Category : Panama City
When my husband and I were still dating, he took me to Panama City to see his stomping grounds. One of the things that I remember most about that trip was running through the Gran Maze at Coconut Creek Family Fun Center like teenagers…heck…we were barely in our twenties at this point! Now that our kids are old enough to enjoy exploring the maze, we took them out there during our Easter visit.
A little fun fact about Big and Little S — they love mazes. They can complete a maze quicker than you would imagine, like a little mouse sniffing out the cheese at the end of the maze! We have been to several corn mazes and ran around for hours. They are ecstatic when we go on a road trip and I bring out a new maze book and when we go to out to eat they are hugely disappointed if the children’s menu doesn’t have a maze on it. We knew they would love this and it did not disappoint!
The Gran Maze at Coconut Creek is about the size of a football field. They change the maze around on a regular basis so even if you go often, it is different!
The object is to enter the maze at the starting point and then work your way to four different stations, punch your card and then find your way out of the maze.
The quickest completion time on the board was either 9 or 15 minutes (I am sorry…I can’t remember!). We completed it in 54 minutes. We did pretty well but got stuck in one section and seemed to be going around in circles. And circles. And more circles. Eventually we found our way to the next station but only after Daddy S did some reconnoitering.
Throughout the maze are these funny little signs that also help to tell you if you are still going in circles!
At the very end, Little S gave up. Luckily all around the outside walls of the maze, you will find doors so we made our escape through there and headed up to the observation tower to watch Big S, dad and grandpa finish the maze.
I believe the maze is open at night as well making it a little bit more difficult and spooky. We liked the fact that the maze walls do not go all the way to the ground making it less claustrophobic than a corn maze. At Gran Maze, children under 6 play free so this was ideal for us. We got to explore a Panama City attraction and only purchase adult tickets. I advise you to have water, sunglasses and a hat with you if you are completing the maze. It gets HOT in there. We were there the first weekend in April and by the time we were finished we were all sweating! I can’t imagine what it is like in July or August.
This post is part of DeliciousBaby’s Photo Friday. Be sure to stop by and see where everyone is traveling.
Florida has many beautiful state parks. They are covered with large beautiful trees, blooming flowers and winding boardwalks that take you into areas that make you think of fairies and wood sprites. We bought the Real Florida Passport and we love to visit the different state parks and collect our passport stamps. We make the drive from Pensacola to Panama City fairly often to visit family. Whenever we are driving Highway 98, we see signs for so many state parks along the way-seven state parks total! When we make the trip to Panama City, we always try to stop somewhere along the way to visit something new. This time we stopped at Eden State Gardens.
Eden State Gardens is a beautiful state park located about 30-40 minutes from Panama City Beach. Eden State Gardens has a rich history in lumber. It was the home to the Wesley Family. The beautiful home, painted a brilliant white, has a gorgeous wrap around porch that will make you want to invest in one of those Cracker Barrel rocking chairs! Can you believe this beautiful home and 10.5 acres was purchased in 1960 for only 12,500 dollars?!
She then put in another million dollars to convert the home to an antebellum home. She wanted the home for her extensive collection of Louis XVI antiques. After 5 years and failing health, she gave her home and antique collection to the state of Florida.
While visiting, we wandered around the grounds for awhile. It was a nice walk to Tucker Bayou. The kids loved to walk the pier.
All I wanted to do was sit on this bench. All. Day. Long!
The gardens are absolutely beautiful and although many plants and flowers have not bloomed, the Camellias are out in full force. According to the state park site, the Camellia peak bloom is in March so we timed our trip beautifully!
There is a nature trail…
and it is a beautiful setting for a wedding. My daughter spent fifteen minutes watching the “princess”!
For other suggestions on things to do near or around Panama City, visit me at Traveling Mom or explore my other posts here on Two Kids and a Map.
Stop by Delicious Baby to see where others are traveling this week!
