Panama City

What a weekend it has been. KC and I decided to take the boys and hit the beach in Panama City this weekend. After getting off to a late start on Saturday morning, we arrived shortly after eleven. We only live about 95 miles away total. But crossing the state line into Florida we got some info at a visitors center and found some neat stuff.
We were able to grab a bite to eat at a very classy place (despite the name)Dirty Dicks's Crab House. The food was awesome and the service was great and the prices were just right. KC found out he liked dungeness crab best. I stuck with just the plain snow crab. But they gave Thomas and Ben little stuffed toy crabs to play with and it was fun.
Since its the off season right now, there are a number of things that are closed down. We wanted to see "Gulf World", a giant aquarium and you can pet and feed dolphins and whales and things, but that won't reopen again until the 26th. So we decided if we could, we would come back down for Thomas's birthday. Luckily for us (since we did promise Thomas we would see animals), Zooworld was open. So we saw the zoo and all its amazing animals. I have never seen so many animals at one zoo so friendly! The monkeys were coming right up to the cages and talking to us and even the huge cats (tigers, lions, panthers, jaguars and snow leopards) were pacing back and forth in their cages following us as we walked by. They had a great petting zoo where Thomas got to feed goats, camels, llamas and even a giraffe. Thomas's favorite animal though was the alligator and turtle. He was amazed at the snakes and lizards in the reptile house and kept wanting to go back and look at them. We walked around for nearly three hours to see everything.
After that, we decided to stay the night and found a great hotel right on the beach, again its the off season so the room rate was great and we got to go right down to the water! Two of KC's friends and fellow warrant officer class mates bumped into us while we were down there. So they got to horse around on the beach with us for a while. These guys are so sweet and funny! But as it has a tendency to do, the sun set and we had to clear out of there to find something else to entertain us.
Luckily again, there is a Ripley's Believe it or Not! attraction still open so we decided to check it out. Thomas loved it and got a kick out of most of the exhibits. Boy he was tuckered out after a long day of exploring. He was asleep as soon as he hit the pillow!
This morning we woke to a spectacular view of the ocean and were able to go to the water one last time and build a sand castle (not a very good one) with Thomas. I held Ben most of the time in the baby sling and KC was picking out seashells. After we checked out it was time to hit the road and head back home. It felt like a little mini-vacation topped off with KC stopping at a local fruit stand to buy some fresh picked Florida oranges. Now of course its back to reality as a new week begins!