Homeschooling gives us great flexibility. However, now that we are doing dual enrollment with Arizona State University, our schedule is not as open. Our last roadschooling trip was right before the COVID pandemic caused everything to shut down. We literally got back from our Little Rock, Arkansas trip 4 days before the first identified case in Houston back in February 2020. COVID has changed everything. We had to cancel so many trips. Fast forward to now, all 3 of us are fully vaccinated and 2 of us have received our boosters. Our homeschooling teen is not old enough for the booster yet. We figured we could do a COVID safe roadschooling trip via picking heavily outdoor activities, wearing face masks when indoors (despite odd looks by some), intentionally traveling during the off-season, going to a county with one of the lower COVID transmission rates in the country right now, and by renting a condo so we would minimize large people interactions and shared spaces. The condo we rented was on the 24th floor with rooftop access (lots of fresh air). The whole week we encountered 1 person by the elevators. My son and I were the only ones at the pools. All 3 of us had the majority of the parks and beaches to ourselves, we rarely saw people.
We intentionally chose our week because our son finished his last college class on December 9th and took his ACT on December 11th. Thus we planned for departure on the 12th. We left Houston at 4am to avoid most traffic issues. It only took 10 hours counting bathroom and gas stops. Thus our week was off-season, not overlapping with holidays, and not overlapping with school breaks as K-12 was still in class until Dec. 17th. This is why we had almost everything to ourselves. Sadly our return to Houston took 12 hours because of increased traffic due to the start of the school break and sadly bad weather for ¾ of Louisiana and all of Texas.
Off-season traveling is the best! Plus it helps that my son and I are not bothered by cold water (surface temp was 66F) and all 3 of us love cooler air temperatures (air temps ranged from the mid-50s to 70F). Thus, we planned our days with the intent of hiking, birding, and beach time daily. We know we are not your normal tourists as we never went to any restaurants (we brought food with us to the condo and made one grocery store run–lots of food allergies combined with picky eaters) and we didn’t go to any of the typical touristy places. Being off-season, we noticed ½ the restaurants and tourist places were actually closed. In addition, many of the condos and hotels looked to be at only ¼ capacity. We couldn’t imagine the crowds or parking during peak season. Our family prefers nature which is why we had a list with so many state parks, birding trails, hiking trails, lakes, sinkholes, waterfalls, and beaches.
We learned that there is limited public beach access in Florida. Where we stayed had private access as do many beachside condos. The public beach access points were small and with limited parking. In Florida, beaches up to high tide can be privately owned and many are heavily marked. In fact, we saw many gated access points that required a key or a code. Once you get on the beach (either via private entrance or via a public entrance) you can walk for miles along the coast. The state parks were perfect this time of the year but during peak season advance booking of day passes would be needed as we learned their beach access often fills by 9am. We also learned that some of the condos, resorts, and hotels have private shuttles that bring their guests to the public beach access points as they know there is limited parking at the beach. Again, for those planning to come to the Emerald Coast, pick your times wisely. We highly recommend the off-season!
The following is what we did during our 1-week stay in Miramar Beach, Florida:
- Okaloosa Island Beach Access Five is free access point on Okaloosa Island
- Ross Marler Park is a free park on Okaloosa Island on the bay side with boat ramp and some birding
- Navarre Beach Sea Turtle Conservation Center in Navarre, FL 32566, $5/person for the tour of facilities, near beach & wharf, small but highly educational
- Navarre Beach Marine Park is the free public beach access point and picnic tables
- Navarre Beach Fishing Pier is $1/person to walk on the pier, different rate for fishing, very long pier, chance to look for turtles, manatees (have been seen there), sharks, dolphins, other fish, and cannonball jellyfish (we saw them)
- Henderson Beach State Park $6/car (10 minutes west of Miramar Beach, birding, 30-foot white sand dunes, protected coastline, 1 nature trail, and has the most access points to the beach of all the state parks on the beach)
- Topsail Hill Preserve State Park $6/car (10 minutes east, sand dunes, freshwater dune lakes, birding paradise according to their website, 15 miles of trails, we only did 2 of their trails along with the beach access, the park is part of FL great birding trail, and they have a tram system to get you from park entrance to either beach access or trail access along with trail access to the beach)
- Eden Gardens State Park $4/car (20 minutes east, just north of Grayton Beach State Park, 163 acres of gardens and historic Wesley Homestead, house tour is very limited times, walk their gardens, birding, and this is a bayside state park)
- Grayton Beach State Park $5/car (20 minutes east, 4 miles of trails, protected beach, coastal forest, birding, and we did only 1 of their trails along with their beach)
- Point Washington State Forest (its trails connect to Grayton Beach State Park, 25 minutes east, birding, 3-mile loop, Grayton Beach State Park and Eden Gardens State Park fall within its boundaries, no additional fee to access beyond state park entrance fees, and we combined these all in one day).
- Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park (25 minutes north via toll bridge otherwise 1 hour non-toll route way, waterfront park on the bay,3 short trails, boat ramp, and beach on the bay) $5/vehicle
- Turkey Creek Park (10 minutes away from Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park so combined the two for same day, a 1-mile long boardwalk along tannic Turkey Creek, birding, will see military aircraft as you are next the base, and has multiple swimming docks) free
- Falling Waters State Park (1 hour 20 minutes northeast from Miramar, has Florida’s highest waterfall, fern-covered sinkholes, and a lake you can swim in, $5 per vehicle)
- Ponce De Leon Springs State Park (1 hour north east from Miramar, we went to Falling Waters first and then here, it is a natural cold springs with swimming access and 2 short hiking trails along two different creeks and the natural spring, $4 per vehicle)
- Air Force Armament Museum (free) on Eglin AFB, FL 32542 (while in the Destin-Fort Walton-Miramar Beach area you will see a ton of air force planes and helicopters. Thus we thought it was cool to see their old planes up close.
- Candy Cane Lane in Destin (free) Sea Oats Drive in Destin transforms into Candy Cane Lane, the most festive street in Destin according to locals.
- The Baytowne Wharf Village at Sandestin (free) is beautifully lit up in Christmas Lights all holiday season but adds a special lights show on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday nights from December 1st-22nd. Due to having to go through security to access (you tell the security guard where you want to go and they give you a day pass) we suspect many people don’t go as we had the place mostly to ourselves. It was really empty but we were also there during the off season and not during school break time. We enjoyed it! I am sure this place is packed during the day during the regular season as well as during school holiday break as it is filled with shops, restaurants, games, and high thrill activities which were mostly closed for the season.
Back-up ideas for if we were having bad weather or if we decided water was too cold to play in (some of these places also had restricted hours due to it being off-season):
- Emerald Coast Science Center in, Fort Walton Beach, FL 32548
- The Indian Temple Mound Museum in Fort Walton Beach, Florida 32548
- Wildlife Sanctuary of Northwest Florida by Pensacola, FL 32505
- Destin History & Fishing Museum in Destin, Florida 32541
- Blackwater River State Forest had 3 spots for birding we could do together as they are not that far from each other but is 1.5 hours north at the furthest point: Blackwater Fisheries Research & Development Center, Blackwater River State Park, and Bear Lake (we just ran out of time to get to this are).
- Destin’s Norriego Point is listed as popular birding site, start at public beach parking and walk towards the point/bridge but we learned that there are few parking sports as the public beach access parking overlaps with the marina parking and you must pay via parking app which we were unaware of until arriving there on the last day as everywhere else we went there was no paid parking at the beach access. Also navigation will get it wrong unless you enter the actual address of “1 Gulf Shore Dr. Destin, Florida 32541”
- Camp Helen State Park (45 minutes east of Miramar Beach, birding, 2 miles of loop trails, coastal dune lakes, kayak rentals, $4/vehicle, we just ran out of time the day we were hitting the 3 other parks east of Miramar Beach)
The following had either complete closures or partial closures:
- Fort Pickens due to ongoing repairs from hurricane damage from both last year and this year.
- Gulf Islands National Seashore (National Parks) due to ongoing repairs from hurricane damage last year
- St. Andrews State Park has many closures due to repairs from both hurricane damage from last year and this year
- Several public beach access points on Okaloosa Island were closed due to Eglin Air Force Base activities and those access points are only open to the public during peak season with limited hours. We actually saw them landing Osprey helicopters on the beach and taking off while we were on the Navarre Fishing Pier.
Adventures Of Hahn Academy 