A Weekend Getaway to Panama City Beach, Florida

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Entrance to Pier Park

When presented with the chance of visiting Panama City Beach for a quick weekend getaway, I jumped at the chance. How could I say no? Sugar white sand beaches, delicious food, the ocean…you get the idea. There are tons of fun things to do, places to eat, and things to discover in PCB.

My #PCBPOV

We reached Panama City Beach just after noon on a warm, beautiful day in May. We decided to eat at Pier Park (pictured above). Parking was to either side of the shopping center. It is a very popular place, but somehow we managed to find a spot towards the back near the giant slide.

We walked past a lot of cute shops and restaurants.

We thought about eating at Hofbräuhaus.

But hey! We were at the beach and fresh seafood is what we wanted so we ended up having lunch at Pompano Joe’s.

Shrimp Po Boy

On the walk back to our car, we stopped and bought a cup of Italian Ice.

After a quick stop at the condo to drop off our things, we headed for the beautiful beach.

One of the things that I really wanted to do while in Panama City Beach was to find a donut shop. As luck would have it, when we found a parking spot at the beach it happened to be directly across from Thomas’ Donut & Snack Shop.

It was meant to be!

After spending some time at the ocean, we headed down the main strip and dined at Barefoot Hideaway Grill. There I enjoyed my first fish taco. I ordered both the fried and blackened – both were delicious.

I loved that Barefoot Hideaway is right on the beach. The sun was starting to set and I was able to walk a few feet out onto the beach and capture the sunset with my camera.

The next day, we took a Shell Island Cruise via Capt. Anderson’s Marina.

Our trip took 3 1/2 hours and it was a blast! Shortly after launching from the marina, passengers were handed Cheetos. We learned that seagulls love Cheetos and will take them from your hand.

We spotted dolphins several times while on the ship. The captain stopped the boat so that we could watch them. We were fortunate to even spot a juvenile dolphin swimming with the pod.

To be honest, I was not sure what to expect about Shell Island. When we arrived, we had to disembark and walk over a long dock to get to the other side.

We were among the first to reach the end of the dock. My husband spotted a couple of crabs running on the beach. The two got away from us once we hit the sand, but my husband found another one buried under the sand. He finally moved and I was able to record him scurrying to the water:

There is a reason that it is called Shell Island – there are a lot of shells dotting the seashore. Most of what we found were small shells or fragments.

We were able to find six perfect little sand dollars.

We had about an hour to enjoy Shell Island before we had to head back. On the ride back we saw even more dolphins.

Later that evening, we drove to Panama City Beach Winery. All of their wines are produced in Florida and are award winners.

They offer daily wine tastings. I thought they were all pretty good, but I particularly liked their peach wine, White Gold. I picked up a bottle and am saving it for my birthday.

For our last dinner at PCB, we ate at Firefly, which came highly recommended to me by friends. Let me just say that my friends were right!

My son ordered pizza.

Pizza Margherita

Since we arrived early, my husband and I ordered off of the Sunset Menu.

Medallions Of Beef Tenderloin

Pan Seared Atlantic Salmon

My son and I both ordered dessert. It was neat watching the waitress set the Creme Brulee aflame in front of us.

White Chocolate Creme Brulee

Homemade Cheesecake

After our incredible dinner, we played a round of mini golf at Barnacle Bay. Although I was able to make a hole-in-one, I ended up second overall.

This was such a great mini-vacation. In addition to all of the fun things we got to see, do, and eat, another great benefit of the trip was seeing my teenager smile. That was priceless.