Trip Report 8/11-18

Left Houston @ 8:00AM on Saturday, Aug 11th with the boat in tow. Towed with a new Toyota Tundra Crewmax with 650 miles on the odometer when we left the house. The boat is filled with boating equipment and fishing tackle; and the truck bed with suitcases, icechests and such. We made the trip over without note except for the terrible road conditions along I-10 in a couple of spots in La. Picked up our check-in package from the booking company, unhitched the boat and got into our condo by 8:00PM.

We chose to stay at Harbor Landing, a new condo at the end of the harbor, next to Sandpiper. We had a 3 bedroom, 3.5 bath condo with a balcony overlooking the harbor, a slip for the boat and a storage area for the boat trailer. Beach access is right across the street, between Oceania and Martinque. There are two pools onsite, with one overlooking the harbor and boat slips.

Spent Sunday morning watching the thunderstorms to the North, debating when to launch the boat. Finally gave up on that for the day and spent some time at the beach. Ate at Fudpucker’s that night. The kids enjoyed hanging out and feeding the gators but the food was barely OK. Probably won’t be back unless for seeing the gators or drinks at the bar.

Monday morning we launched the boat and spent the day at Crab Island. We had lunch on the boat and then spent some time snorkeling by the east jetty. Jellyfish were pretty bad at both locations and my daughter and I got stung a couple of times. Headed back in at sunset and cooked burgers on the grill at the condo.

We went offshore fishing Tuesday in the boat, hitting a few close in spots for red snapper and kingfish without much luck. Towards noon, the kids were getting hot and tired so we put the boat back in the slip and spent the rest of the day at the beach, body surfing and building sandcastles until the sunset. We got cleaned up and went the Back Porch to eat. We had an enjoyable wait down on the beach with drinks in hand, but our dinner was again barely average. I’m the only big seafood eater in our family and we were kind of striking out on our meals so far.

We slept in Wednesday and had scheduled parasailing with Boogies watersports for around noon. We arrived at Harborwalk and spent a few minutes walking around looking at the boats and watched the Swoop come in with the days catch. A shuttle boat took us out to the parasail boat and we had a mini dolphin watching tour outside the jetties while waiting for the last group to come down off of the ‘sail. The kids really enjoyed the parasail trip and the views from up high of the pass and beach areas are great. We ate a late lunch at an empty AJ’s. I believe it was our best meal of the trip.

Thursday morning we went to the Gulfarium show. I think we all enjoyed it and It was a good way to spend the morning. We had a quick lunch at the condo and then loaded the boat for the rest of the day. We went to Crab Island and swam for a while. The jellyfish weren’t nearly as bad as earlier in the week. However with the poker run two days off, a new aquatic menace had arrived: the speedo-wearing, loud-rap-playing, boozed-up sport boat driver. OK, it really wasn’t that bad, but my young son was laughing at the guy who pulled up next to us in his Fountain and stood on the swim platform for two hours showing off his muscles and *bikini*. My boy figured he was standing for so long because his swimsuit was too tight. After Crab Island we went to the jetties and spent the rest of the afternoon snorkeling along the rocks. Saw lots of fish and quite a few stone crabs. If you get out toward the end of the finger jetty, spend some time turning over some of the smaller rocks and you’ll find all kinds of surprises lurking below. Close to sunset, we headed over to Dewey Destin’s, tied up the boat and got a table for dinner. I really enjoyed the gumbo and fried mahi and the view was great. We had read about the fireworks on Thursday nights and were looking forward to watching them from the boat, but for some reason they didn’t have them. We had a nice drive in the dark through the harbor back to our slip.

Due to the increased boat traffic before the run, we had decided to put the boat back on the trailer early Friday. By noontime, the sport boats were lined up along Noriega Point in the harbor and crab island was starting to get crowded. We spent the rest of the day on the beach. I think the best time is from about 4PM to sunset. The umbrella’s get taken down, the crowds vanish and the sun isn’t so intense.

We got packed up Friday night and drove back Saturday. After some traffic delays, we finally arrived in Houston at 11 PM. Roundtrip was 1395 miles.

We had a really good time in Destin and will be back. It is a great place to take a boat if you have a place on the water.

Trip Report 8/11-18

Thanks for taking the time to write about your trip. It was especially interesting reading about bringing your boat and where you stored the trailer, etc. Those were questions we had when we thought of bringing our boat. The rental on a pontoon was 200.00 for 1/2 day - so just look at the money you saved!!

We had asked about the fireworks the week before when we were there. Someone at A.J.%26#39;s told us that the week prior had been the last week. (I assumed it was due to the end of the season). I%26#39;m glad I found out before making those teens wait for something that would never come!

Trip Report 8/11-18

Really enjoyed the ';boating'; prespective. You are very brave towing your boat so many miles!

2020 - dual axle trailer? How fast were you driving and how did the Tundra handle the tow?

Harbor Landing looks awesome. We just came back from Destin and wanted to take our boat but decided not to since we didn%26#39;t have a place to store our trailer. We will definately consider Harbor Landing next time.

Bringing the boat was one of the main reasons I wanted to go to Destin. It%26#39;s the kind of place where you could park your car for the week and just get around by boat.

GG- HL has a trailer storage lot across the boat slips from the condo buildings. Its behind a gated access so its relatively secure. Lots of boats showed up on Thursday and Friday for the poker run. The slips were almost full and the trailer parking was. I was worried about where to park the boat when we were first looking at condos and had decided that I would talk to some of the self storage places in Destin and see if I could keep the trailer there. I then talked to the company we leased at HL from and they told me about the trailer storage area.

Poodle- I grew up in Tyler and my folks in the Corsicana area (we have a family ranch down on Lake Richland-Chambers). Have you lived in Kerens long? Do you ever remember the Dairy Mart on Hwy 31?

Baked- I moved from a 2500 Dodge diesel to the Tundra and I think the Tundra pulled my boat (Key West 20%26#39; dual console, dual axle al. trailer) as well as the Dodge. Speeds ranged from 65 to 75 mph. Fuel burn was 10.5 to 12.5 mpg. The Tundra has less load capacity that the Dodge but when towing, as long as you put the gas to it, I didn%26#39;t see much difference.

When we return to Destin we will probably do HL again, but get a slip with a lift. I spent most of the day after we got home scrubbing marine growth off the bottom of my hull. If I would have thought about it while I was there I would have spent some time at Crab Island under the hull with a scrub brush and my snorkel mask.

2020DC- we moved here to build a house on Richland-Chambers. Have been here since February. I work in Palestine and my husband works in Ennis. Never been to the Dairy Mart but enjoy dinner at Double D%26#39;s in Kerens. We were in Corsicana Saturday night to see ';Always.....Patsy Cline'; at the Palace; maybe your parents were there!