Vacation Day 4

As promised Wednesday started out beautifully sunny. The boys went to play golf at a course on the other side of Panama City. They returned late in the day sunburned and worn out. The girls spent the morning at the close by town of Seaside (where the Truman Show was filmed) and did a bit of shopping. I was the only one who bought anything. There's a neat glass shop there that carries interesting Jewelry and each year we've stayed here I've purchased something. Not many pictures from today except a few of Jacques. You're allowed to take pets to the pool as long as they don't go in the pool and stay 4 feet from the pool edge. Jacques has decided this is the life he was meant to lead.

I also got a better picture of the pool from our balcony. It doesn't capture
the whole thing but the other side of the pool is a mirror image of the side closest to you so just imagine that.

Vacation Days 2 & 3

We were greeted Monday morning with rain - lots and lots of rain. Fortunately the forecast after Tuesday was lots of sunshine so we decided to make the best of it and have "indoor fun". For the girls that mainly consisted of reading the myriad of books we had brought with us. The guys alternated between books and computers with computers take the majority of the time.

Monday was also Jack's 28th birthday. He took a birthday dip (not in his birthday suit!) in the icy cold pool. He had requested Boston Cream Pie for his birthday cake so after a dinner of Lasagna (wonderfully prepared by yours truly) we enjoyed that. He received golf clubs from my grandmother, a video card from parents, a putting practice thingy from Julie, and Spongebob Squarepants Monopoly from Graham and me. Jack has even offered to share a piece of his cake with you! :-)

Near where we stay is this very large very weird looking house. It's right on the beach and has been under construction both times we have stayed here. Jack, the man who doesn't know what stranger means, asked a security guard up the road about the house. The man the house is being built for does road construction in the Panama City area. Evidently road construction pays REALLY well down here. The reason the house looks so odd is that there aren't any corners and it's constructed completely out of concrete to make it "hurricane proof". The rain did clear up enough in the afternoon for Jack, Daddy, & I to go to the driving range. Lest you think I am a golf addict I only went because I was tired of sitting around reading. Graham spent most of Monday traveling to Pensacola and back. A good friend from high school and college recently got married and is now stationed in Pensacola. Graham figured 2 hours was about as close as he would be to him for the near future and decided to visit. After riding for 8+ hours on Saturday I decided my behind couldn't take 4 more hours of that so I let Graham batch it for the day.

Tuesday was more of the same except the forecast was for the rain to clear out by early afternoon. We used the morning hours to go shopping at the "premium" outlets in Destin. The boys went mainly to look for golf items. Although they were not successful in their endeavor Julie and I found a great sale at the Ann Taylor outlet and outfitted ourselves for fall. Julie had toasted her chest pretty well on Sunday at the beach and pool. Some of the colors she tried on made her look REALLY red which I, of course, made fun of. We ate lunch at Pompano Joes and then headed back to the condo since the skies had cleared up. The boys wanted to head to the beach because the storm had brought in some decent waves. Julie and I stuck to the beach where we read (more reading!) and took pictures.


Graham and Jack decided to call it a day after they both saw Jellyfish in the water. Graham earned the title "Jellyfish Virgin" because we discovered he was the only one who hadn't been stung by a jellyfish. We went to the pool for the rest of the afternoon where the only dangerous marine life was our husbands. :-)

Vacation Day 1

We arrived safely Saturday evening and were all ready to do something other than ride & drive. Unfortunately the pool was closed until Sunday morning "as required by Florida law". Every year we've come to this area we've eaten at Bruno's pizza the first evening. Graham and I went to pick up the pizza and were told it would be a few more minutes because one of our pizzas "looked gross, and we wouldn't have wanted it." I don't know if this was supposed to make me feel better or not since I assumed they were using the same ingredients on the pizza they remade.





Sunday morning we awoke early (for central time) and decided to take Jacques to the beach. This was his first time seeing the ocean and we weren't sure how he would react. I think if he could talk he would have told us that his dog breed was not intended to go swimming in the ocean.

We sat on the beach for a while during which the boys explored the very clear water. According to the flags posted by the county there was "dangerous marine life present" but the only ones we saw were man eating fish (small fish that nibbled their toes). The girls decided it was too hot to stay out by the ocean and headed inland to enjoy the large pool. This is my idea of vacation - a pool close by for when I get hot and comfortable lounge chairs by the pool where I can read. I didn't get a picture at the pool but you can see it in this picture I took of Jacques on the balcony.



After lunch Daddy, Jack, Graham and decided to play golf at a 9 Hole Par 3 course in Destin. This was mainly for my benefit as I've only played two other times and my golfing skills are...improving. (When you're really bad it's hard to do anything but improve!) I actually did quite a bit better this time than I did a few weeks ago and it's starting to be more fun although it is a lot of work to try to remember everything involved in a good hit.

I have a few pictures of us showing off our mad golfing skills! The 8th hole was quite a challenge. It was a long drive (for a par 3) and it was over a marshy area with a water hazard off to the right. I was playing the closest tee box so I didn't have to worry about the marshy area but the guys tee-ed off from the farthest tee box. I think it was 300+ yards? Daddy tee-ed off first and was quite pleased with his shot. Graham went next and put some crazy (unintentional) spin on the ball which caused it to make a nice curve onto the fairway. Jack went last and made another amazing shot. (It's quite rare for all the guys to do well on the same hole, especially one so challenging.) We all congratulated Jack on his awesome shot and the first thing to come out of his mount is "I pulled my butt cheek!" This caused us to christen Hole 8 as "The Butt Cheek Special" What made it even more interesting was the sponsor of the hole: Paine-Webber.

Several times Jack referenced getting into his reverse K position. I didn't realize what he was talking about until I watched him from the side. Since he's left handed the K actually looks correct.


After we finished the last hole we saw this little boy practicing on the driving range with his dad. I definitely think he is the next Tiger Woods!