Pensacola 2018: Days One through Four

Our annual beach vacation in Pensacola was June 23-30. We left home around 9am and braved the traffic to get to the coast. I even got to ride with the dumb chicken for a bit.

As usual, we met Nola and Nopsi at the boat launch, and the kids once again decided to ride in the boat with Nopsi to our lunch at Shaggy’s. Everyone was starving by the time we got there; traffic was pretty bad. It seems to get worse every year! So we very much enjoyed being out of the car and in front of cold beverages and tasty food.

All four kids rode the boat from the restaurant to the house and were out in the water less than an hour later. They wasted no time in resuming their dock jumping, even Kate!

  

The kids stayed up pretty late that first night giggling and talking in the kids room (it was Luke’s first year in there!), but they were back outside before 10am the next morning. When Nopsi got back from fishing, he took some of us on a boat ride.

 

 

After lunch, we had some rest time, during which Riley built a new Lego set and Rory worked in his summer workbook. Then we were back out again after the two littlest ones took a nap. There was more playing in the sand and even a small tubing excursion. The water was fairly rough this day, so Riley and Uncle Jeff had a pretty bumpy tube ride. Riley apparently flew off and got the wind knocked out of him. He refused to go tubing again!

 

 

 

After a long day in the sun, we had a nice, relaxing evening. Rory discovered a new place to watch TV, and everyone enjoyed a beautiful sunset and a great dinner. Then the adults played Michigan rummy after the kids went to bed.

  

  

I guess we were pretty busy on day 3 because I don’t have very many pictures! The weather continued to be great but hot. We alternated between the sand and the water, and Kate even convinced Nopsi to take her fishing. She caught a catfish! We all ate dinner together this night (red bean and rice Monday!) and watched another pretty sunset.

  

On day 4 everyone except Nola and Nopsi decided to venture over to the Gulf side after breakfast. Riley complained about a stinging sensation all over his legs when he was in the water; we found out later that was because of sea lice. It did seem to get less noticeable as the day went on, so he and Kate were able to do some boogie boarding in the afternoon. Rory ran his truck and collected shells (SO many to find!), Jeff and Kate built a sandcastle, and Riley of course dug a big hole. We were out there for about 4 hours and had a great time.

 

 

 

Once we got back it was shower time for everyone and a low-key late afternoon inside. Erin and Jeff made sausage and veggie foil packets on the grill for dinner, and everyone loved them. This night was the best sunset of the trip, and the adults tried out a new fun game, Logo Party, once the kids finally settled down.

More to come!