I am reliving my trip. Sorry it is so late and oh so long......... I will attempt to post pics soon.I could hardly wait to get in the car and head out at 4:00am today. The original plan was to leave at 2:00am but my in-laws were following us with my mom, my sister-in-law and a close family friend and they thought we were crazy for suggesting such a departure time. It was going to be a long ride but I would have my toes in the sand, a drink in my hand and be gazing at the gorgeous blue water in approximately 12 hours!! I had stayed up all night, packing and preparing sandwiches of every kind, packing coolers with drinks and munchies so that we would not have to stop along the way for any length of time. It was fuel and facility stops only!! The car was loaded with the usual: luggage, beach items such as a canopy, beach chairs, sand buckets, horseshoes, beach towels, fishing poles and tackle, well you get the picture. We had six bikes strapped with an ungodly number of bungees on the bike rack which was made to carry four bikes. Chris, myself, our two girls, our son and his friend along with pillows, backpacks, etc. were packed like sardines but no one seemed to mind. We headed out caravan style, our Suburban leading the way. We had one stop to make along the way at Hide Away Lake near Tyler, Texas to pick up our Kayak which we had left at my in-laws lake house over the 4th of July. We would make it to Hide Away in about an hour in a half or so. I didn?t want to stop but we had too. Finally, with the Kayak securely strapped on top of the Suburban we were on our way!!! Chris and I took turns driving. I took the wheel somewhere in Louisiana. We drove through some pretty heavy rain along the way. When we finally arrived at our home away from home it was about 5:00pm and a light drizzle was coming down. It was nice. First things first, we all piled out of the car and headed to the beach!! I was SO happy to be back!!! Chris, my sister-in-law, the kids and I walked the beach while the rain came down. The kids were jumping around like wild horses and happy to be out of the car. We headed back to unpack the cars. The rain soon passed. After everyone was settled in we ordered Pizza?s from Amore?s, cracked open some wine and relaxed for a while on the beach. After sunset my mom and I headed over to the Red Bar for a little Dread Clampitt. We stayed until they finished their last set. We headed back to the house and crashed. I did set my alarm though. I can sleep when I?m dead!
I hit the alarm twice this morning but then got up quickly. I grabbed some coffee and a quick bite to eat, put on some sunscreen, helped the kids with sunscreen and hit the beach. It was a beautiful sunny morning and it would be a beautiful day!! We all hung out on the beach pretty much all day. We walked to Grayton along the beach front and looked for shells along the way. The water was too rough for the Kayak so we kayaked up the outflow and into Alligator Lake. In all the years I have been coming to SoWal, I had never done this. It was great! I highly recommend kayaking in one of the lakes! Later in the afternoon, after we were pretty much toasted from the sun, my girls, my sister-in-law and I headed out on our bikes to WaterColor and SeaSide. We stopped by Modica?s. Then we looked for a geocache at SeaSide by the church but couldn?t find it. This is a new hobby that we somehow came upon. We are really pretty new at it, but my girls 11 and 13 really think it is cool. On our way back to the house we stopped at Starbucks for a frosty treat. We cooked hamburgers on the grill and headed back to the beach for sunset cocktails and to watch the kids skim board and play in the surf. We took tons of pictures and had a great time. After dark, Chris, my sister-in-law, my mom and I headed to Red Bar to see Dread again. It was a party!!! Lots of dancing and funn!!! I somehow became the late night cleaning fairy that night. I couldn?t sleep so I stayed up super late and organized everything so that when everyone awoke in the morning it was all nice and neat. I continued to do this every night of our trip because everyone really liked it. I wish I had a cleaning fairy in real life!! ?
I got up well after 9:00am today. I grabbed some coffee and headed to the beach! My girls were already up along with the grandparents, they get up before sunrise sometimes. The boys on the other hand slept until noon, because they stay up all night! Sand, Sun, Funn with a lot of eating and drinking! Did I mention, drinking and eating?! After lunch, we headed to Bass Pro to get fishing gear and a license for Chris. He got a ticket last year when he forgot to get one! He had to fish from shore today because of rough water. He either did not have the right bait or it was not a good day for fish. Oh well. We decided to ride our bikes since the fish were not biting. We didn?t ride too long before we headed back to the beach and that is where we stayed until well after sunset. We cooked Salmon on the grill and had salad and risotto. Everyone hung out talking, then when everyone faded off to bed, Chris and I hung out on the porch swing under the house, listening to the surf. I am not sure what time we headed off to bed? I did forget to set the alarm.
