Friday was a busy day on our vacation. We started off with a trip to the Donut Hole. Every person who heard I was going to Destin recommended this place so I knew we had to try it. I am not really a big breakfast person, but I do love donuts, so I was pretty excited. We had a short wait to be seated, which I've heard is totally different from peak season, where people wait hours for a table. We all ordered coffee and then browsed the extensive menu. Mike and Aaron each ordered the Everything so they could sample eggs, pancakes, hashbrowns, sausage, bacon, and ham. It was a lot of food, but they each did a pretty good job tackling it. Mike even admitted that the pancakes rivaled those at Kerbey Lane. Katie went for the most unique dish with the crab eggs benedict. She also lucked out and got the very last one. Mom got the granola pancakes and was unable to finish them because the portion was so huge. Dad got an omelet, hashbrowns, a biscuit and a side of gravy, which he split with me. I am picky about my breakfast foods so I created my own meal of sides. I went with hashbrowns, cheese grits, and biscuits to go with the extra gravy Dad had. Everything was delicious and we were all quite stuffed after eating all that food. Normally, I would want to take a nap, but we had a busy day ahead of us.

After stuffing our faces, we loaded up into the car and headed to Eglin, to visit the Air Force Armament Museum. This part of our trip was especially exciting for Dad since he works with planes and for Mike because he loves soaking up all Dad's plane knowledge. The rest of us were interested, but I think those two were most excited. I'll admit, it was pretty cool, and there was so much to look at both outdoors and indoors. Outside, there were many different planes in excellent shape. Dad gave detailed explanations to those who were interested, while I got an abbreviated version from Mom while she took pictures. We were both impressed with the amount of knowledge she's soaked up over the years. Inside the museum, there were more planes and lots of cool weapons to view.

Jazz Hands, Burnt Legs, and a Plane...just another day

We skipped lunch on Friday because our breakfast had been huge, but we still opted for a snack. Friday's snack came to us in the liquid variety. First, we stopped at the Emerald Coast Wine Cellars, where we sampled a variety of wines, looked at wine crafts, and made a few purchases. Next door, we hit up Bad Ass Coffee, for our afternoon caffiene fix. We had visited Bad Ass Coffee about several years ago in Maui. We got a variety of delicious coffee treats and had a wonderful chat with our barista about more fun places to visit during the remainder of our trip.

For dinner on Friday, we headed to the Backporch, located right on the beach. We discovered truly how casual it was when we saw that many of the patrons opted to skip shoes, shirts, or pants. This restaurant came highly recommended by my parents as well as PopPop, so we were eager to try. Most people in our party selected some sort of seafood option, which they all enjoyed. I went for steak and found it to be quite enjoyable. The corn medley and pineapple rice were great choices, too. We really hadn't been eating too much dessert, but Mom said we had to make an exception, so we all split a piece of the orange cake with white chocolate buttercream frosting. It was pretty amazing, but I am definitely glad that we opted to share because we would have been stuffed otherwise. After dinner, we played games for a bit before heading to bed and preparing for our next adventure.

The New Austonian