Happy Monday! I’m here with Holly sharing our trip to Destin for Jack’s golf tournament. Get comfy, this is going to be a long one. I hope you’ll link up with us for Hello Monday!

For a little backstory, Jack has been playing in the Under Armour Junior Tour golf tournaments for a few years. These tournaments are a series of 6 local 9 hole tournaments in the fall and the spring. The top 6 players in each season get invited to the national tournament. The top 6 players also have to meet a scoring requirement to play in that national tournament. Jack played in Summer Nationals in 2023 at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He played pretty well and we had a great time. The weather wasn’t on our side and Jack didn’t get to play two complete rounds. It was a bummer, but he walked away happy yet inspired to keep working on his game.

The Sandestin Resort was hosting Winter Nationals again this year. We heard some wild stories about 3 hour frost delays at the 2023 tournament and were hoping for much warmer weather.

We flew out of Baltimore on Valentine’s Day Wednesday afternoon. If you are looking for an easy time to fly, that was it! We breezed through security, boarding, and flying from Baltimore to Nashville and Nashville to Destin.

We had a two hour layover in Nashville and that was so fun! I love the Nashville airport because of all the live music! I sat and listened to these guys for a while after we ate. It was so fun!

My parents and Jeff’s parents joined us in Destin. They both made a road trip out of it and drove with a few stops along the way and the way home. That made it so nice because we had two cars at the resort and we could send some things down without having to worry about checking bags on the way down (Jeff and Jack’s golf clubs, full size products, lots of snacks). An added bonus was that my dad picked us up at the airport and we didn’t have to uber or rent a car.

We arrived around 10 pm, checked in, got settled, and went to bed. We woke up on Thursday with nothing planned until dinner at 6. All eight of us went to breakfast near the course Jack was going to play on Saturday and Sunday. It was delicious and a good way to start the day. Jeff, Luke, and I walked back to the room, while Jack and our parents walked over to the pro shop, looked around the driving range, and drove back.

Luke was excited to ride bikes. Our reservation included bikes every day. We got our bikes and rode for a few hours, exploring the resort. It was huge with 5 golf courses, a ton of pools, hotels, condos, homes, restaurants, a beach, a nature island, a spa, a convention center, and crossed both sides of the highway. Jeff and Jack went over to the driving range and putting green to practice a bit. My dad and Jeff’s dad joined them. Our moms hopped on the resort tram and rode around exploring. We popped by to see the golfers and saw the moms on the tram while we were riding around.

We went to Lulu’s for dinner on Thursday night. Lulu’s is Lucy Buffet’s restaurant. The parrotheads in our group were excited and everyone else enjoyed themselves, too. It was a just a few miles from the resort. Our food was delicious! We ordered the fried green tomatoes and they were AMAZING!! We packed for chilly weather, but it was even chillier than I was ready for. I decided my souvenier would be this cozy sweatshirt from Lulu’s. I have worn it a few times already and I love it!

The boys told us they’d never ridden a carousel. On Thursday night the carousel rides were free to golf families, so we hopped on. Jeff’s mom joined the boys for a ride!

On Friday, Jeff, Jack, and our dads were playing a practice round of golf on the course Jack would play Saturday and Sunday. Luke and I picked up bikes and rode around. My watch let me know that I got my longest cycling workout – almost 7 miles! We went through the tunnel a few times because those hills were just too fun!

Then my mom, Jeff’s mom, Luke and I went to the Beach Club for lunch. Luke and I jumped in the Gulf. It was chilly, but I’ve decided that anytime I am near fresh water I am getting in. As long as the water isn’t frozen or dangerous, I’ll be going for a little dunk. We actually stayed in for a bit playing in the water. It started sprinkling so we changed and headed back to the room.

Friday night was the welcome dinner and lawn party. At summer nationals, this dinner was buffet but had a speaker and introduction to the weekend. This time, the dinner was a buffet but there wasn’t a speaker or anything like that. There was a speaker at the lawn party, but it was raining so we didn’t go out for that. We did go up to the roof for the fireworks show. The boys played chess while we were waiting. It was chilly and windy, but they put on a great show!

On Saturday, we woke up to chilly, rainy, windy weather. Jack teed off at 12 and we were all folowing along.

It was so cold that after the sixth hole, Luke, my mom, and Jeff’s mom called it a day. They were absolutely frozen and needed to go back to warm up. I made Luke give me his sweatshirt to layer under mine before he went back. We were SO COLD!! When I say it was windy, I mean it was WINDY!! The bay had little white caps on it and the golfers balls blew off the tees occasionally. Their pants were whipping around and umbrellas were not even an option for the rain. Jack was playing well, but the round was going pretty slowly. After the 14th hole, they called the round because it was too dark. We went to the Landshark restaurant for an early dinner. It was steps from our building, easy and tasty.

Jack had to be back out on the course at 7:30 the next morning to finish up the last four holes. Jeff and I went with him, but everyone else slept in a bit and had a relaxing morning. He started the day/finished the round with two pars and two bogeys. It was a great way to end the round/start the day.

We went back to the room to rest and get a little food. Jeff and Jack went back to the course around 10 and Luke and I went to play pickleball. He crushed me but we had a great time!

We dashed back to meet the grandparents and head over to the course for the second round. Jack got all 18 holes in for the second round and played really well. He had a few holes that weren’t his best, but overall he played really well. He walked 22 holes in one day and FINALLY got to play a full 18 hole round in a national tournament!!

Jack wanted to go to the awards ceremony so we didn’t have much time before dinner. All of the resort restaurants had 30+ minute waits for parties of 8 so we headed back to Landshark for a quick dinner. After dinner Sunday night, we packed up and got ready to head home on Monday morning. We left around 8 on Monday morning and started our trek home – Destin-Nashville-Baltimore.

Since we were checking golf clubs on the way home, we decided to check all our luggage. It wasn’t our smoothest airport operation but we laughed our way through it and so did the Southwest employees.

As soon as we sat down at the gate, everyone opened their computers and got to work. We all had a few days of work to catch up on. We caught more great live music in the Nashville airport during lunch and kept working. The flights were easy, our luggage arrived quickly, and we were home less than 90 minutes after we landed.

All in all, it was a great experience. Jack met some kids from Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Illinois. We met some lovely families and had a great time with our family! Jack finished in the top half. He improved his score from Saturday to Sunday by 3 strokes. He showed a lot of growth in his mental golf game. And, most importantly, he had a lot of fun!

We had a great weekend in Destin. If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t change much. However, I would definitely put in a request for warmer weather and some sunshine. We’ve never been to Destin before, but I would love to go back between May and October to take advantage of the beautiful beaches, the outdoor dining opportunities, and exploring the surrounding towns.

Well, if you are still here thank you! This was a long one. I’ll be back tomorrow with my monthly reading update. With some air travel, I had time to read a good bit. Have a great day full of sunshine and books!