Our 2026 30A Summer Beach Trip - Days 3, 4, & 5

Happy Monday, y’all!  Today I’m recapping part two of our beach trip.  If you missed part one you can see it here. 

Monday, June 1

Monday, we were up at 8 AM our time (7 AM beach time), and we had leftover donuts for breakfast.  I read for a bit while I enjoyed my tea, and then we all got our swimsuits on and headed down to the beach.

It was sunny Monday and there wasn’t nearly as much seaweed, so we were happy to have our pretty beach back.  The kids both boogie boarded much of the morning, and then we all went for a walk on the beach.

We headed up to the condo around noon our time to eat lunch, and on the way there Olivia accidentally walked in the door of the unit that we usually stay in (that we were NOT staying in this year).  Haha.  They had the door unlocked and she just waltzed right in and got about halfway down the hall before the lady who was staying there said, “Sweetie, I think you may want to try one door down.”  Hahahaha.

The kids always run up before Brian and me, so we weren’t close enough to stop her, and we approached as she was already in the condo.  Thankfully, the lady was very kind and understanding, so it was no big deal.  And I guess Olivia didn’t even realize she was in the wrong condo since we have stayed in that one so many times.  It’s also identical to the one we were in this year as far as the layout goes, so I could see how she wouldn’t have realized she was in the wrong place.  We all got a kick out of it, though. 

And that wasn’t the only time that happened on the trip.  Brian and Jacob both made the same mistake early on in the trip, but thankfully, neither of them actually got the door open.  Those poor people.  Haha.

After lunch, we headed back down to the beach, and we had a lazy afternoon.  All four of us sat under the umbrella for much of the afternoon, and Brian and the kids threw the ball for a bit.  Jacob and I went for a walk while Olivia and Brian boogie boarded (and we had to snap a picture of the poodle cloud), and then we went up to the condo around 3:45 PM our time.

I had gotten an alert that Taylor Swift had added new music to her website and that’s when we saw that she was doing a song for Toy Story 5.  I have loved the Toy Story franchise since I was little, so I was beyond excited that two of my favorite things were colliding.

When we got to the condo, we all showered and got ready and then we left at 5:40 PM our time (4:40 PM beach time) to go to Seacrest to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant.  For some reason, traffic on 30A was awwwwful, and it took us 30 minutes to get there.  With no traffic, it would have only taken about 10 minutes just for some perspective.  Traffic is usually bad in the evening on 30A, but it has never been that bad.  We have no idea what was going on, but it was bizarre.  I did use the waiting as an opportunity to snap some pictures in Alys Beach, though!

We finally arrived at LaCo around 6:10 PM our time (5:10 PM beach time), just in time for the regular menu to kick in.  Before 5 PM, they have a happy hour menu, and while it’s nice to have the lower prices, they don’t have the full food menu, so we always make sure we wait until happy hour is over to arrive.

Brian and I ordered a pitcher of margaritas.  We never order a full pitcher anywhere else… we’re always satisfied with a small marg, but at this place, their margaritas only come in one size and they are TINY, and it comes out cheaper to just get the pitcher than to order two smalls each.  Their margaritas are the best I’ve ever had anywhere, so we always indulge when we’re there.  Plus, we don’t have to drive afterwards since we always walk over to Rosemary Beach for the evening, so it’s the one time we splurge.

We also ordered cheese dip, salsa, and chips, and we were all in heaven.  Their cheese dip is the BEST.  And so are their chips.  And their salsa.  It’s just all so good. 

I ordered my beloved taco salad for my main course, and it was just as good as it always is.  I wish so badly that we could move this place to our city.  I would never want to eat at any other Mexican restaurant again.  It is superior.

When we arrived, we had our eyes on the sky because it looked like it was getting dark, and sure enough, it kept getting darker and darker in the restaurant.  I looked at the radar, and there was a massive amount of heavy rain approaching which wasn’t good since we had planned to walk to Rosemary Beach and take family pictures outside.

