Wendy Visits Panama City Beach

Mitzi's sister Wendy travelled to Panama City Beach to spend a few days with us.

With a lot of airline cancellations lately (Let's Go Brandon and Hurricane Brandon causing delays and cancellations haha) her earlier flight got cancelled and she barely made her connection in Houston.

Happily she made it to us, just a few hours later than planned. Upon her arrival we immediately took her to one of our favorite places, Back Beach BBQ.

After dinner we went over to our house. As Wendy walked into the house she was delighted.

Mitzi had such a good time showing Wendy our house. The decorations, the pictures, her projects. Wendy took in all the details and complimented Mitzi on what a beautiful home she has created.

The next day we went to Playa Bowls in Rosemary Beach for breakfast. When Maddy was here she introduced it to Mitzi and we've fallen in love with it. Here are Wendy and Mitzi waiting for our bowls to come out.

Ahhhh, they're here! We went out by the lawn and ate them on a bench. Afterward we checked out the beach and enjoyed the fall decorations.

I had started a chocolate sourdough loaf a few days before from scratch (using the started from Pajaro Dunes which I keep feeding and alive). I baked it in the late morning and it came out beautifully. I scored it with a W but it rose so much it was hard to tell :)

For lunch Mitzi made her famous chocolate toasty sandwich with ham (we like pastrami but Publix hasn't had it for months unhappily) and melted swiss cheese. Mmmmm!

In the late afternoon we headed over to our favorite Laguna Beach. Some dredging happened off the coast and it stirred up a bunch of shells from the bottom. We normally don't see shells like this on this beach. Mitzi and Wendy enjoyed walking along and finding beautiful ones.

At one point Susie connected with Wendy on Facetime. Cruze was on the call, he's three. Adorable and hilarious. Wendy and Mitzi were showing him some of the shells they found, having so much fun.

Mitzi found a small washed up fish. They had fun showing that to Cruze and getting his reaction.

We left as the sun was starting to set. So beautiful.

We headed over to the Carousel grocery store across the street from the beach. They have a gift shop that Mitzi likes. Wendy got into the shopping action too and purchased some books for her grandchildren. I found an opportunity for a selfie :)

Now it was time for dinner and we went to our favorite Pho restaurant. I mean, it's the only Pho restaurant around, so it must be our favorite :) It's also good. It was Wendy's first experience with Pho. We got vegetable pho, filet mignon pho, chicken vermicelli, and wantons. She tried it all and loved it all.

The next day Mitzi and Wendy decided to go kayaking across the lake over to the beach. The weather was perfect. Very little wind. There is some red algae in the gulf right now and it's killing some fish. They saw a lot of dead fish floating in the water as they got closer to the beach.

They had a fun adventure and upon arriving home Mitzi made us her delicious and delightful Chocolate Toasties. Toasted sourdough bread with hot chocolate!

For dinner we went to the Old Florida Fish House. We'd been there once with our friends the Hillsteads and enjoyed it. We wanted to treat Wendy and it did not disappoint.

Wendy was willing to try the cooked oysters. She was very brave to do this. Mitzi suggested she just think about the oyster as a mushroom. That worked and after her first bite Wendy gave the expression of "this is surprisingly good!". It was a fun moment.

In the evening we went over to the pool and hot tub. They had a relaxed time enjoying the warm water and perfect temperature of the evening.

For breakfast on Wendy's last day we went to another favorite, The Donut Hole. Massive pancakes and lots of hot chocolate really hit the spot.

On our way home we stopped for shopping at Mitzi's favorite little shop, The Beach House Market. Wendy found some gifts and I found another opportunity for a fun selfie.

We took Wendy to the airport in the afternoon and she arrived home that night.

Mitzi and I had such a fun time with her these last few days. Lots of laughter, sharing stories, fun activities, talking about the challenges of parenting and life. The joy of being grandparents.

We are so grateful Wendy came to visit us. It was a wonderful time, a connecting time. It's so nice to have family connections in this life.

Wendy is Mitzi's longest time friend in this world and it gave my heart joy to see them connect and enjoy their sisterhood and friendship.