Keeping up with the theme of “Beautiful Places” which I seem to be on this week. I think we need to talk about Destin, Florida. Located on “the handle” of Florida, this place is as close to paradise as I’ve come.
We should get something straight before I start talking about the whitest, smoothest sand you’ve ever put your feet in and the crystal clear blue water that you never want to get out of. Growing up, every year we would go to Old Orchard Beach in Maine. Every year. It was awesome. I would play in the water all day and build all sorts of things in the sand and most of all my mom and I would scour the beach looking for shells and sand dollars. The difference in all this was even in August, the ocean water in Maine was cold and murky. I remember one year it was only like 50 degrees (I still went in it everyday and even got a cold) but it was worth it. I guess I’ve always been as much of an ocean gal as a country gal. The Maine sand was brown and granular, not as nice as the Destin sand. Maine was always an awesome fun getaway from landlocked Vermont but now I truly have a feeling for why my grandparents loved Florida so much!
Destin has become a personal paradise. Who are we kidding, I have a few of them don’t I. But I truly love this place and I can’t think Mitch and Judy enough for introducing it to me. A place where I actually get up fairly early (on vacation standards) to get on with the day and go to bed earlier than usual because I can’t wait to get on out there again the next day (except for the night before we have to leave). The drive there always seems to take forever and the drive home is just heart wrenching that I have to get back to “reality”. It’s the same every time… “Can’t I just have another day?!”
As I was saying, Destin in awesome. There’s a lot to do. Beat boyfriends at mini putt down the street (or attempt), board games, parasailing (something that I though I would never do). Relaxing. Ah. Parasailing – there are a few different businesses that offer this and I will tell you to do it whether you are or are not scared of heights. Case in point – I am TERRIFIED! Sy wanted to go so bad so I said I would go. I said I would go, deep down I wasn’t sure if I was 100% on board it was more of a “If I don’t do this I’m going to kick myself kind of thing”. (This does not apply to me with skydiving by the way – another story, another day.) We are on the boat with another couple. They go first. Let’s just say I was nervous, on the verge of shaking. The two, we’ll call them “boat parasailing dudes” point out I’m nervous. I’m put into my harness, told to sit on the back of the boat and latched onto this rod/parachute. I screamed the first 100 feet up then when we reached 450 feet I was so mesmerized by the view it was breath-taking. Dolphins! My favorite thing about Destin, hands down. About 10-20 of them just outside of the cove. They brought us down, dipped us in the water and asked us how it was. My response “Let’s do it again! 2 for 1?!”
If you go to Destin, half the fun of sitting out on the beach all day is waiting for the show. By “show” I don’t mean anything dirty. Dolphins swim by early morning or at sunset and jump and spring from the water! They’re putting on a show! It’s my favorite part! Makes me feel pretty lucky to see something so beautiful
Where is your paradise?
We love Destin too. Have been going for about 15 years. It was so different then and is so much more crowded now, but we love it. Especially the scrumptios seafood. We also love to para-sail. We are leaving for 7 nights Aug. 21st. I can’t wait. I just hope the jelly fish or man-of-wars are not loaded in there. A man-of-war wrapped around my entire upper thigh down to my knee once. It left bloody looking sticker cut like marks all on my leg. It seemed like it took forever to get it off me. Thank God it only happened once. Burned for a long time. Enjoyed your blog and photos. Especially the sail boat-ship.