Sunny Beaches ... Fresh Oysters

During Ryan's last week in Florida, my dad and mom flew out from Colorado, making it a family affair! We had so much fun together -- going out to eat, church worship night, a canoe trip, movie night, lots of card games and Liar's Dice, and of course a couple days out at the beach!

Considering sand dollars are my favorite finds on the beach, I was pumped to see the boys' spoils from snorkeling.

After the beach we went to a Panama City staple: Hunt's Oyster Bar. It's been in business since the '60s and has some of the best Apalachicola oysters you can find, and at only $4.95 a dozen, we ordered 4 dozen to share!

It's sad to think that this was our last time to have family visit in Florida, but I guess next time we'll just have to show them around SoCal! Love you guys, and thanks again for coming to visit us; we had a blast! :)

PS- Please forgive all the photo editing. Someone just discovered PicNik.com. :)

Coco Cay, Bahamas

The first of our two ports on our Caribbean cruise was to Coco Cay, the Royal Caribbean-owned island in the Bahamas.

We brought our own snorkeling gear with us on the trip, which saved us about $25 each. Gotta love that! We weren't quite sure what to expect, but were pleasantly surprised with how many fish we saw. They had sunk a cannon, a boat, and even an airplane to create reefs out from their beach. The ship also provided a BBQ lunch for us, so it ended up being an all-day outing.

The Monarch of the Seas

The view of our ship from the boat's tender (the little boats that take you from ship to shore and back)

One of the tenders

There were little wooden fish attached to weights strewn about the snorkeling area. It was a scavenger hunt type activity, and if you found one, you traded it in for a prize. Shaun, ever ready to compete, found one and won an underwater camera, which he used to take pictures of the various undersea creatures.

Us with our ship

As the sun set, we eagerly awaited the next day in Nassau.

To be continued....

July 4th Weekend

Our 4th of July weekend started off well with dinner at The Shrimp Boat. If you knew how much my mom likes shrimp (think Bubba from Forest Gump...), you'd know that with a name like that, there's no other restaurant to take her to! Shaun and I had never been, but we were really impressed! I foresee a return trip sometime in the future... :)

Shaun's dinner -- a cheesy, rich seafood gratin

Dad's dinner -- a caper, butter sauce drizzled over a fresh filet of red snapper

Momma's dinner -- bacon-wrapped shrimp in a dijon glaze

My dinner -- shrimp and grits, a southern classic

Outside of the restaurant
When you eat at a place on the water, you have to take sunset pictures before you leave!

Saturday afternoon we spent at Tyndall's beach. It's only available to military, so it's never very crowded. Either that, or no one ever wants to make the half-mile trek down the boardwalk to get to the sand.

The guys body surfed some of the waves for a while...

How I spend my time on the beach... at least until the sunscreen dries and I can get in the water!

We ended up driving about 2 miles out on some dirt roads near the housing area on base. With a little hike, we were right on the water and able to watch Panama City Marina's fireworks display. Shaun took a picture of the crew on our lawn chairs, but I promise he was there too!

Ends up our camera isn't quite fireworks-enabled, but Shaun got a couple snapshots from the night. :)

The next afternoon, we drove up to Destin to get to the airport. We had so much fun with them while they were here. It was sad to see them go! But we made lots of good memories during the week; hopefully enough to encourage them to come back again soon!

Thanks again for a great week, Mom and Dad! Love you and miss you both bunches!