Edgewater Beach resort, Panama City Beach 2005

Vacation Journal
Panama City Beach/Edgewater Beach resort
8 Oct 2005 to 15 Oct 2005

8 Oct Saturday
We were headed back to the Edgewater Beach Resort at Panama City Beach, Fl. It was a rescheduled vacation from September after losing our Grandson Hunter. We had booked a direct flight out of the Cincinnati airport. If we had booked from Dayton we would have been forced to change plans in Atlanta. Total time for the trip via Atlanta would have been about 5-7 hours. By leaving from Cincy we added an extra 45 minutes of drive time to the airport but the direct flight in to PCB was only 90 minutes.

We used the ‘park and fly’ lot. It was 7 dollars a day. We pulled in and unloaded our bags at the rear of the Mustang. After about 5 chilly minutes a shuttle pulled up to take us to the terminal. We checked in at the Delta counter. It was all high tech self-service. I scanned our tickets at a kiosk. This checked us in and generated our baggage tags. It went fairly smooth. Security was a little slower than what we usually experience at the Dayton airport. To get to our terminal we had to take a train and then a bus. We joked that we could have been halfway to Panama City by then.

When we landed we were met Mom, Ron and Nang. Ron had generously offered us the use of his Toyota 4Ruuner SUV (sharp truck!). Ron and I headed out in the truck followed by Nang, Patti and Mom. Some family members think I have a lead foot it seems!!! Ha-ha. We went to Golden Corral for breakfast. A Manager tried to seat us in the main area but Nang would have nothing to do with that. She had a friend who worked there and headed out like a shot to the back. The manager stood there with his jaw drooped. “But, but…. I have a table over here. That is a meeting room”. Ron just shrugged and said, “You go tell her.” Hurricane Nang had just blown through. Too funny. Patti and I just followed along.

After breakfast Patti and I headed out to the condo. We had stayed at the Edgewater resort in June of 2003 and loved it. We were leasing from a private owner, Trina Holloway. What a nice Lady. We literally canceled the original vacation the night before we were supposed to leave. Trina understood and offered us a total refund. Something she did not have to do. Instead, we asked to be rescheduled, again something she did not have to do. She not only did that, but we ended up in a 2 bedroom suite instead of a one bedroom at no additional charge. There are some nice people out there. While I am at it- kudos to Delta Airlines who were fantastic in rescheduling the tickets with minimal effort.

As always Patti ‘did good’. The room had a breath-taking view the master bedroom and living room both faced the beach and was floor to ceiling glass. There was a balcony with 3 chairs and a small table. It was nicely decorated, kind of a “British-East India’ décor. Rattan and elephants etc. We had been up since about 4:00 AM Florida time. After a one hour nap, we headed down to the lagoon pool. We hung out by the pool and read and sunned. The water was cool but I jumped in for a few minutes. Had a drink and a quesadilla from the restaurant.

After that we headed down to the beach. We lay down and closed our eyes and just listened to the waves. While there, a lady walked bye and said, “What are they doing?” We looked out and 2 girls were bobbing up and down waving. We realized they were yelling something. It sounded like “shark bite.” I jumped up. Patti said, “Go!” There was a guy to there right who heard them also. It happened very quickly. He swam over. I did not see a shark as I ran out. As it turned out… There was no shark but the Japanese Mom and daughter were going under because the water was over their head. I guess they did not know the English words for “Hey I’m drowning.” But I guess they had seen the movie ‘Jaws’ and could yell “shark bite.”

My big fear when I saw it was two Japanese ladies-- was that a shark was nearby just using the two skinny Japanese girls as ‘bait’ to get the chubby white guy into the water. Anyway me and the other guy got them to the beach. When I got back to Patti and sat down on the towel my body was shaking and my chest hurt. Patti said, “My hero.” Humm… maybe I could milk that a little.

