Valiant_200 (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} valiant_200) wrote,@ 2006-07-17 12:15:00 |
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Panama City Beach
petalbreeze and I went to Panama City for the weekend and the trip did not turn out to be as much fun as we expected it to. Panama City Beach looks like it was probably a lot of fun 20 years ago, but now it consists primarily of condo towers and tourist junk stores, separated by a narrow two-lane ribbon of road. The place is confusing. The roads all have two or three names or there are roads with similar names, and there is an Alvin's Island store on every corner and no sidewalks anywhere. Madness.
At the Hampton Inn hotel, which was extrordinarily expensive, the broadband connection was gimpy and had to be reauthorized constantly. You would think that for all the security they had for their connection it would have been much better, but neither the hard-wired connection or the wifi were very consistent.
Despite this, there were some high points. We went to Club LeVela on Friday night and, despite being about 15 years too old for the crowd, had a pretty good time there. Saturday, we went to the beach and The Petal got a little color in her skin. We had fun in the water for about an hour. After that, we went to Sharky's for dinner. Later in the evening, we checked out the Blacklight Mini Golf, which was located inside the second floor of a "haunted house" at the Super Speed mini car racing place. Blacklights and techno music. Ah the memories...
But these meager pleasures were seperated by long stretches of sitting in traffic, crawling past the confusing array condo towers and junk stores which lined the streets. It didn't help that every corner has an Alvin's Island, and there were at least three places called "Purple Haze." I liked the looks of the Purple Haze stores, but, on closer inspection, they looked like they were just tee shirt shops like the multitude of other places. They all look the same after a while. By the time 11 O'clock rolled around, The Petal's feet were killing her, so all we did was hang at the hotel Saturday night. Kind of a waste, really, but she had been run ragged and was ready to rest.
We ended our adventure on Sunday with a trip to Falling Waters State Park. The main feature of this park is a waterfall, but due to the drought we have been having all across the Gulf South, the waterfall was dry. (Oh geez, that is perfect!) Despite this, we still had a good time walking along the trails looking at the dramatic sinkholes and just enjoying nature. The weather threatened the whole time but, underneath the canopy of trees, the raindrops served to be an interesting soundtrack to our walk. In the end, we considered this one of the highlights of the trip.
The drive home was punctuated by a wreck on I-10 which backed up traffic for about 5 miles, (turned out to be an overturned SUV in a ditch), and a trip to a Japanase Hibachi place called Stix. The Petal drove the last hour of the trip. By that time, I was exhausted.
If I had to summarize our experience in one word, it would be "marginal." It was kinda' fun, but not worth all the driving and expense. Next time, we'll just go to Pensacola or Gulf Shores, Alabama.
petalbreeze and I went to Panama City for the weekend and the trip did not turn out to be as much fun as we expected it to. Panama City Beach looks like it was probably a lot of fun 20 years ago, but now it consists primarily of condo towers and tourist junk stores, separated by a narrow two-lane ribbon of road. The place is confusing. The roads all have two or three names or there are roads with similar names, and there is an Alvin's Island store on every corner and no sidewalks anywhere. Madness.At the Hampton Inn hotel, which was extrordinarily expensive, the broadband connection was gimpy and had to be reauthorized constantly. You would think that for all the security they had for their connection it would have been much better, but neither the hard-wired connection or the wifi were very consistent.
Despite this, there were some high points. We went to Club LeVela on Friday night and, despite being about 15 years too old for the crowd, had a pretty good time there. Saturday, we went to the beach and The Petal got a little color in her skin. We had fun in the water for about an hour. After that, we went to Sharky's for dinner. Later in the evening, we checked out the Blacklight Mini Golf, which was located inside the second floor of a "haunted house" at the Super Speed mini car racing place. Blacklights and techno music. Ah the memories...
But these meager pleasures were seperated by long stretches of sitting in traffic, crawling past the confusing array condo towers and junk stores which lined the streets. It didn't help that every corner has an Alvin's Island, and there were at least three places called "Purple Haze." I liked the looks of the Purple Haze stores, but, on closer inspection, they looked like they were just tee shirt shops like the multitude of other places. They all look the same after a while. By the time 11 O'clock rolled around, The Petal's feet were killing her, so all we did was hang at the hotel Saturday night. Kind of a waste, really, but she had been run ragged and was ready to rest.
We ended our adventure on Sunday with a trip to Falling Waters State Park. The main feature of this park is a waterfall, but due to the drought we have been having all across the Gulf South, the waterfall was dry. (Oh geez, that is perfect!) Despite this, we still had a good time walking along the trails looking at the dramatic sinkholes and just enjoying nature. The weather threatened the whole time but, underneath the canopy of trees, the raindrops served to be an interesting soundtrack to our walk. In the end, we considered this one of the highlights of the trip.
The drive home was punctuated by a wreck on I-10 which backed up traffic for about 5 miles, (turned out to be an overturned SUV in a ditch), and a trip to a Japanase Hibachi place called Stix. The Petal drove the last hour of the trip. By that time, I was exhausted.
If I had to summarize our experience in one word, it would be "marginal." It was kinda' fun, but not worth all the driving and expense. Next time, we'll just go to Pensacola or Gulf Shores, Alabama.
