1 Week in Destin

My parents wanted to go somewhere warm for spring break. What place is better than Destin’s white beaches and hot girls. So Dad, Drew, Mom, Martin, and I set off on our journey to Florida.

Destin

The Journey

Driving to Destin

If you’ve ever played the game Mario Kart, you might remember flying around turns in Coconut Mall. Apparently that’s what I drive like. Martin’s words were “that you truly learn to love life when Nate drives”. In Indiana you have to complete 50 hours of driving with a parent to get your license. My test is in a few months. And I have around 9 hours. So that means lots of driving. The only problem with my driving is… well my driving. I suck a*s at driving and now I had to transport my family and a friend. So for once the pressure was on. I had my dad at my side and the rest in the back. We had safely made it to Alabama and my dad was teaching me the way of cruise control. Of course he decided that the Mario kart roads of Alabama were the perfect spot. So I set the cruise control to 75 and tried to stay awake. Out of nowhere it got super twisty and my inexperienced driving brain decided to keep cruise control on. We flew around corners at 75 mph until my mom kicked me out of the front seat. I knew it was going to be a great trip.

Snaps

Martin and I went down to Florida with a few goals.

• First, spend as much time possible in the ocean.
• Second, get an amazing tan.
• Third, get some snaps.

There’s the obvious way, to just go up and ask the girl. But Martin and I thought that would be a little to boring. So at a outlet mall we grabbed a whole bunch of these pamphlets for some deal at this GoKart place. And we wrote our snaps on them. The problem was the pamphlets were completely full so we had to write our snaps at the bottom. And we both have horrible handwriting so I don’t know how they could even understand it. Then we had to deal with actually getting it to the person and convincing them to not throw it away.

The script:
“Hey what’s your name?

“I’m _____”

“Cool cool, so I have this great deal for you. 10 dollars off this …. GoKart place and our snap!”

“Just think about it.”

Thumbs up or something and walk away.

What a great plan we had. It was hard enough to, choose someone, get their attention, convince them, hope they find it, and they take the time to search on snap. This is why we had one person add us back. So that ended up being a major waste of our time and we went back to the normal way. I guess every girl at that beach was in college or had a boyfriend. Aka they looked at Martin and I and noped us from the start. But it was still fun! No regrets.

The Ocean

List of favorite places in the world

1. Ocean/Beach
2. City Street
3. Warm Bed
4. Beach Restaurant
5. Airport

The ocean is the greatest place in the world. The waves filled with surfers and the calm water teeming with snorkelers. The sunsets watched by people eating seafood along the beach. Marriages celebrated along the sand. Vacations taken just to get the perfect tan. Indonesian beaches filled with young backpackers and Florida beaches filled with Midwesterners. We went to the ladder. Personally, I don’t really enjoy Florida as much but it has beaches so who cares. Destin had miles of white sand and being spring break, was filled with college students. Though I spent most of my time in the waves. Giving my best attempt at bodysurfing. Body surfing is just surfing but with no board. Flying through the wave with white exploding around you is an amazing feeling. You either ride the wave or catch a big one and get slammed on your head. I spent most of my time with my face buried in the ocean floor. If you’re not the type to like waves just float around in the water close to shore. It’s a place for everybody. 

As long as I’m by the ocean all is well.

Food

I love love love the ocean but a close runner up is food. When it comes to traveling there is only two things. Exploring and then eating. Mt family probably eat 4 to 5 times a day while in a new place. For example in Lisbon we ate Breakfast then went to a bakery, after that we ate lunch and got dessert, finally we got dinner and more dessert. But since its Lisbon we stayed healthy and full. Not the same in America. Way too much donuts. There were a few spots that I really loved but Pompano Joe’s took first place. It was a 5 minute walk from our private beach. And it sat right on top of the beach built into a hill. If you sat on the right you could watch the waves lap against the shore. The sun shined wherever you sat and the waiter brought out ice filled drinks throughout the day. The menu was made up of a bunch of seafood and basic fried foods. But it was the setting that made it amazing. Anything by the beach is good.

Dislocated Finger

On the final day of being in Destin and Martin had gotten us all a banana boat ride. A banana boat ride is a big raft connected to a jet ski. We went at 5 in the evening and found ourselves battling the waves to get onto the boat. We crawl onto the boat and hold on for dear life as he gives us some speech about signs for speed. I could have cared less. I just wanted to get the ride started. He grinned and slammed the gas. Off we were. I imagine this is what bull riding was like. Flying around, holding on until your fingers hurt. After a few minutes Martin started going with no hands. So I tried it to and got thrown all over the raft. Finally our 15 minutes of fun ended and the guy gave us some speech about giving him a good review so he could stay working a not real job. Okay buddy just get us in safe. He told us to hold on for dear life until he completely turned the raft around towards the shore. I guess Martin didn’t hear this and was in the boat one moment and flying in the air the next moment. He was in the boat and I blinked and saw him flailing in the air, and then no martin. I laughed so hard I almost fell off the boat to. Then the raft is fully turned and like a scene from a world war 2 movie everybody starts jumping out. But when I’m about to a wave smacks the raft and I fall. I get back up, damn that was a hard wave. I get up and look at my hand. I stare in amazement as I see one of my finger looking like an L. At the knuckle there was a 90 degree angle and the rest of my finger. I started freaking out and behind me Martin was laughing. The guy thought I was faking it to scare my dad. I was not. The next group of people struggling to get onto the boat saw my finger and turned white. I ran onto the beach and started begging for something literally anything. I’m sure you can tell I’m not very good with pain. Luckily some hot college girl volunteered to take me to the ER. My mom told me I should walk back to the AirBnB drive me from there. Umm…H*ll No. I’ll take the college student. Of course I had to walk all the way to her car. Though I succeeded in getting her phone number so everything wasn’t a loss. She drove my mom and I to the hospital and dropped us off. I think I waited in the lobby for 10 minutes. I almost barfed and fainted sitting there. Then they brought me into a room and fixed me. Martin told everybody he knew and all was well. We went home and then went back to Indiana the next day.

Great Memories Never Die