{"id":1147,"date":"2012-07-01T10:12:46","date_gmt":"2012-07-01T15:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/?p=1147"},"modified":"2012-07-11T21:09:58","modified_gmt":"2012-07-12T02:09:58","slug":"florida-discoveries-25-florida-scenic-highway-30a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2012\/07\/florida-discoveries-25-florida-scenic-highway-30a.html","title":{"rendered":"Florida Discoveries 25: Florida Scenic Highway 30A"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dave and I took a drive on Saturday. \u00a0It’s something we hadn’t done in YEARS — as the kids get older they don’t really have the patience to just sit in the car and enjoy the scenery. \u00a0We got into the Mustang, put the top down and headed eastward!<\/p>\n

Much of what I had written about Florida recently has been in areas around Pensacola and Destin. \u00a0Unfortunately, there is so much congestion in Destin, we rarely get to go east.<\/p>\n

I had a brainstorm this week to head down Florida Highway 30A, which is a beach highway between Destin and Panama City Beach<\/a>. \u00a0U.S. 98 is the main route connecting the cities, but if you have the time, check out 30A for some serious beauty…<\/p>\n

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Of note along Highway 30A is the town of Seaside, made famous by the 1998 film The Truman Show with Jim Carrey and Laura Linney. \u00a0The made-up town was actually the center of Seaside<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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I love the houses here…but owning one? Forget about it!<\/p><\/div>\n

The town is very beautiful. \u00a0Dave and I parked the car and enjoyed a seafood lunch right on the beach.<\/p>\n

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This is the Shrimp Shack’s seating area. Beautiful!<\/p><\/div>\n

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My lunch…and my view during lunch. This was so nice!<\/p><\/div>\n

After walking around the center of the town, exploring a toy store, a gourmet grocery store and a fudge\/ice cream shop, we walked up and down several of the streets with residences on them. \u00a0While at first we thought the houses were seasonal homes, such as what we saw on North Carolina beaches, we noticed housekeeping vans in front of several homes…with “Cottage Rental Agency<\/a>” on the vans.<\/p>\n

OH! \u00a0They’re vacation RENTAL houses! \u00a0Wow!<\/p>\n

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This was one of my favorites of the houses — perhaps because it’s blue and white? It’s called ‘Fur, Fins and Feathers’: http:\/\/www.vrbo.com\/291892<\/p><\/div>\n

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Dave and I found the check-in area for those houses and got a brochure for renting the houses.<\/p>\n

Um…yeah. \u00a0I don’t think we’ll be doing this for a while. \u00a0While it’d be fantastic for several families together to rent one house (we saw a truck pull up to a house and there were two families uniting for a vacation…apparently the families hadn’t seen each other for a while, judging from the “Wow, the kids have grown!”-type comments)…this town is incredibly luxurious and we will simply have to admire the town as a passing fancy for now.<\/p>\n

On 30A through the center of Seaside is a row of Airstream trailers: gourmet food stands! \u00a0They were very neat!<\/p>\n

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Love these Airstream food stands. This is a grilled-cheese sandwich stand! How cool is that?<\/p><\/div>\n

We continued our eastward drive through the towns of Seagrove, Alys Beach and Rosemary Beach. \u00a0These towns were similarly beautifully groomed. \u00a0Here’s our picture of Alys Beach, which reminded me of those classic scenes of the tall palm trees in Beverly Hills<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Route 30A through Alys Beach. The grass alone was so perfect I think I’d be scared to live here…<\/p><\/div>\n

Along the gulf, off in the distance, I saw this STUNNING house! \u00a0Waves of glass and concrete<\/a>. \u00a0Because I was driving I asked Dave to take a picture, but we couldn’t get a good one. \u00a0So I found this website of pictures. \u00a0I also learned that the house is owned by a man named Charlie Hilton<\/a>. \u00a0My first thought was “those<\/em> Hiltons”? \u00a0But no, this Hilton is a Panama City-area\u00a0entrepreneur\u00a0who got started in the asphalt paving business and later ventured into hotels (ironically) and cattle ranching. \u00a0Beautiful house…<\/p>\n

Highway 30A reunites with U.S. 98 just west of Panama City Beach, and we took state route 30 along the beach road in Bay County all the way to Pier Park, which is a shopping mall, amusement park and entertainment complex just north of the Panama City Beach pier. \u00a0We enjoyed beers and a giant pretzel at the Hofbrau Bier Garten, which we didn’t know existed.<\/p>\n

