Topsail Hill Preserve State Park

Finally, I have a new location and experience to write about!  The second week of December was spent at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park near Destin.  This park used to be a private campground and it looks nothing like other Florida state parks we have visited.  The sites are all roomy and paved with a cute street lamp marking each one.  They have cable tv, sewer, shuffleboard, ponds, and a swimming pool.  There is a shuttle that carries campers down to the beach or you can walk or ride your bicycle -- no motor vehicles allowed.  The week we visited was perfect.  The weather was great and there were no neighbors on either side of us.  I can imagine that things are quite different in the summer time.  This was not a park I would visit to enjoy the beach, but for Christmas shopping, it was great!

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were all about the same.  We slept well and late.  Then we ate a light breakfast and went shopping.  We went to the Mary Esther Mall, Bass Pro, and the outlet mall.  We shopped until around 3:00 each day and then returned to the trailer where we spent some time outside, ate a light supper, and enjoyed television until we got sleepy.  We found a new restaurant that we liked, Callahan's Restaurant and Deli.  I got the best pimento cheese sandwich and Bubba got the fried shrimp special for $9.50 which had all he could eat.  We carried food to grill, but since we ate a big lunch every day we just got by for supper.

The park looks like a resort with the swimming pool and beach chairs.

 We're enjoying the nuts we bought at WalMart.  

Bubba went through the bin and got us a bag 

with a lot of walnuts and Brazil nuts.

I'm learning to ride my bicycle with training wheels.

Bubba says I won't fall, I hope he is right.

This is a sample of Bubba's shopping.

He's going to catch flounder with this stuff, I hope.

This is a $65.00 dress that I found for Amelia.

I only paid $15.00 for it.

I thought she would enjoy singing and dancing in it.

To sum it all up, this was a good week because we got all our Christmas shopping done.  We were able to divide it up over three days as we were staying so close to all the good shopping.  We enjoyed eating out more than we usually do. BUT it was a location we would probably only stay in once a year.

I always said that my dream vacation would be to stay in a motel close to an outlet mall and this was even better.  Thank you, Bubba, for being a good sport.