Dear Vacation, wish I was there...

I too am missing the beach!! Last year was so gorgeous and so much fun!



Looking at the pictures online makes me wonder if BP has ruined the Gulf coast for my lifetime.




I still cling to the hope of squeezing in some sort of a vacation...but it seems to be sliding away. Work is crazy. Tdawg is injured again and on crutches...

Anniversary

Cletus and I celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary on the way back from the beach. Pretty good considering our friends only thought that we would last six weeks. I can't say that we were ready to be married...it is a bit like jumping out of a plane and hoping that the parachute will open. What is the secret, I am asked...maybe we are both too stubborn to give up. And we still love each other madly! It was funny driving back. We hooked up with a radio station that was playing Christmas carols. Their salute to Christmas in July. It was a bit surreal. But fun to sing-along with!

Treasure Hunting on the Beach

Cletus loves to take his metal detector and hunt for treasures on the beach. One year he helped some kid find his room key. He was so grateful! I told Cletus to bring me back something shiny.

I wasn't expecting him to find a Wolfgang Puck Serving Spoon buried in the sand. But...it is shiny! He also found 43 cents and a lighter.

Sand Art

I can barely make a sand castle...but some people are truly talented!

Busta Move

I took the boys to the Big Kahuna Water Park in Destin. It was packed with fun but well, it literally kicked my butt. The first slide I rode was the red power slide. I was going so fast that I can't say for sure, but I think I hit my back on the bottom of the slide and then landed at the bottom of the pool. Miss Graceful surely did something! I persevered, toughed it out for another five hours. Actually, running around seemed to take my mind off of the pain. However, the four hundred mile trip back in the van a few days later was excruciating! And I must admit that even now...a week later and I'm still sore! I went today to get xrays and see how much damage I really did. I guess I'm not 12 years old anymore. As my friend Ann said today: Getting Old is NOT for Sissies!!

Holy Mackerel

We got up EARLY and got on the boat in Destin at 6am.

Everyone caught fish!

The boat: "The Enterprise"...the Captain's name: Kirk, of course.



We left the Destin harbor and caught a lot of herring to use as bait. Then out to the open water. We went about 12 miles outside of Destin, Florida in all. We trolled.
I caught a mackerel but Cletus had to help me reel it in. Our first mate, Rusty, was very helpful and cleaned and fillet-ed our fish!


Cletus and Tdawg caught some Amberjack that either got away or were too small to keep. Then we all caught snapper while bottom fishing. It was a gawgeous and amazing day!

Guilty Pleasures

One of the best things about vacay is the guilty pleasures. Twirling on an intertube. Not thinking about calories. Watching mindless TV. Napping in the middle of the afternoon. And immersing yourself in a good beach read. Barbara at work gave me "Everyone Worth Knowing" by Lauren Weisberger. She also wrote "The Devil Wears Prada". I have not read that one, but the movie was good. And you know the book is always better.

Revenge

Tdawg executed his revenge on the crab that was eating his bait, by chowing down at Bayou Bills. He showed no mercy! :-)

Mornin' Bites

In the early morning, Cletus and Tdawg fished some more. Tdawg thought it was cool to see a crab on the top of the water eating a shrimp. That is until he realized that the shrimp was his bait and the crab had stolen it! Tdawg was just a fussin'!! Cletus caught a two foot long black-tipped reef shark. Sadly, no pictures of the shark...I was still snoozing. This picture will give you an idea:

Shore Enough

Sunday night, Cletus and Tdawg did some shore fishing. They caught some catfish.

Baytowne Wharf

We roadtripped to the San Destin and Destin areas to check out where we would be fishing. Then went to Hammerheads in Baytowne. I should have guessed by the extra E on the end and the gated community that it would be snooty. The TV advertisement called it reminiscent of the French Quarter in Louisiana. Don't know about that. But when the menu says "market price" you know it isn't going to be pretty: can you say "Cha-ching"? The food was good, but not what you would expect...must be paying for the ambiance.

Tdawg found out that there isn't a mudbugs (crawfish) that he doesn't like.

Ahh...Life is Good

Sunday was our chillax day. After the long drive, we were ready to chill:

It was a gawgeous day. And this was the extent of our adventure for the day. A nice stroll on the beach, collecting shells and reading:

Buddy had a good time sitting on the shore making sand castles and throwing all of the sand back into the ocean:

Tdawg brought his bike and rode to Inlet Beach an eighteen mile round trip.

Roadtrip

Ahhh, it is that time of year...Vacation-time! School starts in a few weeks. And I feel thrashed from a rough year. I'm ready to take off and forget about deadline, commitments, schedules and such. So, we headed out on a 375 mile trip to Paradise. There was all sorts of excitement: a high speed chase on I-65, stalls, wrecks, dumb drivers, lots of road construction and traffic jams. The worst traffic jam was a two hour wait going north through Montgomery. Thank goodness we were headed south! The drive got better after Montgomery, because we left I-65 and got on the country roads. Sometimes it felt like this is how fast we were traveling...


Cletus suggested that we play Redneck I-Spy. The object is to point out the most redneck items on a porch. We saw all sorts of appliances and furniture (including a huge console TV), a confederate flag, a life-sized nativity scene, Christmas lights and a full-sized car. By the time, we made it to the beach, we were ready to eat dinner and collapse. A long drive, but well worth it!!

Rocking Chair, I think NOT

My retirement (albeit years away) is not going to be sitting in a rocking chair. My list of must do's...still in process...is somewhat of a bucket list:
Parasail at the beach
Snorkle in the Florida Keys
Visit Nova Scotia
Skydive (with Miss Gassy & Mrs Goofy, with Am I Getting Old taking photos)
Hike in the Grand Canyon
Visit the Smithsonian
Cruise the Inside Passage from Vancouver, Canada to Seward, Alaska
See the Mayan ruins
Hang out in Cancun with Sissy
Snowboard in the Rockies
Eat Italian food (in Italy, of course)
...hmmm, and that is just a start.

Sky Coaster

I'm still jealous and wish I would have done this. TDawg and the my niece, Tater, were the brave ones. Actually, Tater was a tad bit nervous!

Lions and Tigers and Bears...Oh My!

There is a good reason why he is called the King of the Jungle. Big puddy-tat!
Here kitty, kitty? Nice kitty. This little kitty (did you see the size of those paws?) looked at me like I was a morning snack. You know those cartoons where Daffy Duck turns into a chicken leg...that's how I felt. Yes, there is a small chain link fence between me and these enormous carnivores. Kitty roared and I about wet my pants! By the way, I'm up in a tower and that is why I have an unobstructed view in these last two pictures.
Did you know that bears eat lettuce? How can he get so big eating rabbit food?