The Duncan's vs.Panama City Beach

Here's a long overdue blog about us Duncan's running amok in Panama City Beach, FL.


After a very long drive from Murfreesboro to Panama City, via back roads due to an out dated GPS, we arrived at our hotel. Owen was quite ecstatic to finally be out of the car, as were we. We unpacked the car, found a chinese buffet to eat at and then did some quick grocery shopping to get us through the week, before heading back to the hotel to rest.

Our first full day of the vacation was spent at the beach. There was a ton of seaweed, but the water was fairly calm. Owen absolutely loved being in the water. He just sat in his floaty and rocked in the waves, which was good, because I too love being in the water. Later that evening, we found our way to Pier Park, a large outdoor shopping center with a small fair grounds area for the kids. After dinner, we ended the night on a Ferris Wheel watching a laser light show. Owen was a little freaked out at first, but after a couple of times around, he seemed to loosen up a bit.

Day #2 was spent at Ship Wreck Island Water Park. It was a fun day, but there were a ton of people at the water park, so we didn't get to check out all of the rides due to long lines. Owen was not too fond of the bigger slides we took him on, but he absolutely loved the lazy river and kids area. After the water park and dinner, we decided to call it an early day and relax back at the hotel.

Day 3 was probably the most fun day of vacation. We booked a trip aboard the Sea Dragon Pirate Cruise. All of the kids got to participate in water gun fights, sword fights, swabbing the deck and finding sunken treasure. Owen seemed to have fun, but I think I enjoyed it more. When that was all said and done, we went back to the hotel to allow Owen to nap before heading back out for some more beach time. We bought Owen a kite and let him fly it around for a while, which was fun.

We eventually made it to Shell Island for our last full day. The water was beautiful, clear and seaweed free, but we didn't seem to find too many good shells. At this point, Owen decided he enjoyed riding the "Dada Boat", which basically consisted of me face down in the water with him holding onto my back. For our last hoorah, we decided to take Owen to play putt-putt. This was his first experience and it was a huge hit. He seemed to get the concept down fairly well. He was even given a free ball at the end, to replace the one that was kept by the last hole.

Unfortunately, the next morning, we had to pack up and head back to reality, via another long drive down some back roads of Florida and Alabama (at least this time we were able to shave off about an hour of drive time). All-in-all, it was a great busy, but yet relaxing vacation and I think we need another one already.

Tim