Ok. So here's where our trip turns interesting I guess. We felt, up to this point, anyway, that we kept having great experiences, fortunate events (no waiting to speak of at Disney!, finding last minute parking spot for shuttles, etc). God had been taking care of us and leading us to find these great deals, amenities, etc. I should've just stayed with what we were doing...
Instead. We were supposed to come back home now. We knew that watching the shuttle would delay us coming home, at least a day. So that would mean, that after this day, as we were leaving Daytona Beach, we would need to spend at least one more night on the road. We were, in Daytona Beach, still about 14-15 hrs from home. Now, we could try to make it as far as we could, find a place, and go on. Orrrr.... as I soon started campaigning for.... we could be gone for 2 more nights, spending one of those in Destin Florida. Which I had heard had some of the most fabulous beaches anywhere in the US. Destin was only 4 hrs from where we were, so we would have plenty of beach time, while there. The girls sooo loved the beach in Daytona, I really wanted them to have another go at it. However, Destin was still 12 hrs from home, which would mean an additional night on the road somewhere.
Meanwhile, back at home, my mom had been staying at our house and was leaving. However, Brad's mom was more than willing to take care of the dogs the remaining two days and was actually encouraging us to stay gone longer, as she was trying to get a plumber friend to do some work in our bathroom while we were gone.
So we took the plunge and decided to find a place to stay in Destin. Off to my phone to find a room. We had breakfast at our hotel and took our time leaving/checking out. I found a couple hotels in Destin that were normal run of the mill hotels, that charged nearly $200/night. They were not on the beach, offered nothing fancy, weren't even spacious. Then there was the SanDestin...a beach resort. A HUGE place, with acres of houses, hotels, resorts. The smallest room was like $219/night I believe. It was a definite splurge from what we had been paying. It was a stretch. But I managed to convince Brad to do it. We would be RIGHT on the beach again, in one of the nicest beach towns in all of the US. We had access to nice swimming pools, activities and more. We decided it was ok to splurge and we would stay in a not-as-nice place for our next stop. I called and made the reservation.
So we drive leisurely, as check in is not until 4pm. I figured if we got there b/w 3-4, we could probably still check in and still have several hours at the beach that late afternoon/evening. We saw this store on our way out of Daytona, that Brooke, of course thought was cool. :)
And then, sure enough, we roll in to Destin around 3:30-3:45. We went through a serious downpour that slowed us down a bit, but still made our 4 o'clock cutoff. We find the resort and the main gate, with the guy there directing us to where to go for the check in building.
I cannot explain how huge this place was. I just won't even try. But as we were driving, we kept seeing this signs for the speed limits. I thought it was so odd that they stopped them at the numbers they chose, 23 mph? ... 19mph?
Whatever. Weird.
Ok, then we kinda get lost. We can't for sure find the registration building. It takes us a bit to find it. We finally get there...its just after 4 - like 4:10pm. I go to check in and the inside is like walking into the Neiman Marcus of hotels. A NY fine downtown hotel of sorts. Massive and fancy.
As I'm checking in, I ask the counter girl for detailed instructions on how to get to the 'house' we were staying at and how to get to the beach and restaurants from there. She didn't. I mean, I guess she THOUGHT she did. But it still wasn't real clear to me. So I go back to the car and we attempt to drive around and find it based on this girl's instructions.
We did not find it. We had to go back to the registration building (and finding that again was not easy) and get better directions. We did. This time from a bellhop who was much clearer and gave us a completely different map with better labelled streets.
So, we finally find our house. By now, its 4:30 or so. Still enough time. I am telling Brad, lets just put on our suits and go. He has the sense of mind (thankfully!) to go against my judgment and leave our stuff in our car until we find our room (we had to park in a parking garage). Ok, fine. So we all get out and go to our rooms. This is when it happens....
We stick the key in, all four of us standing there waiting to run in to our new fantastic, fancy hotel room, turn the handle, and stop in our tracks.
Two almost completely naked people were standing right in front of us!!!!! :-O
We, in the flash of less than a second, apologize, and close the door immediately. The lady had been getting out of the shower apparently and had a towel wrapped around her...sort of. The guy was standing back towards the end of the room with nothing but underwear on.
