Way back when we were college students, Danny interviewed for his job at Edwards Air Force Base. One of the people that conducted that interview was Nathan Cook, or "Captain", as we would come to know him. He was impressed with Danny from the start, and hired him for the F-16 test wing and was Danny's supervisor while he was there. Captain has since moved onto bigger and better things in the testing world, and is now at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. Every so often, he contacts Danny with a job offer that he specifically wants Danny for. Obviously, it hasn't been the right time. But the last time that offer came, we got awfully close to seriously considering the possibility of moving our family to Florida! One hang up for me, however, is that I had never even seen Florida...so it's hard for me to envision moving our family there. Well, when we were mapping out our trip we realized we were only six hours away from Eglin...and also the beach. We had to go check out the area, and Danny was dying to show us what a real beach was like. :)
So we did it! We drove our kids to FLORIDA!! Which makes us a special kind of crazy, for sure. :) The drive from Georgia to Florida was definitely our hardest yet. Sophie had a really bad cold, and hadn't been sleeping well. Claire and Johnny had literally played non-stop for 5 days, and it was in the car (after all the crying) that they realized just how tired they were. But everyone settled down within the first hour on the road, and we made the 355 mile drive in 5 1/2 hours. It was pretty late when we got in, and the kids had slept most of the way. Yet everyone went right to sleep once we were settled in the hotel, which was a huge blessing.
But that wasn't the end of our blessings on this leg of our trip. On our drive from Georgia to Florida, we drove through the craziest rain I have ever seen. Like, slow-to-25-mph-and-put-on-your-flashers crazy! And apparently, this crazy rain system extended through most of the southeast...including Fort Walton Beach, FL. We had one day to spend on the beach, and we woke to a downpour. We fed the kids, and then decided to get ready for the beach and head out despite the rain. We had wanted to check out the area anyway, so we figured we'd drive around until the rain stopped (which was predicted to happened in about an hour or so). Well, we checked out the area...for 2 1/2 hours! And still, it poured buckets! I was starting to get a little worried that we had driven 6 hours out of our way for a beach day that wasn't going to happen! Finally, Danny figured we were going to get wet one way or the other at the beach, so we were just going to do the best we could with what we had and head to the beach. We ended up in Destin, FL...and the traffic that comes with a tourist hotspot. But by the time we parked the clouds had parted and we had sunshine!!
I have only ever been on the beaches of California...and Danny was always telling me I had no idea what I was missing. Well, now I do and I'm ruined!! The Emerald Coast was just that...the water was green and the sand was soft, white, and smooth. The water was the perfect temperature, and you could walk out into the waves without fear of stepping on rocks or sea weed. It was perfection, and totally worth the drive to Florida and around Florida! :)
We had fun playing in the sand and surf, but the kids especially loved boogie boarding. Danny did some body surfing as well...but that ended poorly when he came face-to-face with a sand bar. Ouch! Claire spent a long time panning for little sea shells, and Joey alternated between playing in the sand and trying to crawl into the ocean. It was the perfect afternoon on the beach!!
After three hours, Joey was getting tired. And I was tired of either saving him from drowning or trying to get him to not eat the ENTIRE beach. Seriously...so much sand! We decided to pack it up, even though we all wished for more time. Just as soon as we got everything packed and off the beach, the winds picked up and clouds rolled in. Perfect timing!
We got back to the hotel and got cleaned up before heading out for dinner. We treated the kids to Panera, and we all had a very good dinner. It was such an amazing day!! Danny and I were a little daunted by what we had facing us though...two days straight of driving to get us to New Mexico and a day of rest from the car. With our beach day in the books, our trip was coming to a close and we were all feeling a little bummed about that. So far, in all our driving, we still hadn't had any fights or freak outs. Surely we were going to pay our dues on the way home!!
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