Sure enough, about halfway through dinner, it started POURING.  And it was thundering and lightning and windy.  Another look at the radar showed that it wasn’t going to let up anytime soon, so we asked our server if it was okay if we hung out at our table for a while after we were done eating.  There were plenty of open tables in the restaurant so we knew we wouldn’t be holding anyone up.  And sure enough, she was super cool about it, and she told us to stay as long as we wanted.  She ended up chatting with us for a bit while we waited for another 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, we realized that it wasn’t going to end anytime soon, so we headed out to the car to grab umbrellas (thankfully, we’d gotten a front row parking spot, which never happens in that shopping area) and then we walked next door in the pouring rain to one of the souvenir shops.

We waited out more of the rain there, and we also ended up sitting in the car for a bit with the hope that it would clear up long enough for us to walk down to Rosemary Beach.  Rosemary Beach is literally a five-minute walk from LaCo, so it’s like a one-minute drive, and we ultimately decided to drive over so we could be close to the car if the rain picked up again. 

Driving into Rosemary Beach in the evening and expecting to find a parking spot is risky.  It is a lively beach town with a lot of people and VERY little public parking.  Thankfully, since it had rained so much, not many people were out and about, so we were able to find a spot immediately.

We walked over to the post office and the green space behind it to take our family pictures as we always do, and on the way, we saw a double rainbow!  It was so beautiful and bright! 

Unfortunately, Rosemary Beach was a ghost town because of the weather, and there was literally nobody anywhere who could take our picture.  We took a bunch of other combinations of pictures while we waited for someone to come along, and nobody ever did.  I finally walked down to the main street and asked the one couple we saw to take our picture, and they were happy to do it.  They only snapped two, so that’s all we have.  And by then, we’d been waiting so long that it was almost dark, so the lighting and the picture quality aren’t great, but at least we got one!

We walked across the street to Sugar Shak after that, and we had the entire place to ourselves for the first time ever.  That place is tiny, but it is always bursting with people, so it was wild to be the only ones there.  Towards the end of our visit, a few more people trickled in, but that was it… the weather truly must have scared everybody off!  I had to take a picture of this candy, too, because they looked like little Mauis.  <3

All of us got candy – even me – and I’m not a big candy person anymore.  Then, we walked back to the car and drove back to the condo.  It was only about 9:15 PM our time, so we finished watching Meet the Parents with the kids and then we all went to bed around 11 PM.

 

Tuesday, June 2

Tuesday morning, we were up at 8 AM our time and Brian went to put out our chairs.  There was plenty of space, so there were no issues. 

We had the last of the donuts Tuesday morning for breakfast, and then I made my tea and settled in to get Gracie Abrams tickets.  Olivia and I both love her and she’s touring next year.  Her stop in Atlanta is Olivia’s birthday week, so we thought it would be extra fun to go!  Plus, I still feel so bad that we were never able to take her to The Eras Tour.  The tickets were just way too outrageously priced to go a second time.

I was able to get great seats almost immediately, so it wasn’t a terrible experience.  I had signed up for the artist presale and I got in the queue 30 minutes early (the earliest you can get in).  Plus, since she’s doing two nights back-to-back, so I think that helped.  Brian ended up looking later in the week after the regular sale, and both shows were nearly sold out so I’m glad we got ours when we did.

We went down to the beach around 10:15 AM our time and Olivia got on her boogie board right away.  The water was beautiful and calm, and there was no seaweed.  The flag was yellow, too, which was great, and it was sunny.  It was truly a gorgeous day.  And we really did luck out with the weather since the forecast showed high chances of rain literally every day of our trip.

We all went for a walk down the beach together late in the morning, and then we went to the condo to eat lunch.  After our break, we went back down to the beach for the rest of the afternoon.  I lay out and read the whole afternoon and then the whole family went for yet another walk.  Gah, beach days are the best days.  Sleep, read, walk, relax, eat, repeat.

We went back up to the condo around 3:45 PM our time and then we all got showered and ready.  We were going to The Big Chill (formerly known as The Hub) for dinner, and it’s about five minutes from our condo, so there was no need to rush.

