LDW 2026 – Sunrise Dunk

MONDAY

We decided to really go all out on our last day of vacay, by starting the day before the sun! We set our alarms for 5:30am, left the hotel a few minutes before 6am, and headed out for a sunrise dunk in the ocean. It was beautiful, and so refreshing, and felt like such a sweet, special time with our little family.

When we first got out there, we were literally the only ones there, but as the morning went on, people showed up all around us to the left and right, but not really nearby, so it still felt pretty secluded. The water actually felt great, and although the sun was partially hiding behind some clouds, it was still absolutely gorgeous!

 

 

 

 

We stayed and swam and played for about an hour, and then got dried off and changed into some dry clothes. We stopped by a crazy dessert/bakery spot on our way back to the hotel, where we got one kolache to share, and the three of them picked out donuts. (I just didn’t really want one today.) But then we also went to breakfast at the hotel, where I made a bagel sandwich with egg & sausage, and Emerson ate her s’mores donut, plus yogurt, sausage and juice. The girl was starving after our sunrise dunk!

Jeff wanted to go charge up the car again before getting on the road, so the girls and I put our swim suits back on, and had a morning swim in the hotel pool for about an hour, while he took care of that.

We got showered and clean again, and got everything packed up. Jeff mainly got the car all packed up on his own, taking a few bags at a time, making a few trips. We stayed at a Tru by Hilton, and I love that they always have these amazing murals in their lobby.

We visited a souvenir shop downtown, but were un-pleasantly surprised at how expensive everything was, so they only thing we got was this picture of the girls in this shark mouth 😄

Instead, we visited a few more LFL’s as we drove north, and Addie Pie fell asleep in the car, while Emmie kept reading on her Kindle.

We found a great little Mexican place for lunch, Mi Casita in Niceville, which honestly ended up being one of the best Mexican restaurants we’ve ever eaten at! I ordered chilaquiles for lunch, and this was soooo good and flavorful.

And then we braved the 7Brew lines to see if we could score today’s jackpot item for the girls, which was a collab between 7Brew and Needoh, with limited edition “brewdoh” squishies! We actually tried first in Fort Walton, but the lines were super long, coming from two directions, and it would have taken over an hour, at the very least. We next tried in Niceville after lunch, which had much shorter lines, but someone coming out of the line told us they were out of the squishies. So we continued our trip north and tried again in Crestview near the interstate, and we lucked out! The line wasn’t bad at all, only took about 20 minutes, and we got four delicious drinks and two squishies for “free” for the girls!

As we continued our drive home, we ended up needing to charge up one more time, which was a bit of an ordeal after the first place we mapped out was actually not working, so we had to adjust and find a new spot. He ended up liking this one best, since it was faster and cheaper, and we just walked across the lot to use their restrooms while the car charged. I know it seems like a bit of hoopla, but it’s really not much different than gassing up on a trip, you just have to be more specific about where you’re gonna stop and charge.

My mom gave me this little “snackle” box a few weeks ago, and it was perfect to fill up with some faves for a little vacay road trip. Addie sat with it in her lap the last hour or so of the ride home, and just kept opening it up and grabbing the next snack as we drove.

We finally made it home around 6pm or so, and got everything unloaded from the car. We grabbed dinner from DQ, since I couldn’t fathom cooking anything real, and then got the girls ready for bed.

I didn’t actually plan to write all three posts tonight for this past weekend, but I just kinda got started and couldn’t stop, and I was actually able to just get it all done! But now it’s very late and I’m very tired, so it’s more than past time to head off to bed!

Catch up here if you missed Day 1 or Day 2.