About a week and a half ago, we left Austin bright and early for our family vacation to Destin, Florida. We were so lucky that my parents decided to take us on this great vacation for our Christmas gift. We were also very thankful that Linda and Eric, some of our Austin family, hosted Cecil for the week we were gone. Our trip started fairly smoothly with an uneventful 50 minute flight to Dallas. We had a long layover in Dallas so we grabbed some Whataburger for lunch and waited to head to paradise. Once we were on the plane, we got some bad news that due to weather, we may have to wait for a long time before our plane left. In the end, we left about an hour late, but that started my travel anxiety. I was concerned we might not make it to the property management company in time to get the information to get in our condo. Our flight to Panama City was fine, once we were in the air. The airport in Panama City was tiny and we headed straight to the car rental/baggage area, where we had travel issue number 2. My dad got us a super deal on a rental car through work, but the rental car people didn't want to honor it for me. I was already agitated and this was not making matters better. I managed to keep my cool and was only "short" with the unhelpful customer service rep, instead of irate. We finally just rented the car for a day to get to Destin and were on our way. The rental car was a Kia Optima, which only wanted to drive fast, despite lower speed limits. The last thing I needed was a ticket, so I drove a nice leisurely speed from Panama City to Destin. The drive was beautiful with tons of gorgeous pine trees and beaches on either side of us.

After a series of travel mishaps, we had success at the property management office. The ladies were all super nice and got us merrily on our way. We were very impressed with the condo. It had 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and plenty of space to hang out, including a fabulous balcony with a beach view. We unloaded our luggage and determined that we earned some drinks. The rest of the family wasn't due in for a few more hours, so we walked over to Pompano Joe's. The restaurant was right on the beach and we had a great view as we got seated. We ordered drinks- a bucket of booze for Mike and a local beer for me. For dinner, I ordered the BBQ jerk chicken sandwich and Mike got the blackened Mahi Mahi. My sandwich was yummy with the right amount of seasoning and the pineapple coleslaw was pretty good too. Normally, I do not eat my friends from the sea (Fish are friends, not food.), but I decided to taste Mike's fish and it was actually pretty good. After our meal, the family was getting closer, so we ordered some Yuenglings and waited for them. Yuenglings are a decent basic beer, but you can't get it west of Tennessee so it's a bit of a treat when we get to have it. Our family finally arrived and we ate dinner and started talking about all the fun things we planned to accomplish during our week together.

The New Austonian