georgia 5 years (if you took 75 down to Florida, you passed my house!), and have only been to the Gulf once. A trip to Destin or Panama City is on the agenda for next summer (this year we’re going to Disney!); if you have a great experience at your beach hotel/house, would you please pass along a recommendation?
Will do!
xo
s
So important to take a break and recharge! But I often spend my recharge time plotting new projects – I guess you can take a girl out of a DIY house but you can’t take the DIY out of the girl…
Have so much fun!
Wow love Destin. We used to go camping there…right on the beach. Great restaurants in and around there too. Have a great time!
Kristi
bahaha Gouuuuletttt. Best ever.
Enjoy your vacation!
Enjoy your vacation! Destin is so much fun!
Enjoy your vacay! It’s well deserved!
BTW: It’s Florida scallop season right now, so if scallops are your thing and you get an opportunity to have a few, do! We had some when we visited Kev’s parents in Tampa and they were delicious!!
Have a lovely vacation!
Enjoy your vacation! Destin is a beautiful place!
This is so great and so important. Enjoy your sweet family time and fun in the sun!
Can’t recommend enough: Dewey Destins Harbour Side for a great- not touristy trap restaurant & Captain Guido Charters for a private chartered sunset sail or dolphin sail- very excellent rates & a fun captain who plays some great 50’s doo wop tunes.
Have a great time!
Maggie in Cincy
I love Dewey Destins Harborside! So yummy and not crazy expensive.
Why do I like the blue trim? :) Must be worse in person? The trim will be beautiful white!
All in good time…Enjoy your break!
Enjoy your vacay! I’m not going anywhere.
Love,
-your blue trim
;)
Bwahaha!
xo,
s
Definitely plan a dinner at the Red Bar in Grayton beach – its mine and my husband’s FAVORITE restaurant of all time! They have great live music, awesome atmosphere (you won’t believe the décor!), its right on the beach so you can go for a walk while you wait for your table, and hands down the best food!!! Please let us know if you go there, I promise you won’t be disappointed. Plus if you drive just a tad further down 30A past Grayton, you’ll see Seaside which is where The Truman Show was filmed. Pretty much the cutest little beach down you’ve ever seen and a great place for the kids to ride their bikes or play on the grassy quad, or have a rooftop dinner at bud and alleys or lunch from the food trucks.
Dayna I said the same thing about the Red Bar!! My cousin has worked there for years and is also a local artist. He painted one of the doors and some work on the inside too!
Savina, That’s awesome! What a great place to live/work!
I see some restaurant crashing/window shopping posts in the future if ya’ll get to head down 30A – like some others have mentioned, so many unique eclectic shops down that way.
The Red Bar is a must!!! My parents have a condo on Panama City Beach and we travel to Destin every year! Enjoy!!
Aw, you guys totally deserve a good break! We JUST vacationed in Destin a month ago. Would of loved being starstruck by seeing you guys (ha ha) my husband would’ve totally made fun of me. :)
My two recommedations is a restaurant called The Back Porch. Everyone’s food was a-mazing. Also ice cream places were hard to find for us, but we found Brusters (on Emerald Coast Parkway) and that was pretty slammin as well.
Relax and enjoy!
Have a great vacation!