Who knew it would take more than three hours to get from Pensacola to Panama City Beach? It’s kind of a  choppy ride—part semi-freeway, part regular road and part tourist traffic. In fact, using Google Maps as our guide, the last five miles took a full hour as we snaked our way through some stop and crawl traffic (cruising kids) along Front Beach Road here in Panama City Beach. Sadly, we could have done it in about 15 minutes if we looked at a real map.

But here we are—Panama City Beach. Gorgeous white sand, warm water and a ton of seafood shops that sell fresh shrimp, crab, tuna, crawfish, etc… As I imagined, it’s Cancun, but in the U.S.; the question that needs to be answered will be if it’s worth the haul to get here. Indeed, we could have gotten to Cancun (or the Caribbean, for that matter) much easier.

If only I could persuade United Airlines to fly here…

First of all, we’re not totally sure how we got here. We had to wake up at 3 am and take one long and one short flight to get to Pensacola, It’s hot, humid and the smell of seafood and magnolia trees fill the air. It’s only the second or third time I’ve actually been in “the South” (not counting Orlando or Miami Beach). The pace is slow, the folks look at us funny (they reckon we’re Yankees) and my wife is actually wearing in NY Yankees hat into the Marina Oyster Barn.

So, one hour after landing, we’re eating and drinking it all in as hicks on the road in Pensacola.