On day seven of our trip, we awoke to another gloomy day. Fortunately, we had donuts from Five Daughters Bakery waiting to be eaten so we started the morning out on a great note despite the doom and gloom outside.
We knew that having a beach
day wasn’t in the cards, so after breakfast we just decided to get ready for
the day and find something to do indoors.
My friend Jess from The Newly (you may remember her old blog!) just so
happened to be in 30A the same week we were and she had recommended a cute
little book shop in Rosemary Beach called The Hidden Lantern. She and I tried off and on to meet up while
we were there, but sadly, we weren’t able to make it work.
Anyway, we hit up the book
store first thing, and as Jess had told me, it did not disappoint! It was just the cutest, quaintest little book
shop ever! There were several big comfy
couches surrounded by wall to wall books and the sweetest little chandeliers
made from book pages hung overhead. I
could have easily curled up on the couch with a coffee and a book and stayed
there all day, but we had to keep it moving and find something for the kids to
do. We let the kids each pick out a book
(they chose these Scratch and Sketch books and they are obsessed with them!) and
I grabbed a sweet 30A children’s book as well as the 30A coloring book and then
we were on our way!
I’d never been in a mirror
maze before so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was awesome. And a little scary. You can legit lose a child in there quick.
Before entering, they gave us some plastic gloves to wear and we weren’t
in there for 30 seconds before I realized why.
You have to walk with your arms outstretched at all times or you will
crash into a wall and they didn’t want the mirrors to get all smudged, hence
the gloves. Haha. I couldn’t believe how many times I thought I
was getting ready to walk down a hall and instead I would smack into a
mirror! I also can’t believe how many
times I reached out to grab one of the kids only to realize it was their mirror
image and not the real kid. Sheesh.
We hung out in the mirror
maze for a good 30 minutes and struggled a bit to find our way out, but we made
it eventually and then it was time to check out the museum.
The museum had lots of
Guinness Book of World Records kinds of things like “The World’s Heaviest Man”
and “The Biggest Hand” and “The Biggest Lips” along with lots of other crazy
stuff. Jacob is obsessed with the Guinness
Books and he’s constantly checking them out from the school library. About a year ago, he read about the world’s
tallest man who was nine feet tall and he has been talking about him ever
since. Well wouldn’t you know, they had
a mannequin of the world’s tallest man right at the end! Jacob was so excited! And I just cannot get over how tall he really
was. For reference, Brian is 6’2” and that
guy towers over him as you can see in the picture!
After our museum tour it was
time for lunch, so we stepped outside into the monsoon – like, for real, it was
POURING – and we drove across the street to Chewies Kitchen. We were looking for a unique place that sold sandwiches
and salads and that one had five stars and great reviews on Google, so we
thought, why not?
It turned out to be the
cutest little place… very clean, very cute aesthetic, and the food was
delicious. I had the grilled chicken
salad and it was absolutely divine. I
was shocked at how good it was. They make
everything from scratch there including their croutons and ranch dressing, so I
think that’s why it was so darn good.
It was still monsooning when
we left, so we decided to head back to our condo in 30A to relax for the
afternoon and hope the rain would pass. After
an hour or so of sitting around at the condo, the rain stopped and we decided
to take a little walk on the beach.
It was still very cloudy and
a bit on the windy side, but the rain held off and we were able to get in a
good hour long walk.
By the time we made it back
to the condo, it was time to get ready and leave for dinner. Our friends, Stephanie and Bobbie, moved down
to PCB a few years ago so we always try to meet up with them when we
visit. It was our last night there so we
decided to meet them at The Hub – the perfect place to hang out for the evening. See that Cigar Shop in my picture below? Luke Bryan owns it and apparently hangs out there a lot... I'm sad we didn't get to see him!
Fortunately the rain held
off for the rest of the evening with the exception of a 2-3 minute rain shower
while we were eating, and we were able to spend several hours there with Steph and
Bobbie. We had dinner and a couple of
rounds of drinks along with good conversation, and then we moved to the outdoor
couches to listen to the band and talk some more.
Steph and Bobbie’s boys are
college age now and they no longer have littles at home, so Bobbie took it upon
himself to spoil our kids rotten like he was their grandparent. He took them for shaved ice, then took Olivia
for ice cream after she decided that she didn’t like the shaved ice, and he
took them in one of the shops to let them pick out souvenirs. So spoiled!
Haha.
Olivia also developed a
little crush on Bobbie. She was glued to
him all evening and then she talked about him incessantly all the way home and
for days afterward. Heck, she still
mentions him now more than a month later!
Haha.
We ended up staying late…
probably close to 10 PM CST which was almost 11 back home. The kids were exhausted by the time we got
back to the condo and they both passed out immediately. We had so many fun evenings during our trip
and that was by far one of my favorites!
Day eight was Sunday and it
was time to head home. We got up bright
and early, got the car packed, and stopped at Big Bad Breakfast for French
toast on our way out. The drive home was
smooth and quick and before we knew it, we were home again. We were reunited with Maui
and she was so happy to see us! We spent
the rest of the day unpacking and settling back in and then we headed to my
Momma and Daddy’s for our Sunday dinner like we always do.
Despite all of the rain,
this was still one of my favorite beach trips yet! If you missed any of the other recaps you can
see them all below.
Happy Thursday!
