Ok, how do we get to Destin, either back through Mississippi or through Alabama? We decided to go through Alabama and stop for breakfast in downtown Birmingham.

We found a one of the all-time best breakfast places on our travels. The Trattoria Centrale is simply great.

They make everything including breads, muffins, scones, and all of the egg dishes, frittatas, etc. dishes from scratch. The coffee is excellent. They make an amazing rosemary scone that is to die for or even drive back to Birmingham to eat it. The food was sublime and it was amazing that we found it. We tried to get more scones to take with us but, alas, they were gone.

Back on the road we finally made it to the Florida Panhandle.

Neither of us had ever been to this part of Florida. It is called the Emerald Coast because of the luscious emerald green water. It is breathtakingly beautiful. Most of the people there were from other southern states such as Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

We stayed at the Candlewood Suites in Destin. We didn’t realize that it was Spring Break so all of the prices were higher than we expected. Ordinarily, I would have looked for a better place to stay but we were stuck at the Candlewood Suites due to prices.

It was fine but needed some refurbishing. The rooms were large and they are dog and child friendly. It was also conveniently located. The front desk people were very nice. They had some food for purchase as the suites had a little kitchen. They also had a pool but it needed some help. Because they are dog friendly, they had a dog designated area and poop bags. We really appreciated that although we packed lots of them.

We had breakfast at the Aegean Restaurant.

It was rated pretty highly by places like Trip Advisor but it wasn’t very good and we wouldn’t recommend it. The eggs were dry and the coffee was pretty watery. The service was a bit slow and they weren’t busy, and they weren’t interested in serving us.

Since we didn’t ride in Oxford because of the crummy weather, we were looking forward to riding in the Destin area. We left the car at Topsail Hill State Park. It is a beautiful park that has one of the special fresh water lakes just on the other side of a berm from the gulf. There are only a few of these type lakes in the world and many of them are in Florida. The precious Coastal Dune Lakes are found along the coast. These natural lakes are located in only three other places in the entire world which include Madagascar, Australia and New Zealand.

They are considered freshwater but have some salt and house both fresh and salt water fish. We stopped to admire the view on the lake side and again on the gulf side.

The Timpoochee Trail is a fun, trail separated (most of the time) from the road. The trail took us along 30A.

There were picturesque villages with lots of restaurants, cafes, ice cream places, outdoor bars, boutiques, and art galleries. We wended our way around and found delightful homes and lakes with wooden bridges.  The trail went by the beach areas. We went through various constructs to get past the sand.

We had a fun time. While we knew the water was right there, for the most part, we didn’t see it. We stopped for Ice Cream and to take a short break before we headed back.

That night, we went to dinner at a beautiful place on the water called The Beach Walk at the Henderson Park Inn. The Inn is a beautiful place to stay (if we went back, we would stay there). We watched a wedding on the beach from our table. Just gorgeous. Loved being a voyeur watching such a happy event.

The Beach Walk restaurant is lovely. The food is good and so is the service.  We shared the Caprese salad. I had the chicken and Mike had the grouper dish. This restaurant has a very nice wine list,  but we had a “tini” so we just had single glasses of wine. All in all, we would definitely go back there.

Besides all of the beautiful beaches there, shopping is another pass time of the area.  Lots of upscale as well as discount shops to keep anyone busy if they don’t want to go to the beach

It seemed that most of the people staying in the area are from Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, or Tennessee.  We, definitely stood out with a California license plate as well as our trikes.

We had breakfast at The Doughnut Hole, a very popular breakfast place in Destin.

It was packed with people and it turned out to be a great people-watching place. The food is good and reasonable. They have anything anyone would want for breakfast including homemade doughnuts.  People were lining up just to buy them.

Mike rode out of the hotel and over to the beach for a short ride one of the days.

Later we had dinner at Café 30a, and excellent restaurant in Seagrove Beach.

The restaurant is modern inside but has an older vibe as well. It is southern with a big twist. Everything was delicious. We shared the mussels’ appetizer, I had the Sesame Crusted Ahi. Mike had Wood Oven Roasted Grouper. I also had a Bellini Martini and Mike was in search of the best Mojito (theirs was quite good). We also had a glass of wine. Their wine list was among the best along our trip.  It was definitely a memorable dinner for a couple of reasons. It was very good and I got ill from something.

The next day, we packed and moved on to Tallahassee, the Florida State Capitol with me feeling a bit under the weather.