We watched a pretty sunset as we walked up the beach a bit and then headed back to the room and sat on the balcony. I went to the grocery store and got some supplies. Had an easy dinner Bratwurst and chips. Mom had made us a lemon meringue pie. Had 2 big slices of that for desert. Very tasty. Mom also hand painted us a couple of Champaign glasses and gave us those as a gift with a bottle of Champaign. (The glasses are now in our dining room buffet)

9 Oct Sunday
Woke up and had coffee on the balcony and looked at the ocean. Always one of our favorite vacation pastimes. The beach was only half as long to the water as it was two years ago. The hurricane the year before had taken away quite a bit of it. But it was still very nice. It was like walking on powdered sugar. The beach was actually vacuumed and groomed every few days. We went down and checked out the hot tub at the base of our tower. It was very hot. The hot tub over by the lagoon pool was a little cooler so we soaked in that.

After about 30 minutes we switched over to the beach chairs by the pool to sun and read. It got warm! Afternoon highs why we were there were about 86-90. Not to bad for October. Se we switched chairs to sit in the shade. I had smelled French toast all morning and had a craving that would not go away. Back to the room and I cooked some up.

We stopped and got Mom some flowers and headed up to visit Mom, Dean, Ron and Nang. They live in Youngstown about 20 miles north of Panama City Beach. Mom and Dean have a trailer on Ron’s Property. They both have very nice landscaped yards. We sat on Ron’s patio and reminisced and told stories. Ran had his outdoor bar put to good use. At one point Mom and Nang disappeared to their respective kitchens, reappearing a short time later with a nice array of snacks. We had fun just sitting, talking, and spending time together. We said our goodbyes and made plans to meet the following night to go out to dinner.

On our way back to the Condo, Patti and I stopped for dinner at Po’ Boys. Southern cookin! Pattti had beef liver and onions and I had fried chicken gizzards. “Amight tasty y’all.” Later we had coffee on the balcony and had a few more large slices of lemon meringue pie.
The Edgewater Resort is about the size of a mall. There is a beach side with 5 towers and across the highway is the golf course side with about 20 small condo buildings. The resort has a restaurant, Pizza hut outlet and a bar.

10 Oct Monday

Woke up about 8:00 AM. After coffee we had scrambled eggs and toast. Back to the pool for a repeat of the previous morning. We did try the pool again still somewhat chilly. I would get in occasionally but Patti was a chicken!! We went for a walk up the beach to a pier we could see off in the distance. We learned that when on the beach-- things are farther away than they appear! Later I went to the deli and got us a couple of turkey sandwiches for lunch.

We got a phone call from Josh that Ashley was going into labor. Brooklynn Little was born while Grandma and Grandpa were on vacation. Mom, Dean, Ron and Nang met us at the condo for a pre-dinner drink. We went to Angelo’s for dinner- a very popular Panama City Beach steak house. They were only open a few more days before they closed for the season. The food was pricey but very tasty. I had steak and shrimp Patti had a T-bone that made my eyes pop out it was 25 ounces and looked great. She brought almost all of it back to the condo and it made 2 steak sandwiches with more left over.

Josh phoned in updates every so often. The baby was doing fine. I spoke to John on the phone (my uncle by about 30 days). We had not talked in about 30 years. He lives South of New Orleans and we talked about hurricane Katrina and tried to condense 30 years into a short phone call. It was nice talking to him.

11 Oct Tuesday

Lazy morning. Coffee, cereal and another walk on the beach. The calves of our legs were a little sore from the walking. Collected a few seashells. We went back to the condo and wrote up our store list for dinner. We were having Mom and family over for a Mexican dinner. Made the run to the grocery store for the food items and stopped by the liquor store for some tequila for margaritas. I found out tequila is unusually expensive in Florida, at least compared to Ohio prices.

Patti and I prepped for dinner. We were having chips and salsa, guacamole dip, quesadillas, Tacos, Mexican rice and beans. Mom was bringing a mixed green salad. I kept the blender going making margaritas for everyone. I stuck to my Coronas. Got Ron to try a Corona and he liked it. I will make a beer snob out of him yet! After dinner Ron and Nang went for a walk on the beach while the rest of us sat on the balcony and visited.

