Beach time!

Matt starts UPT in just a little over a week. Since he won't have leave at all until Christmas, we decided that going somewhere for the weekend as a "last" vacation would be a good use of our time, since we both have nothing else to do. Where did we decide? Pensacola, Florida! A state I have never been to! It's crazy to think that from my current location, we can drive to the Florida beaches! Since Matt's friends Trent and Brandy are stationed at Fort Rucker, Alabama, they came with us too. Let the beach party commence!

Shout out to Bryan Brenize who watched our puppy for us while we were gone! He was more than willing to do it, since our house is bigger than one room, has lots of windows, cable and internet, lots of kitchen gadgets, and an adorable puppy.

Our trip didn't start until 4:00 pm, since Matt couldn't leave until the end of business on Friday. It's about a 5 hour trip, but an hour and a half was added on due to an accident and construction on one of the bridges to the Pensacola peninsula. An extra forty of that was also because we stopped at a Pizza Hut in Quitman, Mississippi, and the service there was horrible. I hate to say it, but the people there are so dumb. Seriously. But anyway, this is supposed to be about our awesome vacation, so I will stop ranting about the stupid people of the South.

When we got in around 10, I immediately went to sleep with Brandy (different beds, people... lol) and Trent and Matt went out for a drink. Staying up with a puppy the last two weeks has apparently made me tired because I crashed. I don't even remember them coming in. Yay sleep!

The next morning we caught the tail end of the complimentary breakfast (thank GOD there was coffee left!) and then we hit up the beach! It was very very hot, but at least the water was amazing! Being from the Northwest, I'm used to only going knee deep because the water and temperature are too cold to completely swim. So not the problem here. At all. In fact, you want to keep going out because the shallow water is still rather warm. Everything about the beach and water was fantastic. We even saw some manta rays jumping in and out of the water! It was scary at first, since we thought they were sharks (the tips of their rays look a lot like shark fins when they stick them out of the water sideways), but then we thought it was really cool.

For lunch we headed to one of the many restaurants, Crabs, and enjoyed the beach breeze and view while eating. I had surf clams and a yummy alcoholic beverage. I don't remember what was in it, except for rum and chocolate. Delicious! After lunch we cooled down in the hotel kiddy pool (don't judge us, the large pool was crowded and full of rowdy drinking adults) and then hit the beach again. The beach is the best at night. The water is still warm, and the temperature has cooled down, but not enough to require more clothing. The crowds are mostly gone, too, which makes it that much better for me.

The interesting thing about hanging out in the sun all day is that it sucks all the energy out of you. All of it. To the point where you're not hungry. We decided to eat dinner anyway, so we headed to the very small and very crowded boardwalk and found a cafe to eat at. The wait was a little long, but they forgot to charge Brandy and I for our smoothies, so it was worth it. I only ate Greek salad since I wasn't hungry and it would be very easy to digest. From there we headed to a sports bar and grill where we got drinks and just chatted. I got a mudslide, which are the best alcoholic beverages around. Kahlua, chocolate, and ice cream = awesome deliciousness. Then we all went back to the hotel and crashed. Sun makes you tired.

Lazy Sunday hit us hard. We didn't start stirring until about 9:30 and check-out was at 11 am.. We missed continental breakfast, unfortunately, but we made up for that by heading to an IHOP. I heart IHOP. Or any restaurant that serves lots of breakfast food. Our food was delicious, I had excellent coffee and the hostess was great and gave us a military discount. Yay!

Then came the long horrible ride home where we stopped by a PetSmart to pick up puppy food and stop by a Starbucks (not a part of the aforementioned "horrible" part). Being such a superb driver, Matt managed to avoid an accident due to a stupid driver not understanding how to merge. Really, you don't stop at the end of the merge lane and stop on the highway when everyone is going 70. You just don't. On another note, the drive is super boring, driving through rural forests where there is nothing interesting to see.

All in all it was a GREAT vacation. I wish Matt and I had been able to stay longer than a weekend, but it was totally worth it. Unfortunately, it has made us hate Columbus even more, but we'll be out of here eventually. And next time let's hope we're close to the Atlantic coast, because it's outstanding! And makes up for the horrendous summer heat of the South!