Florida: Day Two

On our second day in Florida we (meaning all of us, myself, my daughter, mother, grandmother, aunt and uncle) had planned to head to the beach in the morning before my cousins wedding at 2:00 that afternoon. After our brief sashay onto the beach the day before I couldn't wait to get back! We decided to head to Henderson Beach State Park in Destin which was about a half hour from our hotel in Niceville.

Oh my, what a treat! This is the nicest beach I have ever been on! Beautiful white sand, but I don't travel a whole lot so that may not mean much. There are some sand dunes between the parking lot and the actual beach and when my daughter saw them she said, "Look, snow!" That is how white the sand is there. And soft, oh my goodness, it was so soft. We found a good place to park our towels and put on sunscreen before we went to test out the water. Someone had dug a small hole in the sand probably the day before and my daughter decided that looked like a good place to play.

I was once again able to get my toes in the sand. Just thinking about it now makes me want to hop a plane to Florida!

I then let my daughter bury said toes in the sand. She thought that was a pretty good time.

And yes, we were the whitest people on the beach. We almost blended in with the sand. You could definitely tell we were not from Florida. After a little time spent playing into the sand we ventured down to the water. At first it seemed chilly but then the longer I was in it, the more comfortable it was. My daughter initially wanted nothing to do with the water. I think the waves coming at her even though they were pretty small was a little concerning for her. Then once she figured out she could get people to hang onto her hands so she could jump up when the waves came through she decided this beach thing wasn't so bad after all. Sometimes she made it while trying to jump the waves and sometimes she got a mouthful of water. We spent a good two hours at the beach and were having such a good time that we didn't want to leave to go back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding. We halfway contemplated going in our swimsuits just to get an extra hour in the sand but decided we might not get invited to anything ever again if we did that. We also tossed around the idea of going back to the beach after the wedding but by the time the wedding was over we were too tired to pack all of our beach stuff back up and drive the half hour to the beach again.

The wedding was lovely but since it wasn't my wedding and my cousin doesn't know a thing about this blog I'm not going to post pictures of it here. I'll just say the bride was gorgeous and the groom was beaming and leave it at that.

The next day everyone pretty much cleared out to head back to their respective parts of the country. I headed back down to Destin to do some shopping as I needed to kill some time before our 5:00p.m flight. I went into a Bass Pro Shop for the first time in my life. It was interesting but since I had not one ounce of space left in my suitcase I really couldn't buy anything. That made shopping kind of pointless. I did however manage to squeeze a t-shirt from the Hard Rock Cafe into my carry on. I seriously thought about heading back to the beach but since I had no hotel room to return to to clean us up I decided had better not. I really wanted to though.

That was pretty much our trip to Florida. I am totally hooked on the Emerald Coast as it is known and I can't wait to go back! I had been to other parts of Florida before but the Destin/Ft. Walton Beach area is my favorite area by far.

Playing catch up

Wow, I really need to stay on top of this blogging stuff because now I have a bunch of stuff that has happened and it is going to take me days (or months) to get it on here!  

First off, the Little Monkey and I went on a little adventure just the two of us back in June.  I decided that I wanted to go to my cousins wedding in Florida so off we went.  It was more like a family reunion on my mothers side then a wedding.  Myself and my daughter were there, my mother, my grandmother and two of my mother's sisters were there.  My mother is one of five so getting them all in the same place at the same time does not happen often and didn't happen this time but three out of five is pretty good.  The wedding was to take place in Niceville, Florida at the beginning of June.  My daughter and I had never traveled to a place by ourselves where there wasn't anyone to meet us on the other end.  The rest of my family was coming in to different airports at different times so we were really on our own.  I was excited but nervous at the same time.  I would have to handle the Monkey and all our luggage completely by myself.  Our flights were all okay and we got the rental car fine but then I-10 from Pensacola to Crestview was closed.  And it was getting dark.  I couldn't read the crappy map from the rental car people because I was driving.  I started to get a little panicky but I called my best friend in the whole world WV Girl at Heart and she fired up her computer, loaded Mapquest and guided me in.  I owe her a huge THANK YOU!!  And if you are wondering why I didn't call my husband, I did.  He was golfing, so no help there.  The lesson to take away here is always map an alternate route before leaving for your trip because you never know when the interstate might be shut down.  And it will be getting dark.  And you are traveling with your small child.  And every true crime story you have ever seen on television is suddenly in your mind.  But enough about that.

  

Our first day we decided to head down to Ft. Walton Beach to the Gulfarium  They had a small dolphin show and it was pretty entertaining.  It would have been better if I hadn't been to

 SeaWorld in the past.  The Gulfarium looks like a mom and pop operation and while it was nice, really how do you compete with SeaWorld?  Anyways, this is a picture I got of one of the dolphins jumping.  

Just look at the gulf in the back ground!  It was beautiful!  After the Gulfarium shows we were able to meet up with my aunt, uncle and grandmother for lunch.  After living across the country from my home state for 10 years now it always give me a thrill to be able to meet up with my family for simple things such as lunch.  Things that most people probably get to do with their families at the drop of a hat.  The restaurant that we ate at was right on the beach and we were able to get the breeze in our hair and watch the waves roll in.  I pretty much thought I had died and gone to heaven!  After lunch we had to go down and check out the beach since it was right there.  I personally was dying to get my feet in the sand.  There just aren't many opportunities to do that here in Colorado.  So there they are my feet in the sand.  It was wonderful let me tell you! 

My daughter was a little hesitant at first but then she dug right in!

We stayed at the beach for a little while but we weren't really dressed for it and I didn't have any toys for the Monkey so after awhile I dragged my reluctant child back to the hotel in hopes she would take an afternoon nap (which she did not) and to meet my mom who flew in a day later than I did.  

There is more but this is getting long so I think I will wrap it up for now and do the rest in another post later.