We arrived home from Florida late on Monday evening feeling very sun-kissed and very grateful. Per usual, it was a wonderful week hanging with my parents and my grandmother at the beach. And fun to get to be there for July Fourth week which is by far the busiest week of the year for the island. It’s wild to see the contrast between off-season when things are empty and chill and peak week when it becomes a mini-city.

Here are some highlights from our trip broken down into beach time, family time, running and eats!

BEACH TIME

We had the prettiest weather for our beach week. Sunny and H-O-T. The first couple of days the water was extremely seaweedy but thankfully that cleared out.

I grew up spending summers on these beaches and it’s been really special to see Finn develop such a love for them too. Funny story – Finn told me that my hat in the last photo was giving “Old MacDonald.” I’m officially at the age where if it’s comfortable or serves a purpose that I need – I will forgo vanity lol.

FAMILY TIME

Balcony sitting, Fourth of July firework viewing, arcade outings, a trip to the Gulfarium, rock painting and more.

RUNNING

My workouts looked like this:

Wednesday: REST
Thursday: 3 mile evening walk
Friday: 7.04 mile run for the Fourth
Saturday: full body dumbbell lift
Sunday: 13.1 mile long run
Monday: REST

Both runs were hot and sweaty and required gas station stops for an extra bottle of water. For my long run on Sunday, I ran from Okaloosa Island to Destin for the first time on the paved trail on Highway 98. I started at 5a and got to watch the sunrise over the water and dunes on 98 and it was so amazing. The second photo above is an arial of my long run route that I took from the plane when we were flying out. Pretty cool!

EATS

Here’s some highlights of what I ate including all five dinners that my dad prepared!

My dad’s homemade plain yogurt, my dad’s homemade cherry preserves, banana, blueberries, raspberries, Publix bakery granola and almond butter. I ate this for breakfast every morning but one!

The other breakfast. Almond butter, sea salt and honey on toasted sourdough and a mix of mango, raspberries and blueberries.

A tomato (that I brought all the way from Charlotte because it’s the first one my plant produced and wasn’t quite ripe yet before we left and I wasn’t going to miss out on eating it haha), bacon and mayo on my dad’s sourdough, hardboiled eggs and cherries.

Taylor Farms Mediterranean chop salad kit – add tomato, chickpeas, avocado, dried cranberries and turkey.

Open faced salmon salad melt made with canned Blue Harbor salmon, mayo, plain yogurt, sweet pickles, salt and pepper.

Open faced turkey sandwich on sourdough with mayo, avocado and muenster cheese.

All the watermelon. So satisfying this time of year, especially at the beach.

Dinner #1 was pan sautéed pork chops and rice with gravy, lima beans and homemade buttermilk biscuits.

Dinner #2 was meatballs in a quick tomato sauce over thin spaghetti noodles. Sometimes my dad serves these over polenta but I think he chose noodles so Finn would eat it!

Dinner #3 – July Fourth meal! Smoked beef ribs, roasted okra, corn on the cob and the most heavenly potato salad. Might be the best one he’s ever made!

Dinner #4 was homemade sourdough pizza. My dad has been working hard on his sourdough crust and it’s really delish! And crazy – he doesn’t use any yeast just like wen he bakes bread.

I made a side salad for me and my mom with romaine, kalamata olives, feta, tomatoes and carrots. My dad is the best ever and made a batch of homemade ranch dressing because he knows I like it with my pizza. I went my whole life eating pizza plain or dipping it in marinara and in the last five or so years, I have become a ranch with pizza enthusiast.

Dinner #5 was shrimp tacos with guacamole, queso fresco and a quick pickled slaw. I used some of the leftover ranch on my tacos as a sauce. I also had a side of black beans and mac and cheese (leftovers that my dad reheated).

I failed to photograph my dessert but I got a pint of Talenti Raspberry Cheesecake Gelato and Jenny’s Brambleberry Crisp Ice Cream and it was a tasty combo! The Talenti had generous raspberry swirls and hunks of graham cracker crust and the Jenny’s Brambleberry is probably my favorite ice cream flavor for a couple years running now. It’s perfection in a pint. Truly reminiscent of eating a fruit crisp with ice cream.

THE END 

What did you do for July 4th? 

What’s your favorite time of year to be at the beach? 

Current top ice cream flavor?