Pensacola Beach: The Beach

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I really think in my former life I lived on a coast, in a house right on the beach. Knowing me it would either be the Gulf or the Atlantic or maybe Hawaii. I can sure tell you though, when I came in to this life, I got rid of any ability to tan. Yeah okay anyway if you believe any of that, I’d believe the tanning part. I even have Greek in me and I don’t have that pretty olive complexion they get although what little tan I do achieve does give me a pretty, very light, olive complexion. Now I’m just babbling. I think it’s because I start school this week and I’m freaking out!!! Moving on!

The reason I was babbling above is I’m still talking about our trip to Pensacola Beach. Today though, we’re actually talking about the beach! Yey! The whole reason I wanted to go on this trip, to plant my butt in the sand and put my feet in the ocean. If you think I’m kidding, I’m not!

Pretty much the minute we checked in to the hotel, I jumped into my swimsuit and was headed to the ocean. I truthfully couldn’t wait. I guess that’s what happens when you live in a landlocked state that is 10+ hours from any ocean.

 

 

Baby squirrel didn’t like the sand. She didn’t like the sand at the lake either so… but… by the end of the trip, she actually loved it. And yes… she might have even eaten some at one point. I can neither confirm nor deny that….

This was her first trip to the ocean. Sadly that storm made the waters yucky. They weren’t the pretty turquoise color and there was a lot of seaweed and jelly fish at the shore. I’m pretty sure Tbug and I were both stung within 5 minutes. Hubby even got stung. It wasn’t fun so we didn’t take Abug out in the water all that much. But yes, she did get in the water. Um… she was at the ocean… she had to. It’s the law… ha!

I made it a point to go to the beach and the water every day we were there. Friday afternoon when we got there, Saturday morning at 7am (someone was snoring and it wasn’t me), Sunday noon, Monday 10pm and Tuesday morning. I stayed as long as I could all those times. I’d sit in the sand, run it through my fingers and my toes. stand in the surf, sit in the surf, you name it! I can’t get enough of the ocean. If I could pick my life up (including my house, family, their house, friends, their house, etc) and place us on the beach, I would.

Monday night, while I was sitting on the beach at 10pm, it was funny to see everyone walking around with their flashlights on their phones. It’s changed just since our trip to Hawaii in 2011 although maybe that’s Hawaii beaches versus Florida beaches, I don’t know. I got a lot of lights shown on me but I didn’t have mine out. I was just listening to the waves and the conversations of the passersby, etc.

Sunday noon I stole Tbug from the lazy river and ran to the ocean, when we got back into the room and I went to change, I was standing in the shower just in case I dumped sand everywhere I wouldn’t get it on the floor, good thing to because even after washing off in the outdoor shower and with the hose and getting in the lazy river going around 3 times I still had sand in my swimsuit. I just giggled. When it hit the floor, it went plop. You’d have giggled too!

Saturday morning I got woke up at 6:20am. I laid in bed for a few minutes trying to get back to sleep but couldn’t. Then Abug woke up. So I put her in bed with my MIL and Tbug, quickly got myself dressed and ran to the beach to work on sunrise photos. I love sunrise photos and at the beach, score!

The air was on in our room and it was a bit chilly, but dang… The minute I walked out of the hotel into the Florida air, the heat hit me. It also hit my camera. My camera completely fogged over. I was more than a little annoyed! You could even take the lens off and the mirrors inside were fogged over. I stood outside for almost an hour trying to get the fog to go away; it didn’t. Finally gave up and went back inside and woke hubby up. Hey, he woke me up first.

Tuesday morning before we headed home I tried the sunrise photos again. My camera fogged over again. ugh! It eventually did defog though because the air temperature difference wasn’t nearly as bad. Although I took a bunch of fogged over pictures. (case in point)

 
By the last day we were there, the water had really cleared up and turned the gorgeous turquoise color. There was still seaweed in the water and some jellyfish, but it was clear enough by this point that you could see the stuff in the water.

One thing I really wanted to do was walk to the pier. I stared at it the whole time we were there and just wanted to go there. The real kicker was… I wanted to walk. Hubby offered to drive me there, but I wanted to walk in the sand! Finally the last morning before we had to pack up and head for the airport I finally got to walk to the peer.

By this point in the trip I got to the point I didn’t even wear shoes if I knew I was heading to the beach. That way I didn’t have to keep track of them, plus they didn’t get completely covered in sand. Turns out you have to pay to get on the pier and if you don’t have shoes on, you’re not allowed on the pier. Oh well I really didn’t want to go on the pier, just walk to it. Great photo ops….

So it is hard to put people looking directly in the sunlight for photos because they squint, look at the hubs there, he couldn’t even get his left eye to open. While I am sort of squinting, I think I learned in all the years I ran in pageants how to smile and keep your eyes open in all sorts of different conditions. I even have a fake smile perfected although usually if someone tells me to smile I give them a devious smile.

Jellyfish had washed up on the beach. They were weird looking too!

Oh ocean… How I miss you!

 

And my squirrel girl was always ready for a water adventure. I love that she loves the water and hope she continues!

And one of the last nights we were there I think she was trying to tell us she wanted to go to the water. No… we didn’t make her sleep in the raft, but she brought it clear from the other side of the room and plopped down on it with her blankie.

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