I have been traveling to Panama City for 9.5 years…as long as I have been married to my husband who is from there. For five of those years, I have been traveling with kids. How I never heard of the Junior Museum of Bay County before astounds me! The last time we were in Panama City, it was abnormally cool for the time of year (Thanksgiving is usually spent in short sleeves, jeans and flip flops) and we needed to do something outside of the living room! After a quick search on the Internet, thanks to The Panama City Playground, we discovered the Junior Museum of Bay County.
The Junior Museum of Bay County opened in 1967 and sits on 12 acres of land. There are lots of hands-on exhibits for your kids to try out and the adults will have lots of fun too! We spent the majority of our time in the science exhibits. Little S loved the soundwave water exhibit.
Big S’s favorite part of the museum was the marble exhibit.
They both loved this little room because as you jumped and danced around your shadow passes over this thing in the ceiling that plays notes like a piano!
There is a boat that sits in a pretend St. Andrew’s Bay where the children can measure fish and pretend to be riding the waves! There is a full grocery store complete with a conveyor belt, food, and a cash register.
My kids loved the reptile room as well. There are lots of snakes and other creepy crawlies to check out. Along the wall of the room, there is a bunch of drawers that you can open and check out what is inside. Big S thought that it was absolutely hilarious when he opened a drawer and found all sorts of petrified animal poop. He had to go get Daddy J to show him!
After exploring the inside of the children’s museum, head outside to explore a real pioneer village. The cabins are from the late 1800s and early 1900s. You can peek into the cabins and learn a little bit about what life was like back then.
Check out the stocks!
Then take a walk along the 1500 foot boardwalk. Before you go, stop by the museum’s front desk and pick up a scavenger hunt checklist. Your kids will have fun trying to find the different things on the list.
There is lots of room to run and play. Bring a picnic lunch to eat after you are done exploring.
The Junior Museum of Bay County is located at 1731 Jenks Avenue, Panama City, Florida, 32405.
This post is part of DeliciousBaby’s Photo Friday. Stop by and check out all the great travel photos!
In the past couple of weeks, I have read some great blog posts about mamas giving their kids the camera. We often let our kids take pictures on our trips, but I have never posted any of them. When we went to Shipwreck Island in Panama City this weekend, we gave our kids the disposable waterproof camera. Before I knew it, they had clicked through all 27 pictures! Other than some unsavory pictures of me in a swimsuit (that I promptly burned after developing), he got some pretty good pictures! I am knee deep in packing for our road trip (where my two children and I set out on our own for a short visit with friends in preparation for the major trip up the East Coast on our own again!) so for now I will just share the pictures of our adventure. It is Photo Friday after all! I will post a review later on next week about our experience at Shipwreck.
Big S’s pictures
Little S’s picture
Stop by Delicious Baby and see all the other great travel photos!
This weekend we went to visit Daddy J’s brother Matt while he was visiting their mom and dad in Panama City. While there, we had a family friend take our family pictures. I take most of the kid’s pictures (no more Walmart or Sears for us!), but I didn’t want to just set the self timer for these. Adria Peaden at Adria Peaden Photography took our pictures at Oaks by the Bay…you can check out our pictures here. After we took our family pictures, I grabbed my camera and took some pictures of this beautiful park!
There are beautiful trees with all this moss hanging off of them and the flowers were blooming. There is a boardwalk over the dunes that the kids can run out on and it leads out to the water. The Marina is just a few blocks away. You can check out the boats or eat at Pappy’s German Restaurant. We didn’t eat there, but my hubby definitely wanted to try it. It is a very small restaurant with amazing smells coming out of it! It was packed! There is a beautiful gazebo where many residents have had their wedding ceremonies.
This tree is known by many locals as the “four headed palm tree”….so bizarre looking!
The boardwalk over the dunes heading out towards the water
One of many boat docks that have fallen apart due to old age or hurricane
So many cool angles and shots of boats in the marina
We found this dilapidated, old boat just hanging out in the water. There were a lot of people fishing right by it, so it must be a great hang out for the fish!
Some of the storefronts
