Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 14 years and 5 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

We left the panhandle this morning, bidding farewell to family, not looking forward to 8 hours in the car driving back to Tampa. We figured my daughter would need to burn off some energy before being stuck in the backseat for that long, so instead of going directly to I-10, we took US-98 along the gulf coast to Panama City Beach, home of the Gran Maze. My wife and I had done the maze over 15 years ago when we were still dating. Back then, the maze was still made of wood but it was destroyed by Hurricane Opal a few years later. It’s since been rebuilt using white vinyl fencing.

The goal is to enter the maze, visit each of the four towers, and get out as fast as you can. They keep a record board of the previous day’s top ten times. It took us 39 minutes and we were the first visitors of the day, so at least we were in first place when we left. Based on the previous winners’ times of about 16 minutes, I’m sure our time didn’t stand for long. But my daughter had a great time leading us through the maze, and that was the real point of the trip. Here’s a view of the maze from Google Earth:

I joked with my daughter we could use that and GPS to cheat our way through the maze. 😀 I grabbed that screencap on my iPhone. Oh, hadn’t I mentioned I got an iPhone yet? That post is still forthcoming … 😛

After grabbing lunch in Panama City, we settled in the car for the long drive. The weather was perfect and we even avoided the traffic we expected around Gainesville due to the Florida/Florida State football game. At least we have tomorrow (Sunday) to relax and recoup before heading back to work/school on Monday. Three more weeks until Christmas vacation!