{Florida family vacation // day 5 // Shopping at Pier Park & Walking around St Andrew's State Park }

 On Tuesday, we decided to go check out Pier Park. This is an area that offers all kinds of shopping, restaurants, and of course, a pier. The entire family went, but we kind of split up based on what everyone wanted to do. 

We got to Pier Park just at lunchtime and we were hungry, so we decided to find something to eat. The minute we passed by Paula Deen's restaurant we knew that's where we wanted to go! I just love her and everything she makes on TV looks amazing! Good ol' southern-style food. Surprisingly, there was no wait and we were seated right away. Paula Deen's is a family-style restaurant. We opted for the 3 meat and 4 sides option. We got meatloaf, fried chicken, and fish and then mashed potatoes, a cucumber salad, green beans, and macaroni. I didn't try the other two types of meat, but the meatloaf was the best I've ever had! It was amazing and I have been craving it ever since!! 

After lunch, we headed out to check out the shops. Mason spotted a virtual reality ride, so he and Nate teamed up to go fight some zombies. 

As we were walking towards the pier, we saw a big group of our family eating on the patio at Pompano Joe's. We had planned on walking the pier, but once we got down there it was so incredibly hot and the sun was just beaming down on the pier. So we looked from afar and kept on going. 

So, we had an epic fail at Paula Deen's. Nate's mom and I got up after lunch to go look at the gift shop area and left the guys behind to pay. We had no clue that dessert was part of the family-style meal, so we missed out big time. We when we came across Buttermilk Sky Pie Shop , we had to step in! It was so cute inside and the pies looked amazing! We each picked out one to bring back with us to the condo! 

We shopped around a bit more, then decided to leave Pier Park. We drove out to St Andrew's State Park for a bit. We really enjoyed it the last time we were in Panama. It was a bit different this time, but still neat to see. We weren't prepared to beach it in any kind of way, so we just drove/walked around. 

That evening, we had supper at the Wicked Wheel which is the sister restaurant to Pineapple Willy's. If I am being honest, I enjoyed the food at Wicked Wheel more!