2018 Summer Fun: Waverunners and Helicopters

This summer has been all about putting aside fears and uncertainties and saying “YES!” to so many things! It’s been about adventuring the best I can. Our family has had so much fun this summer, but this last weekend was definitely one for the books.

The activities that we booked were only for up to three people, so we decided to leave Benson with a babysitter (he’s not even two, so he had no idea what was going on!), and me, Brynlee, and Nick drove down to the coast.

Adventure #1

Our first adventure of the day was a waverunner dolphin tour (sounds amazing right??!). We went to Powerup Water Sports on Okaloosa Island, and fit all three of us on one waverunner. I had never driven a waverunner before, so Nick wanted me to be the first one to drive. It was nerve-wracking at first, but I kept up with our tour guide to the coveted bay where the dolphins usually hang out.

We were warned beforehand that while they generally see dolphins, there’s always a chance that there wouldn’t be any. I was hoping and praying we would see some, because I knew how excited Brynlee would be, and I wanted to get our money’s worth.

Our fears dissipated quickly, because there weren’t just a couple of dolphins swimming around the bay, but there were probably ten to fifteen! Brynlee couldn’t contain herself and screamed in a very high pitch and as loud as she could, “A DOLPHIN!” and “THERE’S A DOLPHIN!” each time she saw one. She was also standing up at this point, since were sitting still in the water, and she was both hilarious and adorable.

We hung out drifting around the bay and following the dolphins for a long while. There were groups of dolphins that would occasionally get into a tussle, and there was an especially cute baby dolphin that seemed to love the attention and would jump out of the water every so often. What’s cuter than a baby dolphin jumping out of the water??! Not much I tell you.

The tour was an hour and a half long, so after getting our fill of dolphins, we had a little bit of time to kill. Our tour guide said that we could play around a little bit before we had to head back, so we took full advantage of that. We jumped off the waverunner in a shallow patch of water, Nick took a turn driving and tried to do some donuts (I say tried, because after he did one or two Brynlee and I were screaming in both joy and terror, and he decided to give us a break).

When the time came, I hopped back in front and drove us back to land. At this point, I felt very comfortable driving the waverunner, so Nick encouraged me to go full-throttle. Well, I did it and it was crazy thrilling! We all felt like we could barely hold on, and were just on a high once our tour was over.

Overall, we would give this waverunner dolphin tour 5 stars and two enthusiastic thumbs up. If you are ever looking for some fun things to do in the Destin/Fort Walton Beach area, check out Powerup Water Sports on Okaloosa Island! They also offer other rentals, and we will definitely be back.

Adventure #2

We drove straight to Destin after our waverunner dolphin tour, and headed for Timberview Choppers Inc. to go on our helicopter ride.

The helicopter was at the airport in Destin. It was a little bit intimidating walking up to the helicopter with its blades going, because even though you know that they are way above you, we still felt a little bit of an urge to duck!

I sat in the back of the helicopter with Brynlee, and we let Nick sit up in the front seat with the pilot. The pilot was very nice, and we were excited for the views that we were about to experience. We buckled up, got our headsets on, and were off the ground pretty quickly!

Destin looked beautiful from our seats in the sky. It was hard to take it all in, so luckily we took some pictures while we were going. The thing that surprised us the most was how many sharks and dolphins we could see in the water! We seriously saw at least fifty, and it didn’t seem like they were far from the shore where everyone hangs out at the beach! We could see them so clearly because it looked like they were swimming around the second sandbar away from shore. It definitely freaked us out a little bit, but apparently sharks will only come near the shore if the water is cloudy (meaning they aren’t sure where they are), or if food is scarce.

The helicopter ride was actually pretty relaxing, and even though I’m pretty afraid of heights, I had no qualms with being up in a helicopter. It felt very safe, and the views were amazing! I did however feel a little bit nauseous, because I’m a person who gets motion-sick very very easily. For real though, I can spin in a circle once and feel like I’m going to fall over. If I had known I would feel motion-sick, I probably would have taken a Dramamine pill to prevent that! The flight was only about 10 minutes though, so it didn’t get too bad.

Overall we enjoyed the helicopter ride as well. Brynlee thought it was super cool to be flying, and she liked seeing things on the ground from as high up as we were. It definitely wasn’t as thrilling as the waverunner dolphin tour, but it was a bucket-list item that we can now say that we checked off!

After the helicopter ride, we headed back home to allow the babysitter to go home and to see how Benson was holding up without us. Turns out, he did great and had a lot of fun playing with our babysitter! Phew, that was a relief.

We had thought about getting some ice cream while we were out with Brynlee, but then chose to wait until we had Benson with us. We went to Chill Yogurt Café, and had lots of fun picking out different frozen yogurts and putting on all of the toppings we could fit in the bowl.

Man, it was such a fun day and I am so glad that I said “yes” to all of those things! Like I mentioned before, I’m afraid of heights, but I am also terrified of deep water, so both of these adventures pushed me out of my comfort zone. They were so much fun though, and I’m ready for our next adventure!

-Whitney

If you’re interested in either of these outings, here are their websites! We’re not affiliated in any way, we just had a super awesome time!

Powerup Water Sports

Timberview Choppers (we found a Groupon for a great deal when we went!)