If You Guessed Florida...
...you were correct, though the picture above is not Florida. Leaving on the Saturday after Christmas, the roads were full of traffic and it wasn't the most relaxing drive. Thus when we got on the south side of Nashville to the suburb of Brentwood, we pulled off the road for the night.
My apologies to Bob for not reaching out as I know this is his neck of the woods. We were tired and just needed to decompress from the miles and I know you likely had family around anyway.
We ended up attending a Saturday evening mass at a nice church in Brentwood, getting some Chinese food at a nice restaurant across the street from our motel and calling it a day. The next day we did make it down to our destination of Florida.
Long time readers may recall that for nearly a decade while my grandparents were alive, I made the journey to the panhandle of Florida where we would rent a house on the coast for a week for a reunion of sorts with my grandparents, parents, brother and his family. It was always a lot of fun and very relaxing to just walk on or stare at the beach at all hours of the day. When those trips were mentioned at a get together of some of my wife's cousins this summer at Pidgeon Forge, Tennessee, they latched onto it and it became a reality. Not everyone could make it but those of us who did had a nice relaxing time.
Although the family in charge didn't get a beach side house, the one they chose a few miles from the beach had a nice big backyard with covered patio and was surrounded by privacy fencing which I took advantage of and found quite relaxing all the same.
The one big draw back is that the four day period we chose to be down in Florida turned out to be the four days when they would have extremely cold weather there. We did go down to the beach one cold, blustery afternoon, but we didn't linger very long.
As you can see above, neither was anyone else lingering either.
Never the less, we did find signs that others had been there before us which wasn't surprising since we were in Fort Walton Beach which happens to be across the bay from Destin, Florida, a huge spring break and otherwise tourist hangout.
Great vanishing point in the penultimate photo.
ReplyDeleteI guess even amateurs get lucky once in awhile.
DeleteThanks for sharing the pictures Ed! Glad you had a good time.
ReplyDeleteOther than the big cities (Miami, Orlando) I have never been to other parts of Florida.
I haven't been in southern Florida so haven't seen Miami. I have spent a lot of time in the panhandle but there isn't a lot there outside of the development along the coast.
DeleteSometimes the trip to a place is more enjoyable than the actual destination. One time when I was in LA (actually Santa Monica), I went to the beach, and it was deserted. My daughter told me that it was 70 degrees and way too cold for Southern Californians to go to the beach. LOL We Washingtonians and Iowans are made of sterner stuff!
ReplyDeleteAlthough they didn't this time, my daughters have swam until they turned blue in the gulf waters this time of year. The day we went to the beach was pretty cold even by my Iowa standards but the rest of the trip was what I call light jacket weather but natives likely call heavy parka weather.
DeleteFort Walton Beach is a nice area of Florida. We spent a Winter at Panama City and their beach is wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI’ve spent many weeks of winter at Panama City Beach and I think Fort Walton had as nice a beach at least the one we visited.
DeleteThanks for the shout-out, Ed, and certainly understand. I live in Brentwood, so we were in close proximity to each other. Those good vibes I was sending obviously came from you! Glad it was a good trip for you, overall.
ReplyDeleteThe small part I visited was very nice. Even the little strip mall we ate at across from the motel seemed prosperous, something our strip malls don’t appear to be these days.
DeleteI bet it's still nice walking on the beach when it's cold.
ReplyDeleteIt was nice just having it to ourselves!
DeleteAw shucks. I was guessing it was Hawaii.
ReplyDeleteI think you were the first to guess that.
DeleteThose pictures just LOOK cold. As you know, the Panhandle is almost a different world from the central and southern part of the state. It gets downright cold in North Florida.
ReplyDeleteI’ve heard that. I myself have never been south of Sebring so I can’t verify it myself.
DeleteI was wondering if it was Hawaii! That second photo is fantastic. Sounds like you had a really great time.
ReplyDeleteI’ve been to Hawaii once and that was enough. It’s too crowded and too expensive for me to want to go back. I can find just as nice places closer, cheaper and less crowded, IMHO.
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