Panama City Beach, Florida - Girls Trip - Sept. 5-7, 2014

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One of my friends, Laurie, wanted a last minute girls trip to Panama City Beach, FL for her 30th birthday, so with just a few days to plan, 4 of us got together and hit the road for a fun weekend! Cruise montage video with lots of silly video clips - YES we are dressed up and lip-syncing to New Kids on the Block:

Laurie, myself, Mandy, and Jennifer left the Atlanta area about 6am on Friday for the drive down. Aided by our Dunkin' Donuts coffee and breakfast, we were fueled until we rolled into PCB around lunchtime.

Wanting to make it a special weekend for Laurie, we did little special things throughout the weekend. I had ordered a cookie cake online to pick up once we got into town. It worked out so perfectly! We'd gone to Pier Park for some shopping, and when the girls went into one of the stores, I ducked out and ran to the nearby Great American Cookies place. While in there, I met some guys and learned it was the first weekend of the world championships for intramural style softball. In our conversation, I told them I was there for my friend's birthday before dashing back to put the cookie in the car. The guys rounded the corner later and I was able to get them to do an impromptu Happy Birthday song for Laurie. (They remembered her name and everything!) It was perfect because it disguised that I'd really been gone to get her cake! 😊 She'd later see the cake in the trunk when we got to the hotel and was so confused on how it got there. Bonus points! 😊

Lunch was at Pier Park at a place called Dirty Dick's. Their "theme" is rude waiters and crude writings they put on the paper hats they make you were. Things like: "Now available on DVD", "Glory Hole", "Group Discounts available", and "Virgin in the front". This chain is definitely a good concept for a drinking resort town! We all split a large appetizer plate and started our vacation off with drinks.

Afterwards I experienced my first drive through liquor store. It is like a garage bay that you drive through with coolers on the side. They grab your order for you and you never get out of your car. Jen proudly "bargained" and ended up getting us 2 free coozies.

We stayed at the Summit which was next to Spinnakers and Club La Vela - beach hotspots. I was a bit concerned about some of the reviews for Summit which made me wonder if our room would be clean or not. (It's a mixed-use condo type of resort with outrageous cleaning fees) We had no problems and loved how spacious the room was. It had a jack and jill type bathroom which meant two toilets. A great bonus! The room slept up to 6 people and had a king bedroom, a set of bunk beds built-in in the hall way, and a fold out queen sofa. There was also a full kitchen with an open concept area with dining table and beach front balcony. The resort requires arm bands, and instead of a key, there is a 10 digit code you enter into your door lock. (I smartly used a sharpie marker to write our code on the inside of our arm bands!) We were also happy with the amenities: 2 pools, tiki bar (with yes, affordable prices, including $1 beer), convenience store with coffee, beer cases, and deli food options, along with an actual restaurant area too.

The first day we hung out on the beach and got dolled up to go to Shuckum's for Karaoke. Laurie loves to sing and we danced a little there to. Shuckum's has the karaoke outside on the sidewalk area so you can just walk up and hang out. They played some of the popular line dances there too. Afterwards we went to Club La Vela for free ladies night entry. Being the weekend after Labor day, it was officially off season. Had we been there the following weekend - we'd have seen Tone-loc for their 30th anniversary. (I had no idea La Vela had been there that long!) There were enough people in the main room to make it feel like a party, but other rooms and areas were pretty sparse.

The next day we went back to the beach and hung out at the pool before getting ready for 80's night! Jen had snuck back early and decorated the room too! We dolled up and goofed on in the room to some old NKOTB songs before heading to dinner at Hammerhead Fred's. Service was slow and was a buzz kill. I don't know if I'd recommend it for the blah service, but the food was good. In the short time we'd been gone to dinner, we realized that our heels were going to be very ambitious for the evening, so after trading them out for flipflops back at the hotel, we went to Coyote Ugly's. This was the highlight of the trip and is a lot like the movies. The big thing there is to dance on the bar and you'll also be rewarded with free shots, nothing too strong though! We had a blast and it was a great last night in PCB.

On the drive home, we had the first rain of the entire trip. The storms were horrible, but it was a fair trade for the beautiful sunshine we'd had all weekend. The weather WAS nice when we came back through Eufala and we stopped to take some pictures with the trees. (Did you know that the state of Alabama wants to widen the road and take out those historic trees?!?! Go sign the petition!) We laughed so hard at us being 30 year old women climbing the tree and made another highlight of the trip.

It was a great weekend. We made so many wonderful memories. 😊

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Photos

Eufala, AL - a landmark city for those making the drive from Atlanta to PCB
Eufala is KNOWN for the pretty trees in the median.