After such a taxing weekend, we decided to Monday we were going to relax. Just take time and do nothing. Or else, go swimming, that works too.
Abug got to play with Karen’s new puppy. She may or may not claim the puppy as hers. lol.
I was a little bit of a weenie in getting in the water. I’m a warm water person and this was 83ish˚. Brrrrr! So I sat with my feet in the water and played fetch with Sisco and Pete for over an hour.
Last Sunday we had the opportunity to attend a Springfield Cardinals Game. It was fun too! Last Fall Memaw went to a KC Chiefs game with us and the night before when we asked if she wanted to go she said, yes, I’ve never seen a home run. Hubby was like, well after tomorrow you’ll still have never seen a home run. Poor Memaw hasn’t lived that down. When we went to the baseball game, we asked if she wanted to go see a Touch Down with us. Yup, she still hasn’t lived it down….
Hello, you can’t go to a ball game without ballpark food! So our seats were up in the Red Bird Roost… So we got tickets and all the food we wanted to eat from hotdogs, brats, nachos, burritos, fruit, popcorn, and Coca Cola Products.
Let’s get through Mermet Springs (Day 1, Day 2), what do you say? So what I’m telling you is… we’re going to have pictures GALORE! Just know, you’ve been warned!
Friday morning as we were headed out to Mermet Springs from Metropolis we passed by Hardee’s. Jared mentioned it so Saturday morning we decided to grab breakfast there before heading to dive. Have you had their Pork Chop Breakfast Sandwich? Oh goodness, you’re in for a treat with this one… no joke!
One thing I’ve learned about the group at Mermet Springs is they’re out to help make sure you have an enjoyable dive as well as an enjoyable trip. I even got an interview with the owner for the Scuba Blog I write. I got the back story on how they got the Boeing 727 from the movie bought as well as how they got it into the quarry for people to dive in. Pretty sweet story, really! Now the little ol’ man who has sat on the dock the last 3 years now is adorable.
Now the hotel has a continental breakfast but we decided not to eat there. Instead we decided to go back across the river to Paducah and eat at Cracker Barrel.
They gave Abug a kids menu. She ate the Crayons and Karen and I tried to color on it some. Do you see a theme here. ha!
After we ate we wandered through the store. I saw this sign and totally started laughing. This is definitely a sign for me. ha! I also found a Mr. & Mrs. Santa Clause Salt and Pepper shaker for $.99 a piece. I bought them. I’ll have to tell you that story some time.
Put the title to the theme of the Brady Bunch tune!
Yes, yes I just said that.
Last Thursday after I got out of class, we had plans to meet up with some friends and head to Mermet Springs for a weekend of scuba diving.
When I left the school I was supposed to be reading/listening to The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and all I could do was sing the Brady Bunch Theme Song.
When I got to Jared and Karen’s house, I mentioned that and the rest of the weekend, EVERYONE was singing it. We met up with a bunch of friends at Mermet Springs (Metropolis, IL) and they got involved singing it. Craziness!
Half of the larger group left different times on Thursday, the rest left on Friday. We left around 11:30 so we didn’t have to haul tail to get there.
Once we got to Springfield, everyone in our truck (there were 6 of us… Hubby, Jared, Karen, Memaw, Abug, and me) was hungry. I started listing different restaurants we could eat at. Eventually we chose Red Robin, YUMMMMMM! 🙂
Now our trip was 6ish hours and I drank at least 2 glasses of Sweet Tea. Not my smartest move :).
Now unless people are just meeting me for the first time, they’ve learned that I take pictures of everything. But I tried not to get on people’s nerves this trip so I mainly just stuck to pictures of my food and/or hubby’s food. I just try not to annoy people too much. Just because I like blogging and pictures doesn’t mean others do… (more…)
Saturday for lunch we met with Lee, Kiran and their clan, then after that hubby and I had appointments to get massages. When we left for the massage it started to sprinkle, while we were getting our massage it was pouring. Pouring rain so hard that we could hear it inside the building. I said the thunder and rain added to the ambiance.
When we got back to the hotel we all just hung out for a little bit before the question was posed, What’s for Dinner?
One of the recommendations we’d had was Crabs on the Beach. We decided that sounded like a good deal. So hubby went out, got the suburban, came up to the door, and chauffeured us all around.
How many people can say they travel 10 hours or so from home and eat lunch with friends from your area? *raises hand*
So one of our friends is from Florida, not exactly sure where. His girls went to Florida for the summer to spend time with their mother and families down there. He just so happened to be headed down to pick them up around the same time we were headed down for vacation, so it was time for a friends meet up 10 hours away.
We decided to meet up at Red Fish Blue Fish which was right there on Pensacola Beach. I thought it was cool that it looks like the building is made of old shipping containers.Then I went onto the website and found out that the entrance was made of old wooden planks that were from an old Coca Cola warehouse north of Pensacola. Then they verified that the building was in fact re-purposed shipping containers. So there ya have it.
When our trip to Pensacola Beach was planned, we had no plans. Our plans involved sitting our butt in the sand, maybe a drink, maybe not, eat yummy food, but the main goal was to RELAX to the MAX.
Luckily our hotel had a lazy river. Like I mentioned a bad storm blew in “yucky” ocean water between the jellyfish and the seaweed. Oy! So we spent our fair share of time in the lazy river.
One story that needs to be documented: Tbug is 12. She is a very cute 12-year-old at that. And I’ve learned I am the mother of a cute 12-year-old. There was some guy who swam up to her, asked her if her name was Brittany because she looked very familiar to him and then proceeded to spend the next couple hours going around the lazy river with our group. She hung out with her Memaw, dad, Abug and me the whole time she was in the water… and so did this boy. ha!
I would like to say I know how it went down that we planned this trip to Pensacola Beach, but I really don’t. During last semester I kept claiming all I wanted to do was plant my ass in the sand and my feet in the water... pardon my language but last semester was challenging. And if I thought it was challenging, this semester will be even more so, but that’s besides the point. Truthfully I just tuned out and put my nose in the books. But a trip was planned to go to Florida to the beach and that’s all that matters!
Last Thursday night we went to Dive Club meeting; afterwards it was time to pick Tbug up from Cheer. My MIL came to my house to stay the night because, while I joke that I didn’t know 5am existed, we actually had to wake up around 4am to get ready and head to the airport. Sad thing is we didn’t get to sleep until almost 11pm Thursday night or later so dang, 4am came early!
Squirrel girl woke up with daddy’s alarm, she usually wakes up in a happy mood with a smile on her face, which she did this morning but she really didn’t want to wake up either. In fact it took a little convincing to get her to let us dress her.
Our flight left for DFW at 6:40 in the morning, then we had a 5 hour layover before getting to board for Pensacola International Airport.
