LDW 2026 – Beach Weekend

Labor Day Weekend in Fort Walton Beach – SATURDAY:

We finished packing everything up and into the car on Saturday morning, and got ourselves loaded up into Daddy’s new EV, and pulled out of the driveway heading west!

After a few stops along the way (as always), we made it there pretty much right on time for an early-ish lunch. We picked a spot on the bay, The Shack, so we could sit near the water and eat seafood to kick things off. And we also explored this little park right next to the restaurant as well, with lots of these bronze statues.

Then we drove over a few blocks to their little downtown area to walk and explore. We found a very cute coffee shop, with an amazing cookie shop next door too.

Jeff needed to charge up the EV at a nearby hotel, so the girls and I walked across the street from the coffee shop to the local library! The girls did a puzzle, and flipped through a few books, and just kinda ran around while were were there for about 30-ish minutes.

Then we relocated the car to the other end of the downtown, to go to the park and playground for a bit, since we still couldn’t check in at the hotel. We found this un-mapped Little Free Library, and also stumbled upon a very cute children’s book store. All the books were more geared towards Addie’s age and lower, but it was too cute not to buy anything, so Emmie and I, along with the proprietor, picked out a beautifully illustrated book for Addie called, “Mouse by the Sea: A Vacation in Nature.”

Found this crazy little souvenir shop next door, where we got ice cream for the girls, and another coffee at Maas Coffee Roasters for Jeff and I, before going over to the playground.

And once we finally got checked in, the first thing we needed to do was rest for about 30 minutes, and then we hit up the hotel pool for an afternoon cool-down.

We went out to dinner later, at a place so sub-par I’m just glossing over that portion/place, and skipping straight to this amazing dessert spot. It’s called Pink Coyote Dessert Co., and we got this very cute little ice cream flight for the girls and I to share.

And we were surprised to find that they had their own little free library shelf right there in the store, and I scored this great hard-back copy of a Jojo Moyes novel.

We were all ready to fall into bed that night as soon as we got back to the hotel, after such a busy, amazing first day!

We’ve made this little Labor Day Weekend getaway a tradition for a few years now, and it’s always such a special time together. I like picking places for us to visit that aren’t overly touristy, that we can explore and adventure and take it easy. Pool hotel and nearby beaches were a huge plus this year, and we had a great time!

I’ll include the links to the other two days here, once I get them all written up: Sunday Day 2, Monday Day 3.

(If you want to see last year’s trip, check it out here: Saturday Day 1, Sunday Day 2, Monday Day 3. And even here for 2024, where I put it all in one loooong post. And again way back in 2021. I thought we had been doing it yearly, but I guess we skipped 2022 & 2023. It’s certainly )