Friday, September 7, 2012

Panama City Beach - Exploring the panhandle

An explanation is at place. Some of you will have noticed that the blog hasn't been updated for a long time and that there is quite much left to write about. As we arrived in Sweden we were met by some really bad news that occupied our thoughts for quite some time. Now everything is OK again and I will do my best to finish writing about our road trip, even though school has started again. Here goes...

Life is a beach. At least it should be. Just an image of a beach - be it a picture or a painting sets off a firework of emotions in me, and I find myself longing to be there. The sound of waves, soothing like a lullaby. Each wave with the promise that after it's hasty return a new one will take it's place. Again, and again, and again. It's infinity in the making, and in it's presence I feel part of that infinity in a way that every moment seems like it will last forever. And what better place to spend infinity than with the warm sun in your face, your feet buried in the soft white sand, tuning yourself in with the universe. Needless to say we love the beach and we are always in search of that perfect one. That search led us to Florida's panhandle, famous for it's stunning beaches.

The panhandle - named so since Florida looks like a giant pan(debatable I guess) and the westmost part as it's handle, has a great number of beaches to choose from. After thoughtful consideration we chose two spend our two available nights at Panama City Beach. It seemed a perfect combination of a great beach and good nightlife. More then any people I know americans like to enjoy themselves while on vacation. That's probably why there are so many places spread out through the country, that seem to exist for the sole purpose of providing entertainment for the whole family. Panama City Beach is one of those places. Motels and hotels facing the water were priced in the upper scale, but not wanting to waste valuable beach time we soon settled for one that looked at it would give good value for those dollars. The Chateau motel had really luxurious rooms facing the ocean, and after checking in we had but to walk out our doors to grab a sun chair on the sun deck. A few cold ones later we decided to check out the nightlife along Front Beach rd. The road that runs parallel with the length of the beach, is packed with surf shops, bars and restaurants. Youngsters rented scooters from the many vendors located here and tried to race up and down this main road, only to be caught in the ever growing weekend traffic. Cars packed with hopeful vacationers like us trying to get the last available rooms. Seing this chaos we grew confident our choice to pick a place no matter the price was the right one. 

We only had to walk to the neighboring restaurant for our first Margarita on a patio by the sea. The house band were playing super cheesy covers which fit perfect with the tacky theme. The atmosphere was family friendly and it suited us just fine after our crazy week in New York. The rest of the night was spent strolling up and down Front beach Rd just enjoying the laid back bars and night clubs.


Next day we hit the sun deck as soon as we woke up. When ever you got to hot from laying in the sun you would just run down to the ocean to cool off. It was magical. After a few hours we started getting hungry and decided to grab lunch at Hooters. Hooters is a tacky chain of restaurants with the only requirements for their staff, to be female and have the "right" size bra. However it is nothing like a strip club, it's pretty much your everyday budget restaurant. We've been somewhat reluctant to try it out in the past but since it was right next to our hotel and had a patio facing the beach we gave it a go. Try everything once right?  Not many vegetarian options but the deepfried jalapenos made it all worthwile. They also served some mean margaritas that improved the rating for us. The rest of the day was pretty much a copy of the night before so I'm not gonna go in to details on that. Especially since there is so much more interesting stuff coming up that I wanna share. So stay tuned....

1 comment:

  1. My friends who often visit Panama City always tell me that night life there is more fun than any other time of the day. Soon, I have the chance to experience what they’re talking about. Hahaha! My family is planning to have a two-week vacation there this summer! :’)

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