Off to See America: Panama City Beach!

On the next part of our road-trip adventure, we visited our Aunt Jen and Uncle Ben in Panama City, Florida.

We arrived late and exhausted, so we ate a nice dinner Aunt Jen made us, followed by pie Uncle Ben made, then hit the sack. I made sure to put my tooth that had come out in the hotel room that morning under my pillow for the Tooth Fairy.

Monday morning, I woke up to a dollar in my Tooth Fairy pillow and a note congratulating me on my loss. I told Mom and Dad I was going to spend my loot on milkshakes for everyone.

After breakfast, we put on our swimsuits and sunscreen. Dad let me put sunscreen on his back which was really fun for me. We grabbed our beach chairs and sand toys and headed to the beach. Unfortunately, Uncle Ben had to work so he could not join us, but we got some quality time with Aunt Jen.

The beach we went to was on a bay. That meant the water was pretty calm and shallow, a great introduction to the beach. Hazel’s favorite thing was collecting seashells. I liked making “dirty water,” mixing sand and ocean water in my bucket. Turner liked playing in the sand and going out into the water with Dad.

When we were all tired, we headed back to the house for a good, long nap. Dad realized that his back was very sunburned. We were all shocked.

We had dinner when Uncle Ben came home, then went out for dessert. We went to a frozen yogurt place called Sweet Frog. We liked it because we could top our treats with rainbow colored gummy frogs and we could eat outside.

The next day we went to the beach again. Dad let Mom put sunscreen on his back instead of me this time. We went to a different beach that had more waves and no seaweed. Hazel made a friend she played with all day. They dug a big hole they called a swimming pool. We really liked jumping over the waves that day.

That night we took it easy and went out to dinner at a little pizza restaurant. Our food was amazing and we had a relaxing dinner on a nice big outdoor porch we had all to ourselves. We finished the evening with ice cream and pie back at the house.

We spent our last day in Florida at another beach. This one had nice waves but a little more seaweed, and we were starting to feel just a little beached out. Mostly we hung out playing on the sand and we didn’t stay quite as long as the other two days, but it really was a lot of fun.

After another relaxing afternoon, we had a delicious grilled chicken and steak dinner made by Aunt Jen and Uncle Ben, followed by a birthday party for me. We had waffle cone bowls with my favorite ice cream, Moose Tracks, topped with six star candles, hot fudge and whipped cream. Everybody sang to me and we ate our desserts. Hazel finished hers and asked Uncle Ben for more. Hazel looked shocked when Uncle Ben brought her back another giant waffle cone full of ice cream, whipped cream, and hot fudge. She ate it all and is forever in love with Uncle Ben.

After dessert, I opened my present from Aunt Jen and Uncle Ben, a cool construction set with a motor and remote control. Aunt Jen helped me build a dinosaur with it, which was fun, and Uncle Ben read us a goodnight story. The next morning we said goodbye, which was sad, but we looked forward to our next adventure.

A few hours into our drive Thursday morning, we noticed a whole bunch of spray painted signs along the road for a store with candy and boiled peanuts. There were a ton of signs every 50 feet or so, each one with a different colorful message. Dad was intrigued, wanted to try the peanuts and we all wanted candy, so we stopped. The place was an old house with a creaky old porch on the front. Dad took Hazel and me in and the place was packed with all kinds of candy and weird foods from floor to ceiling.

There was also a lady who looked like a witch who ran the place. She took Dad to the place where she cooked the boiled peanuts and Dad noticed a big oven, while the witch lady eyed Hazel and me. Dad told us to get some candy and he got some fudge for Mom. Dad realized he left his credit card in the car and ran out to get it from Mom. I didn’t like the way the witch was looking at us, and I thought I remembered a story about Hanzel and Gretel.

Fortunately, Dad came back quickly, and we paid and left the store before anything strange happened. Mom is still mad at Dad for leaving us in there with her, but Dad, Turner and Hazel really liked the boiled peanuts so it was worth it.


Our next major stop was in Columbus, Georgia. We went to the Coca-Cola Space Science Center. We rode in some jet simulators, looked at rocket engines, an infrared camera, moon rocks, space suit, and little Mars rovers. There was a green screen that looked like a weather forecaster’s background on a nearby tv, and Turner liked seeing himself on that.

 We followed up with lunch at Dad’s favorite restaurant, Krystal, where we tried every milkshake flavor, then headed to Atlanta to visit Bubbe.