We left the condo at 5:30 PM our time and headed straight there.  When we arrived, there were more people there than usual, but it wasn’t packed yet.  We had to swing by Luke Bryan’s cigar bar and take our picture as we always do, and then we got a table at The Big Chill.  We like to be under the big, shaded area towards the back, but this past year, they installed misters all throughout that area to keep things cool and they were awwwwful.  They were spraying crazy amounts of mist nonstop and all the tables and chairs were soaked.  It was seriously the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.  You could barely see the person in front of you so we were cracking up.

All the tables away from the misters that weren’t in the sun were taken, so we opted to be under the misters rather than the sun since it was still quite hot.  That made for an interesting dinner, though. 

Brian grabbed us burgers and fries (and pickles!!!!) from Duo’s and I grabbed beers from the bar, and we sat around the rest of the evening and ate.  Olivia wanted to get something from Build a Bear with her own money, so Jacob and I walked over there with her while Brian held down the table.  It was starting to get packed in there, so we didn’t want to risk losing it.

Olivia chose a capibara from the Build a Bear store and then she chose a little outfit for it.  After that, we walked next door to another little shop and then we walked back to join Brian and the table.  By the time we got back, they had turned off the misters (they must only keep them on during the hottest part of the day) and it was so much better although the damage was already done to my hair.  Haha.  Not that it mattered since we had nowhere else to go.

Brian and the kids got ice cream from Mr. Freeze for us, and we all enjoyed pirate’s bounty… it’s one of my favorite ice cream flavors of all-time!  There was a band playing all evening, so we listened to the live music for a bit, and then we headed back to the condo so we could go on another beach walk.

The light was stunning Tuesday evening, and the weather was perfection.  The ocean had also receded a lot, leaving a large stretch of beach that was smooth and flat from the water.  On the Gulf of Mexico side of Florida, there isn’t a drastic change from high tide to low tide like there is on the Atlantic Ocean side, so it was rare to see.  Usually, the ocean is in the same place, and the sand is always white and fluffy with a tiny strip of smooth, flat, wet sand from the water, but on this night, that strip of smooth, flat, wet sand was massive.  We’d never seen anything like it in that area. 

We ended up walking all the way down to the one and only set of high-rise condos in 30A, so our walk was longer than usual.  We usually stop and turn around a good bit before we reach them, but the kids were feeling ambitious, and they wanted to go all the way there.

By the time we turned around, it was already getting dark and we ended up seeing 44 ghost crabs on our walk back to the condo.  That was a record!  We’ve never seen that many!

When we got back to the condo, we all got in our pjs and then we started watching My Girl.  Ugh, that movie wrecked me when I was little, but it’s a classic, so we decided to watch it with the kids so they could see it.  We didn’t have time to finish it, though, so they got to wait a couple more nights before being traumatized.  Hahahaha.

While we were watching, there was a big thunderstorm that rolled in on the beach, and it couldn’t have been timed more perfectly since we were already snug as a bug in our condo.

 

Wednesday, June 3

Wednesday, we decided to take a break from the beach because we were all a bit sunburned despite our best efforts to stay burn free, and our day off was timed just right because somehow, both kids woke up with sunburned lips.  They’d both forgotten to bring their ChapStick with SPF, and I didn’t really think anything of it until I saw Jacob Wednesday morning.  Oh my gosh, his lips looked painfully swollen. 

I turned to Dr. Google to see the best way to handle that, and everything said to put some ice on them for 15 minutes and take Ibuprofen.  We did just that, and by the time we were all ready to leave the condo for brunch, he looked almost totally back to normal. 

Olivia’s lips weren’t nearly as swollen as Jacob’s, but we did give her a dose of Ibuprofen for good measure because we didn’t want the swelling to creep up while we were out and about.

Once that was taken care of, we all got showered and ready for the day, and then we drove over to Big Bad Breakfast in Inlet Beach.  It’s just a short drive from our condo (about 15 minutes) and it was on the way to Panama City where we were spending the day.  On the way, we had a little turtle in our path... he was crossing the street and he was actually moving really fast.  