I somehow woke up early today, despite forgetting to set the alarm. Chris had woken up very early to try his hand at fishing again?.still from shore. I had my coffee, my morning beach walk and breakfast. Chris and I decided that we were going to go on a long bike ride today?? a VERY long bike ride. We really had NO idea how long it would be. ? Our goal was to ride to Alys Beach. We started out at Gulf Trace. That is a long ride! It was pretty muggy and hot. I might even want to add that it was Pucking Hot!! It had been raining off and on for the last few days. The sun beat down!!! We drudged on! We did have to stop and hose down at one point at one of the beach walkovers. Thank goodness for those hoses!! We made it to Alys but by that time all we wanted to do was down a huge Gatorade from the little store there. I had water too! After we cooled off we headed back, the ride back was better somehow. We stopped at Seaside and had a few tall beers and a taco from the taco bar. We headed to the house feeling much better!! Did I mention we felt MUCH better!! We cleaned up and headed to Publix for some needed food items. On the way back we stopped by Lily Pads and Zoo Gallery for a little shopping. My Mom cooked for everyone tonight! It was a Mexican style casserole with a salad and fresh fruit. After dinner everyone was pretty tired and many headed off to bed or watched tv. Chris and I hung out on the beach until very late with a bottle of wine.
I got up at 8:00am this morning. I am putting sunscreen on as soon as I wake up by now. I have not been in the sun this much since the last time I was here. Coffee, Coffee! Breakfast! Today was going to be an off and on rain day! A good day for pictures too! We drove around a lot and took pictures. We shopped today some and hung out on the beach in between storms. The kids are having a blast! They don?t know how good they have it!! Everyone is doing whatever they want to do. Ever since we first invited family to join us on our summer vacation I have only asked that everyone follow one rule and that is ?There are no rules?. If you want to do something, do it. If someone is eating out and you don?t want too, don?t. If you want to stay on the beach all day when others are going shopping, hang on the beach. It works out pretty good for everyone. Tonight Chris and I snuck away to Red Bar for dinner. I had the blackened snapper with wilted spinach. I ate a similar dish at the Blue Bar many moons ago. While it wasn?t really the same as the original Blue Bar menu item, it was still very good. After dinner we headed to Pandora?s where we bellied up to the bar and had some adult beverages. There was music playing inside but we hung outside. I met two SoWallers, both said they do not post on the site that much (maybe they lurk though). We sat by one at the bar, who was a very nice guy, he has lived in SoWal forever. We enjoyed talking to him. He had some great stories. When we arrived home, it was pretty late and everyone was asleep, except for the boys. They were playing guitars and texting girls. Chris and I stayed out on the beach until 1:30am. The moon was full and lit the water like a bright flashlight. It was beautiful!
8:30am came early but I was ready to get up. I biked for an hour by myself around WaterColor, Seaside and Grayton Beach. When I got back to the house everyone was on the beach. I joined them! We beached it most of the day! Chris and I headed to WineWorld for a wine tasting mid afternoon. We ended up really liking one of the wines so we made a purchase. The girls wanted to shop for something, anything, so we took them around to a few of the local stores. Although dinner was cooking when we got back to the house, Chris and I snuck away for an hour to have my favorite dish at Borago?s! I think Miss Kitty likes this one too!, scallops with spinach and soft cheese polenta and a Bellini. I saw a Steele and said hello. Even though we ate early we ended up back out in Seaside at a little restaurant with my Sister-in-law and my girls. Southern ? The boys didn?t want to go, they didn?t want to do anything but ride their bikes around, play guitar, skim board and play football and hang on the beach. That is basically all they want to do, oh yeah and talk to girls. Oh, to be a 15yr old. I am happy they are having fun!
Wakeup today was around 9:00am. I had my usual coffee and walk on the beach. It?s a really good routine, one I think I could do everyday for the rest of my life!! Rain was in the forecast today. I enjoyed my solo bike ride yesterday so I decided to do it again today but this time I road the other way to Blue Mountain Beach and Santa Rosa. There was a bike race or something going on today while I was riding. I took some pictures while I was riding. It was a beautiful sunny morning despite the rainy forecast. After my ride, I headed to the beach, to join the kids and the rest of the family. The girls searched for shells and found some nice ones. When the rain arrived, my girls and my sister-in-law were going Geocaching so I joined them in the rain! That was actually pretty fun! We found 3 that day! The kids kayaked in Alligator Lake and we played on the beach in between rain storms during the day. There was a crazy lightening storm too!! We hung out on the top porch of the house and watched. Chris took some cool pictures. We had a very relaxing evening hanging out at the house and on the beach. Everyone was a little bummed that we would be leaving soon but happy that we were all having such a fabulous time together!
I was up earlier than usual today; I think it was around 7:00am. Coffee, beach!! We were leaving today but nothing was going to keep me from my beach chair this morning especially not packing! The water was calm today of course. ? The water in the gulf was too rough to kayak all week until the day we were leaving. It was soooo hard to leave. I wanted to jump in the Kayak and head out and believe me Chris really wanted to get some fishing in too!! We had seen Dolphins yesterday too. Maybe they were out there. The June grass was still there, it had been around all week but it didn?t really bother us. We have been coming here long enough to know that it is different in some way every time we come and that is the beauty of it all. We eventually did pack up and load the car. The kids first day of school is tomorrow!! They would be tired but it was worth it! We all piled in and drove away, knowing we will be back very soon of course!! XOXO SoWal!!
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So much energy!!!
