Oof, we did not want to wake up this morning. The hotel we stayed at, a Candlewood, has the most comfy beds! I woke up at 8:30am, but dozed on and off until about 9:30am until got up to pee then tweeted til about 10:30am, when Housekeeping banged on the door... whoops! We got dressed and packed in record time, getting out before 11am. As we packed up the car, when I let my backpack straps fall from my shoulders, it slid down and broke the straps of my little purse. Dammit. At least it happened on the last day instead of the first day!

One thing that I'd really wanted to do in PCB was to go parasailing (after that failed attempt in the Keys a few months ago), but judging by the rain and clouds in the sky, I was once again out of luck.

Gotta love Hurricane Season

Snuck onto Private Beachfront Property for this photo

We braved the rain to stop at Thomas Donut & Snack Shop, which was very highly rated on the internet, and we were not disappointed. Okay, a little disappointed, but that's only because we were too late to get the donuts we wanted. They're a local favorite, having been here since the 70s, so everyone got here before us to get their favorite donuts! Accordign to Beachside Resort, some customers will wait up to an hour, in a line going down the street! And after tasting what we got, I can believe it. We ended up with two glazed Long Johns, filled with white cream (like frosting).

So. Much. Donut.

Holy moly, they weighed a ton! The chocolate top was nothing to write home about (typical overly-sweet fake chocolate). The filling was sweet and dense (more of a buttercream than a whipped cream). But the dough itself was amazing. Dense and chewy, with the right amount of give. The parts of the donut that didn't have any filling or chocolate were my favorite, as it was basically just a glazed donut, and it was delicious.. And it was so big I could only finish half of mine. I tucked it away for later, but never came back to finish it, sadly. I hope one day we're back in the area (and earlier) so we can try more options.

(Spoiler: I didn't)

After filling the tank and getting soda, we headed off in the pouring rain to (what we thought was) our final stop, Tallahassee. Over the years, we've joked that we've never visited our own state Capital, so I make sure to include a day in this trip. Thanks to our late start and the weather (and a pit stop at Love's Truck Stop for McDonald's and Chester's Chicken, which we ate in the car), we didn't make it to Tally until 4pm. On a Friday. Yeah, imagine the traffic!

Never-ending bumper to bumper traffic

I took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in a Secure Area where we were immediately approached by police. I explained my predicament and they very nicely pointed me to a nearby parking garage and told me to have a nice visit. We parked and hustled over to the Capitol Building, the entire time Hubby grousing about why we were even doing this... he was sure that the doors would already be locked, or that we wouldn't be allowed to go in.

I kept telling him to hush, to just humor me, and after some wandering, we found the entrance to the building at about 4:50. He really thought the door was going to be locked, and so was I, so imagine my surprise when we tried it, and it opened!

I meekly asked if we could come in for 5 minutes to just peep around, and the security team at the door said that we could stay as long as we wanted! Since we arrived before 5pm, the entire building would stay open as long as we were there! Absolutely amazing! First off, we went up to the 22nd Floor Observation Deck, which gave 360º views of downtown Tallahassee through big windows.

22nd Floor Observatory and Art Gallery

Imagine this space on a Student Field Trip day!

View in one direction

View in another direction

View in yet another direction (okay, okay, I forgot which is which!)

We wandered through the 22nd Floor Capitol Gallery and, being the five-year old boy that I am, got a thrill taking a poop in the highest bathroom in Tallahassee.

Welcome to the Capitol Gallery

Such a fancy potty

Old People Alert!

Using the coolest elevators imaginable, our next stop was the 5th Floor, which is where the Florida House and Florida Senate is located. These elevators are so cool because you go to a touch-pad on the wall and tell it where you want to go, and an elevator will be dedicated just to that floor. No buttons to press inside! An elevator light will illuminate (such as Elevator P), and you get in that one, and it just... goes!

Floor, Please?

Here is your elevator!

Obviously both the House and Senate were closed, but we could see the general area.

Doors to FL House of Representatives

Metal Detectors (no, I didn't go in)

Senate Doors

Neat wood carving

There was also this room, which I have no idea what it is... After doing some digging, I believe it's the Governor's Cabinet Room, which is cool... you see it a lot when he does press conferences sometimes. I wanted to physically go in and touch stuff (oh, you know me... I wanted to stand behind the podium!), but I was trying to be super-respectful of our immense privilege of being there after hours.

Governor's Cabinet Room

Also on this floor is a fun Lego replica of the Old Capitol!

I don't think I could touch each side, it's wider than my wingspan

Built by Master Model Builders at LEGOLAND

And in the middle of the space is a large open area where you can look down one floor to see the walls lined with Florida Facts, such as State Bird, State Song, etc.

Florida Facts

We the People of the (BEST) State of Florida

Welcome!

We took the cool elevator again to the Lower Level, where you could see the Great Seal and this fun welcome sign. You could also go to DeSantis, Nunez, and Moody's offices on this floor (again, no surprise that everyone was gone, but it would have been so cool to run into any of them!) It was all just so peaceful and empty; it made me wonder what the place looked like on a random Tuesday when Congress was in session and everyone was working.

Nobody's home

There was a list of Governors on the wall in this hallway, and one that caught my eye was Kenneth Wood "Buddy" Mackay, Jr, who only served 24 days (and, as of 2022, was our last Democrat Governor). We speculated why, and when I got home, I looked it up. Mackay was the Lieutenant Governor under Lawton Chiles, from 1991 to 1998. Sadly, he became Governor when Chiles passed away on December 12, 1998, and served until January 5, 1999, when Jeb(!) took office. Buddy was born in Ocala, just a little ways away from where we live. He graduated from Ocala High School and UF in 1954. He served in the Air Force, then came back to UF for his Law Degree. After his short governorship, he was a US Special Envoy for the Americas under President Clinton, until 2001. From what I can tell, Mr. Mackay is still alive and living a quiet life in Central Florida.

Bye, Buddy! Hope you find your dad...uh, wrong Buddy.

After a few more photos we headed back to the car.

Sometimes the simplest photos are the best photos

In the car, we tried to decide what to do for dinner, but neither of us wanted to actually go home. So we drove hundreds of miles out of the way to go to St. Augustine for a Buc-ee's pit stop! It was a crazy long drive (almost 4, because of rain and Friday rush-hour), and we really should have taken a stretch break in the middle. Right when we got near Buc-ee's, I took a wrong turn and ended up on I-95 again (whoops!) so we got off at the next exit, State Road 16. Upon exiting, we saw that there was a Hustler Hollywood store right there, so of course we had to stop and check it out (giggity).

No G.I.Hoes for me

Between here and Buc-ee's, we dropped about $200 and finally made it home at about 1am. We unpacked the car and brought everything in, unpacked basics for the night and crashed!

What a trip this was!

When can we do it again?