12 Oct Wednesday

Patti and I woke up early and had coffee and omelets on the balcony. Ron loaned us his cell phone so we were able to check in with the kids to make sure all was ok up in Ohio. The phone started to ring. I had left a message for Trina the night before that the air conditioning had barley been working. She said she would, “Get Jimmy right on it.” She was true to her word by the time we came back to the condo after the morning trip to the pool the air conditioner was working like a champ. Thanks Jimmy!

That morning we used our tower hot tub. It was not as hot as the last time we checked. We met a nice family from Dothan, Alabama. He was an attorney who came down for a short family vacation. They had a cute set of twin girls.

We went over to the main lagoon pool and sunned and read for a while. A fire alarm went off in our tower. It was a false alarm. Good thing because were in bathing suits and no wallet or debit card even! Finally back to the room for a nice lazy vacation nap. Fixed BLTs for dinner then went down to the pool area. A band was playing Jimmy Buffet music for a private business party. I joked with Patti we could crash the party. They had an open bar and snack table. I had my line ready… “Hey didn’t I see you at the last meeting in Miami?” Patti reeled me in and we just sat nearby and listened to the music for a bit.

13 Oct Thursday

Blueberry pancakes for breakfast. We just had a lazy morning in the room. We were going to Mom and Dean’s for lunch today. It took about 15 minutes longer than it should have due to the lunch traffic getting through Panama City. Mom made a pot roast, veggies, and mashed potatoes. It was a very tasty home cooked meal. Even after we got home we raved about her mashed potatoes. May she could mail us some.

We all sat and visited and enjoyed the view of their nicely landscaped backyard with tropical plants, a pound and several fountains. The birds were coming in and using the feeders. The squirrels used the fountains as their private drinking fountains. Mom showed us a picture Jeff had done for her on his visit and we looked at some of the pictures in the trailer. Mom gave Patti a hand painted rock for her to bring home. Mom’s number one son (as Ron calls him), Casey their Dachshund, had warmed up to us by the end of the visit.

On the drive home we stopped at Winn-Dixie for a few things. Now how ‘Southern’ is that? Tomorrow is the last day of vacation and we looked for a souvenir shop. They were all closed for the day, some for the season. Maybe better luck tomorrow.

For dinner I grilled some onions and we had steak sandwiches made from Patti’s leftovers from the night out at Angelo’s.


14 Oct Friday

Last full day of vacation- sigh. Cereal and toast then a breakfast of hot tubbing and sitting in the sun/shade. Sounds boring huh? We loved it nice and relaxing. Later that morning we went out and checked a few souvenir stores. We wanted to get Ashley, Josh’s wife some dolphin stuff for her birthday, which was a few weeks away. We did not do a mass souvenir shopping spree for all the kids and grandkids this time. Sorry guys!!

After shopping we drove west along the beach- so much development. There are many high-rise condos going up. A few years ago Patti and I briefly discussed buying one to lease out. But with the current prices it is not likely anymore. We stopped at a Waffle House for lunch then back to the condo for an afternoon nap.

We went down to the beach for a list visit and dip in the ocean. No drowning Japanese tourists to save this time. For dinner I got Patti some manicotti from a little shop and I got some peel and eat shrimp from the grocery store. It was only 6 dollars for a pound and a half, I did my best, but I could not get through the whole pile. But it was tasty trying. We spent some time cleaning up the condo. Trina had been really good to us and did not even ask for a cleaning deposit. It was spic and span by the time we got done. Then the dreaded packing to go home.

15 Oct Sat

Last minute packing and we were on the way out. We stopped to top off the gas tank in Ron’s 4-Runner. I guess the main holding tank was very low because the gas was pumping slowly. We were running out of time. By the time 15 minutes had gone by I had only put in 10 gallons, which almost filled it up. We really appreciated the use of the truck. Thanks Ron.

Mom, Dean, Ron and Nang met us at the airport for final goodbyes. It was nice having a family send-off. Again the short direct flight to Cincinnati. We got our bags and literally stepped out of the terminal on to a shuttle back to the parking lot where the car was parked. 1 hour drive back to Dayton and we went straight to Josh and Ashley’s to see the new Grandbaby Brooklynn. We have tentative plans to return next summer with all the kids and grandkids we can muster. We will see if that works out.