10-Year Reunion Girls' Trip

view from the condo

  

A few of my best high school girlfriends and I headed down to Destin, Florida for a little 10-year high school reunion getaway for the long Memorial Day weekend. We had SO much fun catching up with each other and relaxing in the gorgeous Florida weather! 

dinner at Camilie's Thursday night

 We got in on Thursday afternoon after flying into Panama City (and made it in this sweet Chrysler pictured below). We were pretty tired from the long day of traveling that we simply settled in and walked down the street to Camilie's to eat dinner outside on their deck. It was so good, and I love that it is within walking distance to the condo!

my sweet ride for the weekend! Chrysler 400

Friday was absolutely gorgeous (but a little toasty for May!), and we spent the entire day outside on the beach and a little at the pool.  I had forgotten just how beautiful the water is and just how soft the Destin sand is. We were so spoiled living there for 2 years! There was a bunch of dried June grass that was on the shoreline, but there was none in the water, so it didn't bother us at all. We all got a lot of sun (some more than others) and were much better about putting on sunscreen the next day!

 No one wanted to mess with bringing a stereo down to the beach, so we just put my iPhone in a solo cup (which magnifies the sound), and it worked just as well! We're such improvisors!

make-shift speaker system

condo building

Friday also happened to be Sally's birthday, so we made her a birthday mimosa to enjoy on the beach :) !!

Birthday Girl!

That night, we got ready and went to dinner at Tommy Bahama Cafe, which was one of my favorite restaurants when I lived in Destin! It was so good, and the island atmosphere was perfect to get us in the mood to go out. 

at Tommy Bahama Cafe for dinner Friday night

After dinner, we met up with some of our good high school friends, who were on a bachelor weekend for our high school friend, Ryan, out in Baytowne Wharf. It was so great to catch up and see everyone! Since all of us are scattered all over the country from California to Texas to Georgia and even New York, we don't get to see each other near enough.  We had a great time and even stayed out a little later than we had anticipated...poor Jaime who is six months pregnant, but she was such a trooper!

Since Friday night was such a late night for us, we took it easy on Saturday by laying low at the pool all day. We walked to dinner at the restaurant next door to the condo (790 on the Gulf) and ate out on the patio overlooking the Gulf, which was so nice! After dinner, we were all stuffed and tired, so we rented This Means War with Reece Witherspoon and Chelsea Handler, which was really cute, and then called it an early night!

Brittany had to go home on Sunday to be with her grandfather that isn't doing too well, so we had a late start outside and just hung out on the beach for a while before making our way to the pool for our last day.  We felt well-rested from our low-key night the night before, so we were ready to go out for our last night. We came in from the beach around 4pm and went across the street to the Destin Commons to do a little shopping. We decided to eat an early dinner at Zoes in the Commons and then take our time getting ready for the night. We set up the camera's self-timer and took some silly pictures before going out in Baytowne again.

Jaime's non-alcoholic Coors 

Sunday night was much less crazy than Friday night was, however, the crowd at Baytowne was much more in "party-mode" than Friday night there. We met up with some of our high school guy friends again for a few hours before going home to get a decent night's sleep before our flights home the next day. 

On Monday morning, we finished packing and made our way back to the airport in Panama City. I was going to look up the address on Google before we left, but I figured that Siri on my iPhone would tell me the address. Well, she led us to the OLD Panama City airport which hasn't been in use for quite some time now! We knew something was wrong when we had to go through a residential neighborhood to get to the "airport." We got excited when we saw the airport building, however, when we got closer, we noticed that there were NO people, cars, or planes anywhere near this airport building. We panicked for a few seconds and then Googled the address for the REAL Panama City airport. We made it to the airport in plenty of time (thank goodness it's a small airport!), and even had a few minutes to take some goofy pictures while waiting on the plane. 

Jaime and Sally's flight was an hour before mine, so once their's took off, I got some lunch and settled into finishing the third book in the 50 Shades of Grey series. However, I got to talking to this older couple (who were SO cool and so much fun to talk to!), that I didn't get to read it while waiting or the entire time flying as we were deep in conversation. It was such a wonderful trip, and I am so sad to leave the beach, but it was so good to see Josh and the girls again! We need to make this a tradition for sure!