Grayton Beach, April 2017

Thursday, April 13th, 2017

• Courtney, Claire, Sophia and I left Euclid around 6:30AM. Easy drive to Decatur Alabama arriving around 5:30 PM.
• Listened to the entire S-Town podcast for 8 hours straight.  Fantastic!!  Save it for your next long drive if you haven’t listened to it yet.
• Stayed at Doubletree along the river; Nice but kind of weird.
• Sat outside soaking in the sun in the 80 degree sunny weather and then went to dinner at local BBQ spot: Big Bob Gibsons BBQ which was as good as advertised.  Great BBQ and pie and super cheap.  Went for a walk along the river after on a beautiful night.

Friday, April 14th, 2017

• Left hotel around 7:00 AM and arrived in Grayton Beach around 12:30.  Easy drive with hardly any traffic.  STILL building the road down to the beaches – may be done next year.
• Had lunch at Red Bar, then moved into house around 2:00.  Loved the house. Perfect for our group of of 7 people.  Beautiful views of the beach and the river and a quick walk down to the beach.
• We all went to Publix after getting settled in and stocked up for a full week.
• Jack arrived at around 5:30 after driving for about 13 hours from Austin.  Very happy that he will be here for the whole week.
• Steak, potatoes and salad and Publix key lime pie for dinner to make it all official.

Saturday, April 15th, 2017

• Seaside bike ride with Sophie and Courtney in early AM.  Love my Amavida.
• Beach in A.M.
• Picked up Emily and Dan at airport at 2:00.  Easy 30 minute drive to Panama City airport
• Steamed Gulf shrimp and grits for dinner.  Bought shrimp at Goatfeathers about a mile west on 30A. Fresh off the boat.  Also got their smoked tuna dip which was fantastic.  Note to self: they will steam shrimp for you and then take home and eat.

Sunday, April 16th, 2017

• Hmmm, not sure what we did today.  Ate a lot of chocolate and sat on the beach I’m sure 🙂
• Grilled chicken, vegetables, and quinoa for dinner

Monday, April 17th, 2017

• Unusually foggy morning – cleared up by 11:00AM though and another beautiful day.
• Seaside bike ride with Courtney, Jack, Emily and Dan.
• late down to beach around 11:30 – hotter day.  Someone wrecked our day 1&2 castle unfortunately.  So we went modern today.
• Dinner at Craft Bar – new place down the street they were building last year.  We sat outside on their nice covered patio.  It was 1/2 price burger night so most of us had burgers. They had a nice selection of drafts and food was good.
• Watched Cav’s back home win their second playoff game

Tuesday, April 18th, 2017

• Beautiful sunny day all day long.  Hot in mid 80’s in afternoon.
• Seaside bike ride in AM with Courtney and Claire
• Beached it all day
• Tacos for dinner after going down to beach to watch sunset and take pictures
• Dominoes at night

Wednesday, April 19th, 2017

• Beach in AM – perfect weather again
• Girls shopping at 2:00 to Destin outlets – Jack, Dan and I stayed at the beach.
• Met the girls at Stinky’s at 5:30 where we walked in with no wait.  Definitely a first.  We had a great table on their screened in porch and had an awesome meal as usual. oysters… finally. 
• Stopped for ice cream on way home
• Blackout at night

Thursday, April 20th, 2017

• Seaside with Sophia for coffee and croissants
• Beach Day all day – perfect weather
• Drove Emily and Dan to airport at 12:30. Drove 30A back – stopped at Rosemary Beach and walked around. Interesting place – we didn’t realize the large section south of 30A.
• Beach in PM – good castle day
• Drove to Seaside around 6:00PM and had oysters, royal reds, fried pickles and then sat down at the pizza restaurant and had wine and pizza in their back patio area that was very nice.
• Watched the Cavs come back from a 30 point deficit – at least everybody else did as I fell asleep.

Friday, April 21th, 2017

• Had great scones, cinnamon rolls and GF muffins from bakery down the street.
• Last day – spent it all on the beach
• Went to The Perfect Pig for late lunch.
• Packed up car after long beach day, went down to beach for one last sunset and then had all the leftovers for dinner

Saturday, April 22nd, 2017

• Left around 3:30AM and drove all the way straight through – 15 1/2 hours.  Painful – very foggy in AM and rain for most of drive – but no so bad once its all over.  Great trip and arrived to spring in bloom in CLE.