Matt had a business trip mid-week to Ft. Walton. They wanted him to work all day Wednesday, drive the nearly 6 hours there, be up and at the meeting Thursday morning from 9-2 and then drive back home. So, I asked Katy and Amanda to HELP and I got Ben and Chan situated and headed out with Matt around 6 Thursday evening after dropping them both off at the pool for the HS swim!
We got to the hotel at midnight, checked in and Matt had to work about an hour via laptop to get some stuff set up on a different project for Thursday morning. I zonked out, we were back up at 5:30. Well, Matt was. I slept another hour because my morning routine is this: put clothing and shoes on, brush teeth, wash and sunscreen my face, put my hair into some type of thing that keeps it away from my face. DONE. I bathe before bed, I can't sleep dirty/sweaty from the day.
We had breakfast and Matt filled up on eggs and sausage. EW. I had a waffle with fruit and nuts.
Matt hitched a ride with his boss, who had arrived just BARELY behind us. The hotel was $210 for the 8 hours we used it. It was a $79 room at best. If we had been paying, I would have rather slept in the car! Our huge window opened to a view of the back of the check in portico about 5 feet away. Stucco.
I checked out and put my bag in the Kia and hit the road! I knew I had until at least noon, so I headed to Pensacola about an hour away and walked/ran on the boardwalk and sand trails at the Bluff Park I had wanted to see when we were camping there (in the rain!) back in May. Then with my shoulder-length hair dripping sweat, I headed to find a hair cut. And hour later, I was leaving with my head freshly cropped and tea tree oil on my scalp to help the heat rash I have been maintaining for a couple weeks now. Aaaaaah.
From there I went to the National Seashore visitor center and talked to the ranger a long time, she was so nice! Then I walked the Naval Oaks trail and wandered off the trail into the bay and kept going wading alongside the shore. I walked to the other parking area access and kept on walking, stopping half a mile from the bridge. Matt called while I was taking pictures of a pirate ship that was flying by. He would be done around 2. It was 11.
all my pics were taken on auto and are straight from the camera. It was a zero effort photo day, literally point. Shoot.
I wandered and waded a while longer, then headed back toward the car. Got there around noon and decided to drive along the coast a bit. I pulled over at a beach to swim and it started pouring. So, back to the car and by then I wanted some lunch anyway. Chick-Fil-A to the rescue! :) I decided to get it to go and drive on over where Matt was having his meeting and eat in the parking lot and maybe catch a nap since it was still pouring. When I got to the intersection a half mile away, he called to say they were done. So I pulled up and finished my food while he was doing the 'nice to meet you' routine. We headed off to find a bit of beach!
Here comes the rain!
Out on Okaloosa Island
We had nearly the whole beach to ourselves, there were 2 other families in sight, the WHOLE beach.
Then we left and drove the mile or two into Destin. OH! Found everyone!
There's a bar near the middle of the above pic and of course the inflatable climbing wall and slides! AWESOME!
Not even a mile past Destin. WOW, no one!
I squealed. I LOVE Scooby Doo
We stopped and picked up some cheap beach towels because we had 6 and now we have 4. Now we have 9. So. Math.
Decided to head toward home in case we wanted to see anything else while the sun was still up. And we were already really tired-with 6 hours of driving ahead. Blah!
More heavy rain.
Wild pigs!
The lady who cut my hair told me to color it. hahahahahahaha!
She said, "Oh Honey, you'll look sooooo much younger!"I asked, "Well heck, how old do I look?"
She believably feigned surprise that I will be 41 next week. I tipped her when I left.
Me at the highest point in FL.
The 2008 trip to Disney, we were at the lowest point-45 feet underground in a cave.
Oh, Found out the highest point isn't where the sign is,
it's a 400 foot by 900 foot plateau in the woods behind the park that you can't see. I applaud the state for not shaving the trees.
Half a mile later, we were in Alabama.
We popped in to the Florala State Park, saw Lake Jackson and took a couple shots, got gas and kept on going.
We stopped one more time to get dinner and dragged into the house at midnight. I had taken over driving around B'ham, but just before Cullman, I got SO sleepy. That was a hard half hour, it was foggy and it made everything blurry and sleeping feeling. I was eating and drinking from our snack cache and wiggling around, stretching and trying to keep alert. I kept slowing the car down because it felt like I was hurtling along WAY too fast. I didn't think I was going to get us home, but as soon as I got off that Interstate corridor, it got better and I made it safely.
We sort of got a few things from the car and I woke Jake up to scare him silly and tell him we were home. We crashed and that was our trip to FL.
