Vacation Highlights and Pics

WARNING: Very long post....but LOTS of pictures! :-)

We are back home from our vacation. We got back about midnight on Th. It seemed like an extra long drive...especially the last hour or so.....tough for me to stay awake. Nathan didn't have that trouble I guess, although I was concerned. It was so nice to be home in our beds! We slept in til almost 9 which is almost unheard of around our house anymore.

Here are vacation highlights: we had a good trip down....we had cloudy skies and rain off and on--very heavy in some spots--all the way to FL. Nathan and I really enjoyed the scenery along the drive as we took a different route than we have before. This time, instead of routing through Memphis and down thru MS, we drove all the way down and across AR and into LA, then into MS from Vicksburg, to Jackson, to Hattiesburg all the way down crossing into Mobile, AL and then into FL. We stopped for lunch in Dumas, AR at a park-like area with some jungle gyms for the kids. They just don't have roadside parks anymore. We left our house a little before 6 and arrived at 10ish. Not too bad...considering our potty breaks and a 30 minute delay in Vicksburg, MS when we blew a fuse in the radio. :-) We consider the delays "God things" and that He is keeping us from harm or keeping us in His timing for a reason. As I said, we arrived in rainy weather which stayed around until late Monday. We woke up to clouds Sunday and Monday. However, we still went to the beach. God provided sunshine each day as we headed out to the beach! Sunday, we had about 2 hours of peekaboo sun and even got to see Dolphins in the water about 50 feet from the beach area. Monday, we had 4 hours of sun before a big storm blew in. Both days we went to the beach in the morning and came in, showered off, ate lunch and napped. Sunday evening, we went to pick up some groceries and had our Sunday evening pizza on our balcony overlooking the ocean. We took a walk along the shore after dinner. We were "all clean" and intended to just get our feet wet, but the boys were running in the tide water and Trevor tripped and fell, getting most of himself wet. :-) Oh well....it turned out to be a really nice evening. Monday after our nap, we went to Destin to eat. Nathan really wanted some fresh seafood and found a highly recommended place to eat, but it only had outdoor seating--and it was still rainy. So, we took the second best recommendation, McGuire's Pub & Grill.....seafood wasn't their forte....but Nathan thought it sounded good. It was a neat atmosphere....they had dollar bills all over the ceiling and anywhere else they could attach them. Nathan said they had over 500,000. Good food, but pricey. :-( After dinner, we headed to Bass Pro Shops of Destin--which thrilled the boys. (Visiting the BPS in Spfld is one of the favorite things to do with Poppy--a "tradition" of sorts which began when Trevor was just one) BP was attached to an outdoor mall so we walked through it, enjoying a Mocha Frappe from Starbucks....aahhhhh..... :-) Tuesday, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise and clear blue skies. We were so excited to hit the beach....but we were a little more covered as the four hours of sun on Monday burned us--Nathan was the worst. :-) We also planned a Pirate Cruise in Panama City and were limited on our time. We noticed the water was clearer on Tuesday--Sunday and Monday there was lots of seaweed (more on Sun) and lots of jellyfish. (Trevor and Nathan both got stung by the jellyfish--it was all better after rubbing wet sand on it...a tip given by the lifeguards) There was hardly any seaweed and much fewer jellyfish. Made for a more pleasant swim. We even saw some boys fishing just out from the swimming area catch a little shark! After our lunch and rest :-) we headed to Panama City for our pirate cruise. We were early--I hesitate to write this, but....we were both under the impression that we were in FL, so we were in the Eastern time zone.....however, we were not. We were still in the same Central time zone that we live in.....so we had left an hour early, thinking we would arrive, "FL time" and be just in time. :-) We laughed it off and said, "We're from out of town!" (We used that excuse--to ourselves--a lot!!) We killed our hour's time by grabbing a bite to eat on the marina. We watched them load and unload boats from a warehouse. After waiting in line for about 20 minutes, we boarded the Sea Dragon for our cruise. It's a two hour cruise that travels through the bay, into the gulf and circles back. Harmless......right? This is my memory of the cruise..... back.......forth.......back......forth......back.....forth.....sway......sway.....sway....... :-) This was a great cruise especially for families and kids. They entertained the kids the entire way....however, it was "rough" on the stomach for some.....including me. I didn't get sick, but had to leave the kids activities and head back up to my seat and some fresh air and cold bottled water. :-) (The lady next to me wasn't that fortunate....she spent most of the cruise down below.....) The captain had the kids engage in a water gun fight with another sightseeing boat--which is a great idea, but it scared Cody to pieces (we were surprised...we thought he'd love that). Then the kids had to mop the deck, have a sword fight, they got their faces painted (Cody opted out of this one) and a pirates hat and then they got to help look for buried treasure. The boat pulled up next to a marked bouy and the first mate through out the hook to bring in the loot. With all the kids pulling "heave-ho", they pulled in the treasure. Each kid got a piece of the loot. Then they did the limbo and various dances like the chicken dance on the way back to the dock. We did see some Dolphins--it's also a sightseeing/Dolphin viewing cruise. We even caught a split-second view of a Stingray jumping up and back into the water. It was a good time, despite the swaying.....just thinking of it now....ugh. :-) Trevor really enjoyed himself and participated in everything they did. When we got back to our hotel, we were going to let the boys swim in the pool, but it was closing...much disappointment from the boys...until we rode the elevator back up to our room and heard from another traveler that he found crabs on the beach. We had seen people on the beach every night with flashlights and just assumed they were walking. The boys had a flashlight with them, so we headed out for a quick walk/crab hunt. We found a couple, but forgot a bucket and weren't equipped with a net like everyone else...so we just had to look at them and move on. We'll know next time.

We left FL around 7:15ish....with a sunny day of travel. We took a couple of wrong turns and a couple of delays here and there, but nothing big. We stopped at a great park in MS for lunch and the boys got to burn off some energy. God was more than good to us on our trip. We have said so many times what a great time we had. Our days at home were even nice...just knowing we were "on vacation". It's been a few years since we've really traveled and it was such a blessing to be able to do it this year. This was our first "family vacation" and it was a good one. But, it is nice to be home too.

Sunrise to the East of our resort...the day we left.

Walking on the beach, Sunday evening.
Boys playing in sand...again.

Boys in the surf...They LOVED letting the waves hit them and push and pull them.

The shark caught near the shore.

Me in the sun.

Nate soaking up the sun....carefully. :-)

More playing in the surf.

McGuire's Irish Pub & Grill--dollars on the ceiling, etc.

This seaweed was in Nathan's swim trunks pocket....no kidding.

Lots of playing in the sand and digging holes.
Stormy Sunday.

Sea Dragon Pirate Cruise...this is our ship coming back as we ate dinner.
All the kids getting their "sea legs".Aarrrgggg....Trevor the pirate.
Sporting a pirate tatoo.....he was VERY proud of this!

Hauling in the treasure.

Captain of the Sea Dragon and the boys.Sword fight on the cruise.