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I had made plans to stay in Pensacola with my family. I had done some research and bothered Coyne (Nonrev Correspondent - PNS) with a lot of questions but just before time to set out, someone in my church offered us a condo in Panama-City. Well I was glad for that offer and could not afford to turn it down but at the same time dissapointed not to be going to PNS where I had never stayed before. I had visited Panama City several times as a teenager. It has a reputation as a party spot for teens and is very commercialized. Yet I knew that the soft snow-white sand that the FL gulf-coast is famous for would not dissapoint us. My kids would have a great time and not know the difference.
I was right. They did have a great time and I was pleasantly suprised. We had some great seafood. We ate at the restaurant built like a big ship (forgot the name but you can't miss it). It was the expensive tourist trap that I expected it to be. However, we found a great little dive called Spanky's that had some character and some great seafood. Your welcome to add your graffiti onto the wooden booths and for some reason they had dollar bills stapled to the walls.
There are plenty of amusement park type attractions... go-carts, put-put, mazes and some huge bungie type rides but we had for-warned our kids that we were there for the beach and could do those type things at Six-Flags where we lived in GA.
The best thing that we found in PFN though was St. Andrews State Park. It is the most wonderful place to teach kids to snorkel that you can imagine. They have built a large jetty that breaks the ocean waves and creates a huge clear, shallow swimming area for kids. Small fish swim all around to the kids delight. My four year old boy headed out with a bucket to catch some. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif[/img] Out near the rocks that form the jetty there are many fish. There are not as many as a real Caribbean coral reef but it is actually turning into coral and we saw several of the same type of brightly colored fish that you see in the Caribbean. Though my 4-year old did not want to snorkel, his 7-year old sister mastered the art for the first time. She was thrilled with the new adventure.
There is also an inexpensive ferry to "Shell Island" but we had heard it was pretty desolate with no facilities so we did not venture out there with the kids.
Oh, almost forgot, I was able to pick up some good snorkeling gear (US Divers) at the local Wal-mart very inexpensively. They have everything that you need for the beach or water or that you might have forgotten to bring. I have never seen such a busy store. The cashier said that it was one of the highest volume Wal-marts in the country.
Here is the link to St. Andrews State Park:
<a href="http://www.dep.state.fl.us/parks/district1/standrews/index.asp" target="_blank">http://www.dep.state.fl.us/parks/district1...drews/index.asp</A>
If anyone knows of any other FL locations or State Parks that are as snorkel-friendly and fun for kids, I'd love to know about them.
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