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Happy Hofbrauhaus Hubby!<\/p><\/div>\n

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This is my “spending the day in a convertible” hairdo!<\/p><\/div>\n

We had a fun afternoon…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dave and I took a drive on Saturday. \u00a0It’s something we hadn’t done in YEARS — as the kids get older they don’t really have the patience to just sit in the car and enjoy the scenery. \u00a0We got into the Mustang, put the top down and headed eastward! Much of what I had written […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[270,271,97,626,163,37],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-iv","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":955,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2012\/04\/florida-discoveries-21-dolphin-cruising-in-destin.html","url_meta":{"origin":1147,"position":0},"title":"Florida Discoveries 21: Dolphin Cruising in Destin","date":"30 April 12","format":false,"excerpt":"I guess it's been a while since I wrote one of these \"Discoveries\" posts, isn't it? It doesn't mean we didn't do anything -- in fact, I'm reminded that I should relabel my USS Alabama, Mardi Gras and Santa Train posts \"Alabama Discoveries\"...we do seem to spend a lot of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"boating\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/IMG_1971-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1214,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2012\/07\/florida-discoveries-27-destin-parasailing-with-the-kids.html","url_meta":{"origin":1147,"position":1},"title":"Florida Discoveries 27: Destin Parasailing with the Kids","date":"18 July 12","format":false,"excerpt":"Last weekend we took advantage of another Groupon: $35 parasailing with Destin Parasailing. By buying two for \"myself\" and gifting two more to Dave (per the terms of the Groupon), we were able to swing $35 parasailing for the whole family! We were scheduled for last Saturday, but due to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"destin\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/IMG_2732-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1198,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2012\/07\/florida-discoveries-26-destin-deep-sea-fishing-trip.html","url_meta":{"origin":1147,"position":2},"title":"Florida Discoveries 26: Destin Deep Sea Fishing Trip","date":"14 July 12","format":false,"excerpt":"Yep, I'm quite a bit behind, but I wanted to share Dave's and my latest Florida adventure. While the kids were in the northeast visiting with the grandparents, on July 3rd we booked a half-day (6 hour) fishing trip out on the Gulf of Mexico. \u00a0We had SO MUCH FUN\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"charter fishing\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/IMG_2633-768x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1211,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2012\/07\/florida-discoveries-26-5-now-were-olin-marler-spokespeople.html","url_meta":{"origin":1147,"position":3},"title":"Florida Discoveries 26.5: Now We’re Olin Marler Spokespeople!","date":"15 July 12","format":false,"excerpt":"Today we took the kids parasailing (new blog post coming soon!) and we used the same business, Olin Marler Fishing Service, that we did for the deep sea fishing earlier this month. \u00a0So when we were checking in, Jacob pointed out that Dave and I were in one of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"boating\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/OlinMarlerCatch2.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":555,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/05\/florida-discoveries-10-dr-beals-shell-museum.html","url_meta":{"origin":1147,"position":4},"title":"Florida Discoveries 10: Dr. Beal’s Shell Museum","date":"04 May 11","format":false,"excerpt":"I call it \"Pulling a Maryann\". \u00a0I see something while driving down the road, so I pull over and take some pictures.When it's in my neighborhood, that's one thing. \u00a0I don't have many problems doing that when I see some pretty flowers. \u00a0But today I screeched onto the shoulder off\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"florida\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-PHj9nszYiRo\/TcCnGEGJYtI\/AAAAAAABVV8\/OtVcbr6JFQY\/s400\/IMG_4656.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1959,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/03\/florida-discoveries-40-the-mcguires-st-patricks-day-run.html","url_meta":{"origin":1147,"position":5},"title":"Florida Discoveries 40: The McGuire’s St. Patrick’s Day Run","date":"26 March 13","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple weeks ago we took part in another Florida Panhandle tradition: the McGuire's St. Patrick's Day 5K Prediction Run on March 9th. This is a race that rewards not how fast you can run, but how close you finish to a time you predict at registration time. It happens\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"fitness\"","img":{"alt_text":"Just before race time!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/IMG_5930-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1166,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147\/revisions\/1166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}