I could not believe it! I have NEVER...NEVER had that happen to me. Especially at this fine a hotel!?! What the heck?! I am furious. I am embarrassed. I am shocked. All of these things.
As I said, luckily, Brad had not unloaded our bags yet, so we march... ok, not really. We have to DRIVE back to the registration building in immense protest. I storm in, this time Brad goes with me. This time, there's a line for the counter. The concierge genuinely asks if we are finding everything ok. Boy, if he only knew what he was in for. I let loose. Um, no?!? We just walked in on two naked people as soon as we checked in to our room. He apologizes and goes straight to find a manager or something I don't know.
Finally, after many apologies and assurances that this won't happen to us, they give us another room key, located in the building we were currently in (the registration building). Apparently that is an upgrade, though I'm still not sure why?
I'm still livid, as you can imagine. It is now after 5pm and we are not at the beach, not to mention my kids just saw two naked Asian people. Ugh.
Ok, so we go to this new room. We walk in...no one's there. So I start stripping the girls down, going for potty breaks and putting on swim suits, while Brad gets our couple of overnight bags in. As we are doing this, Brooke notices she steps in a puddle in the floor of the room. APparently from the fridge.
sigh. Good grief. So, its livable and I want to get to the beach before dark, we just agree to tell them on the way down so as to not be held responsible for it ourselves. They ask to be shown the spot. Ugh. Are you kidding me?!?! its now 5:30. Brad walks up with the guy, shows him the floor, and the guy tells him he'll take care of it while we are gone. He knows I am not a happy camper at this point. So we finally get gone for the beach, at nearly 6pm.
(breather).... this is Brandy calming down....
Ok. So we get to the beach and they are the most fantastic beaches of any the girls have seen. As close to tropical as you get. White, powdery sand....clear clear water. It was just beautiful. I was only sad that we had only a couple hrs, at most!, to enjoy it.
Most of Brooke's pictures only show her from the back because she spend all of her time playing down in the water...even when no one else (from our family) was down there with her. She didn't care.
But enjoy it, they did. The girls loved it. The water was warmer..since was actually the Gulf of Mexico. The day we were there, there was a lot of seaweed washing up.
Brenna wasn't fond of that, but she loved playing in the sand and getting in the water past the seaweed. They had a great time.
They found this sand sculptured shark they thought was cool...
Brenna had the idea and loved getting buried in the sand...
So, of course, Brooke wanted to do it too..
And Brooke thought of the idea to make sand angels... no where else would she ever agree to LAY DOWN in dirt. That's how pretty and clean it was here. She loved it. :)
Here's a random picture of Brenna, showing off her shark tooth necklace she got in Daytona...(the tooth is inside the little pink dome)
We stayed till nearly dark. Here's mine and Brooke's weak attempt at a sunset 'heart' picture... LOL.
It was so beautiful there were tons of people taking professional pictures...even a girl in a wedding dress.
Finally, it was time to leave the beach and go to our room. We weren't quite sure what we would find. So, on our way up, we saw the same manager guy and he handed us an envelope with another key to yet another room and said they had already moved our stuff. Hrm.
We head to our new room. And while...yes, it was an upgrade, it wasn't exactly what we had reserved. This room was a suite. Complete with balcony, living area, full kitchen, laundry, etc. However, it was a 1bedroom suite so that meant there was one bed and a pull out sofa. I suppose the guy thought with two kids, the kids would sleep on the sofa, but we usually have to separate them and we each sleep with one kid to avoid them being up all night. So that meant, Brad or I would have to sleep on the pull out. Not cool. sigh... again.
At this point it was after 8pm, though..we hadn't had dinner and I was tired of dealing with these people. I just told Brad not to act like they did us a big favor, because this still wasn't what we requested when we made our reservation. We had asked for 2 queen beds. Anyway.... we had sandwiches in our room (lucky I still had picnic stuff leftover) and showered and went to bed, hoping tomorrow would be better.
Brooke walked out the next morning and said, "Oh...Mommy! Its so beautiful out here and feels so great!" So we let the girls eat 'breakfast' out on the balcony before our next day's journey began.
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