Catching Up

Ok, so the internet access was so bad at the beach house that I gave up on trying to blog, but I did continue to keep a journal every day, so I thought I'd go ahead and post it now.

Wednesday

We made it to the zoo today, but that was about it. It was quite possibly the smallest zoo I’ve ever seen, except maybe Kamper Park in Hattiesburg, which is FREE. This one was certainly not free. And not as neat as Kamper Park. Except for the baby tiger nursery. They had four and they were adorable. I’m sure I would have enjoyed it more if I’d felt better, and if it hadn’t been quite so hot. By the time we left I was feeling pretty bad, so we skipped Bob’s, skipped an impromptu-ish trip to Pensacola, and went home. We eventually made a trip to chill at the beach, and ate at Tack Jack’s again. They have a fabulous ribeye sandwich. Yummmmm. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

Thursday

So we’d talked about driving over to Pensacola just to see what was there yesterday, but I was pretty sick and ended up dozing on the couch most of the afternoon. We made up for it today. We FINALLY got pancakes (I’d been craving them for 4 days, I don’t know why) and then decided to head East. No, I didn’t have a decent map! How hard can it be? Just drive along the coastline until you get to Pensacola, then stop at the Florida visitor’s center to get a better map and see what there was to do. Uh huh.

For those that haven’t driven from Gulf Shores to Pensacola, it’s not that easy. The road doesn’t follow the coast line, and yes, we got a bit lost. But at one point while turning around and heading back towards what looked like a big bridge to somewhere, we saw the magic sign. ZOO. I love a zoo. The sign also suggested a visitor’s center nearby, so we stopped there and got slightly better map and directions to the zoo. And a cookbook. I don’t know why, I just like cookbooks!

So my question is, if you’re in downtown Pensacola and see a sign that says Zoo, how far do you think that zoo would be? Five miles away? Ten? At least in the same city? Nope. Closer to 30 miles away, past Gulf Breeze, right before you get to Navarre! If we’d realized that, we wouldn’t have gone, but we didn’t and we were about to give up when we found it, so we went ahead and visited. First, it was too damn hot to be at the zoo. But we were. It was smaller than I expected, smaller than the Jackson Zoo, but we went through and then got on the train, which went through what they call an open reserve, but was really a somewhat open reserve. There were a lot of antelope type animals on the loose, but everybody else was just in bigger closed off areas. It was pretty cool, though. I liked the giant hippo, the rhino, and the gorillas. All the monkeys make me miss my pup, though. The best part? The otters. There were two of them, and as soon as they spotted us they made a bee-line for the glass and started jumping up on it, begging us to come play. Greg was convinced they were saying, “Throw the squeak! Throw the squeak! We’ll chase it!” That just mad me miss the pup even more.

Anyway, I got too hot at the zoo again, but at least I didn’t get sick from it this time. We found our way back to Gulf Shores, and to Bob’s for dinner. Ahhh. Home. I’m gonna miss Bob’s.

Friday

One of the reasons I love going to the beach is because I love the marine life. I can’t believe there isn’t a big aquarium here. There aren’t even any marine creatures at the zoo here. Very weird. But I do love to watch the creatures in the ocean. Last year we saw stingrays and I’d hoped to see some this time, but so far no luck. We did finally see a big blue crab today. Last time we saw hundreds, but we were here a week later, which may have had something to do with it. Anyway, Greg gets a little freaked out by the creatures in the ocean, but we both love to watch them from the beach. I have a huge respect for them. I understand that the ocean is their home, not mine, and that if they want to hang out on my stretch of beach they can have it, I’ll watch from my beach chair and stay out of their way. We knew something was out and about when we noticed schools of fish jumping periodically. I went hunting for whatever was chasing them, walking up and down the area staring into the surf. I was easing out into the surf for a better look when I saw the big blue crab. Well, Greg saw it and pointed it out to me. To say the least, I retreated. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that he’s more afraid of me and would run away if I accidentally got too close, but it was a little muddy and I wasn’t going to chance it! We sat on the beach and watched the birds chase the jumping minnows and dive for the ones that didn’t jump. It’s amazing to me to watch them dive, to watch the fish prey on the smaller fish, even to watch the waves break and the tide come in and out. I can watch it for hours, with the beautiful sunset as a bonus. I would love to live down here, to be able to appreciate the vibrant life of the sea every day.

Saturday

Vacation must be French for “Spend every penny you have.” When we were budgeting for vacation I thought we set aside an absurd amount of spending money, we’d never spend that much. But it was ok, whatever was left we’d put towards a nice weekend somewhere we hadn’t been together, maybe Natchez or Memphis. Uh huh.

In nine days, we’ve eaten ONE meal at the house. And who spends $47 to visit the zoo? We do. Granted, it was two zoos, but still. I couldn’t tell you the last time I spent $52 in Books A Million. Oh wait, yes I can. It was this afternoon! You wouldn’t believe all the crap we’ve bought, aside from horrifyingly expensive meals twice a day and enough snack food to feed a family of eight for a month. I have a stuffed tiger from the zoo, a deck of flamingo playing cards, a crab magnet, a picture frame, half a dozen Christmas ornaments, two flamingo tumblers, a pile of new magazines which I will end up subscribing too (yes, they are all cooking magazines!), a new cookbook, two new atlas’s, a toy for Casper, four jars of salsa, an $8 bottle of grilling sauce, a board game, a $10 half pound block of fudge, and an aircraft carrier. And I’m sure I’m missing something. All of this from the woman who doesn’t spend money on anything. Ever. Something about the phrase, “It’s ok, it’s vacation money” seems to make buying stuff acceptable. Sigh. We have about $150 of the absurd vacation spending money left. Guess it’s a good thing we’re leaving Monday! We may be eating off the McDonald’s dollar menu on the way home!

Sunday

It's out anniversary! Happy anniversary, honey. This has been the best year ever and I can't wait for the next one!