DAY 109 : October 24/22 Monday.
Lazy morning in St. Andrews State Park, FL.
Meems was making the final touches on her board game that had circus/christmas/Halloween/farm theme boards for it. I played it with her when she finished it. Very fun. Kids did schoolwork with Jonathan while I sat and read my book in the sun.
Biked to Gator Lake within the park... saw a baby gator off the side of the road only because a woman had pulled over in her golf cart with her daughter and grandson to look at it. Didn't seen any gators at gator lake, but chatted with some really nice folks. On the way back, we stopped in at the little camp store for ice cream treats.
1:30-3:30pm we had checked out of our site (1pm on the dot, and the crew were cleaning and raking) and were back at the beach by the jetty renting two paddle boards for the afternoon. We enjoyed touring around the more sheltered area of the beach/water looking at jellyfish and fish. Meems with Jonathan and Ollie with me.
Ollie wanted to snorkel after this excursion, so when we paddled back to our landing spot on the beach, I walked back to the RV with him to get the masks and snorkels. He was immediately in the water checking out the fish and other things to see. We met a sweet couple who also had snorkels on. The girl was from Illinois and her boyfriend was from Jamaica. She was super knowledgeable about the fish in the area and advised us that the little jellyfish were called Walnut Jellies and were harmless. She scooped the up for the kids to see.
Jonathan wanted to paddle board some more and Ollie hopped on the front of the board and laid down so he could have his face in the water and just get a ride around the sheltered jetty area and look at fish. They saw two sting rays! That was very exciting. Meems and I watched the boys from shore and busied ourselves with sandcastle construction.
It wasn’t long after O and J were back, that they were admiring the sandcastles and helping with some details, that Amelia saw a jellyfish floating her way up on the edge of the beach and in trying to avoid it, she got some stings on her little foot and hand. It stung, but she handled it so well… just some ouch ouch ouches and hopping around. Jonathan tried to rinse them off for her and offered to pee on her foot, ha ha. She wasn’t having any of that!
We packed up and as we were about to walk away, we had one last walk down the beach a bit and saw a teeny little needlefish! So cute! It was about 20cm long.
By 4:30pm we were leaving for Pensacola Florida in the “Redneck Riviera” and the “armpit of Florida” supposedly. Took the Hwy 98 across. Saw our first little armadillo on the side of the highway - alive, thank goodness - in the grassy area of South Walton County.
We drove through Laguna Beach, Santa Rosa Beach, Destin. I do say, there are a LOT of Waffle Houses along the way. Super touristy destinations that reminded us of Myrtle Beach with all the amusement stuff and busy lights. On the 98 we drove the Miracle Beach Parkway (water and dunes on either side). The sun was setting as we drove and eventually it was on our left side (not in our eyes) and for the last hour of our journey (around 6:15pm) we let the kids watch a movie.
Passed lots of military bases and airfields, the Hurlburt Airfield for Airforce Special Ops, and Navarre where there were lots of churches.
By 7pm we were on the bridge to Pensacola! Drove along the bay with lots of fancy waterfront houses. Arrived at our destination - the Walmart on Blue Angel Parkway where we had intel that we could see the Blue Angels Flight Team do their practice runs. Did a grocery shop (no halloween decor purchases this time). We ate a quick ravioli/spinach sauce meal for dinner. Oliver tried hard to get Amelia to have a pool noodle fight with him, but she was NOT interested. Jonathan had a good phone chat with his teaching replacement, Joseph.
Everyone was super tired and by 9:45pm we were winding down and off to sleep.
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