BBB has the best French toast I’ve ever had, and I was looking forward to having it again since it had been a few years since we’d had it.  I also got a side of bacon and indulged in a latte which isn’t something I typically do, especially when I’m already eating a big breakfast.  B got the French toast, too, and the kids got pancakes, sausage, and eggs.  Olivia also had to have a biscuit since she loves them so much.

We ate late in the morning, and we planned to skip lunch and have an early dinner, so that was my excuse for eating so much… I had to make sure I would stay full until dinner.  ;o)

Everything was delicious, as always, and all four of us were completely stuffed by the time we were done. 

We drove the rest of the way to Panama City to spend the early afternoon at Dave and Busters… my least favorite part of the trip.  Hahahaha.

Right after we arrived, I saw somebody walking straight over to me and it turned out to be one of my best friends from back home!!  She typically goes to the beach the same week that we go, but we stay about an hour apart on the Gulf, so we’ve never seen them down there.  They go with a big group of family and friends, and they stay at their house most of the time, so I wasn’t expecting to see them out and about!

The whole group was there, including Olivia’s friend, Aubrey, so we spent the next 20 minutes hugging everyone and saying hello.  They were finishing up there, so they all left to find some lunch shortly after that, and then our little fam played all the games. 

The kids racked up on tickets, but neither of them saw anything they liked from the prize shop.  Olivia did get a beauty face mask, but they both decided to save their tickets for next time.

When we were done there, we walked over to I Heart Candy in Pier Park.  It’s a massive candy store with every single type of candy you could ever imagine.  I had to snap a picture of these gummy teeth and gums because they were just so weird and disgusting.  Haha.

Next, we drove over to Target for a few things we needed, and then we went to gas up the car and get some gas station snacks.  The kids discovered the goodness of gas station snacks last year, so they wanted to get their snacks there and not at Target even though I’m pretty sure Target had all the same things.  Lol.

We ended up having to go to Walmart, too, which wasn’t ideal, but Target didn’t have a couple of things we were looking for (a beach chair, for one), and Olivia also wanted a hat because her scalp had gotten sunburned.  She wanted a hat that said 30A, but since we were in PCB everything said Panama City on it.  She did NOT want something that said PCB (LOL) so she settled for just a “Florida” hat.

After we got the things we needed, we drove back to Pier Park and hit up a bunch of the shops that are on the outer side of the park – Claires, 9 Teen Boutique, Brooklynn’s, Old Navy, Tilly’s, Aerie, Hollister, Pink, Waves, Little Mustard Seed, and American Eagle.  Olivia had hoped to find a cuter hat, but we didn’t have any luck.

Our friends, Stephanie and Bobbie, live in PCB, so we met them at Pineapple Willy’s for dinner.  Our kids will not ever let us go on a trip to 30A without making the trek to Pineapple Willy’s, so they’ve both gone every single year of their lives aside from the one year that we had to go to a wedding in Myrtle Beach and we skipped our 30A trip.

There was a 30-minute wait, so we perused the gift shop, and then Stephanie met us there a few minutes later, with Bobbie coming a bit later after he got off work.  Brian and I both got the Pineapple Willy to drink, and I ordered my beloved BLT for dinner.  Their BLTs are top-notch.

We’d planned to play mini golf after dinner as we always do when we’re in Panama City (there are no mini golf courses in 30A), but when we drove up, the place was PACKED because it was 8 PM beach time (9 PM our time).  And I mean, there were long lines of people at every hole we could see.  We always go earlier to avoid the crowds, but it just didn’t happen this year.  We decided to pass, and instead, we went to Pink Pelican to get ice cream for dessert.

At Pink Pelican, there were 38 people in front of us (yes, we counted so I could put that number on my by the numbers post) and I think that’s the longest the line as ever been there, too.  It moved quickly, and before long, I was enjoying my banana crème pie ice cream, and it was worth the wait.

Pink Pelican had also added some new decor, so we had to take pictures inside, too. 

Once our bellies were full of ice cream, we made the 40-minute drive back to our condo, and we all went straight to bed since it was 11:15 PM our time. 

And that was part two of our trip.  Stay tuned for the rest of the recap, hopefully next week!

Happy Monday, y’all!