Pensacola Beach, Florida, TGI Friday’s at DFW, Our Trip down

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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.

On our flight was hubby, Abug, Tbug, my MIL, my grandma and me. My parents had to catch a flight out of Tulsa and they were many hours behind us. Abug had never been on an airplane so I was a bit nervous but she was a perfect angel. I’m fairly certain people rolled their eyes when the baby got on the flight, I used to be one of those people sadly, but I’ll bet most people didn’t know she was on there other than they saw her board and unload off the plane when we arrived at our destination. Like I said, perfect angel. In fact, after the flight took off she fell asleep in hubby’s arms and slept until we started descending into DFW.

Tbug hasn’t flown in many years so they tell me, so she was a bit nervous. But by the time we got home she was a pro at flying. I love that both of these kids just go with the flow. I should also mention that my MIL has never flown until this trip. I think she was pretty apprehensive as well. She’s now a pro too :). And when you go through security they randomly select people to do extra stuff, she kept getting chosen. We giggled.

When Abug woke up she decided she wanted to sit with sissy. No problem with us. I do find it ironic that coming home from DFW our flight attendant wouldn’t allow her to sit on Tbug’s lap. Why do hubby and I keep getting these grumpy people at night that grumble at us about things we do that others allow us to do… what am I referring to, the grumpy nurse at the hospital the last night we were there. Anyway…. moving on.

Once we got to DFW we had to change terminals so we jumped on the tram. Tbug said she’d never been on one, obviously Abug and my MIL never had either so we had to document things!

Since we got up so early, no one except my grandma had eaten breakfast so we wandered over to Dunkin’ donuts for breakfast. I had an Iced Mocha coffee and shared donut holes with Abug. Hubby had a sausage sandwich and Tbug got a bagel. Then hubby got them drinks from the store since DD didn’t sell drinks other than coffee’s. Abug got Apple Juice for the first time which she loved. And the other two, who knows :).

Then Abug proceeded to entertain herself with her stroller. Like I mentioned, we had 5 hours to kill at DFW.

About an hour and a half before we were to board we decided to run down to TGI Friday’s and have lunch.

My MIL went for a turkey burger with cheese and sweet potato fries. Her comment was, this is good but it’s HUGE!

Tbug went for the Parmesan Crusted chicken with a side of White Cheddar Mac & Cheese and the tomato salad with mozzarella. If I remember right she ate every bite, which means she liked it :). Well maybe not the salad… but at that age, who wants a caprese salad?

Hubby went for the Jack Daniels Burger with Provolone cheese and applewood smoked bacon. There was Jack sauce to dip his sweet potato fries in as well. He loves their Jack Daniels anything there at Friday’s, so I know he was happy and excited to eat at Friday’s when we got the option while wasting time again at Margaritaville…. er the DFW Airport.

So I typically get the Sizzling Chicken & Cheese. Grandma asked if we wanted to get one and share since that’s what she usually got too but it was too much for her. I told her I was usually responsible to get something that Abug would share with me so I didn’t want to take a chance. It’s been a while since I’d eaten there to remember how huge it is. In the end the 3 of us could have shared it and walked away full! But long end to that story, we both got the Sizzling Chicken & Cheese. Um… YUM! That’s it. The grilled chicken is flavorful, the cheese adds to it and those potatoes… YUM!  Just yum… I know that doesn’t describe it, but that’s what I always get. Does that tell you something?

Then we went back and waited at our gate to board our plane. It got pushed back 30-45 minutes because there was a problem with the plane. Turned out it was a toilet problem. Gotta love it!

Then 10 minutes before they allowed us to board, we’d already stood up and I was holding the cranky baby. She was soooooooo tired. (such a trooper) She then proceeded to fall asleep in my arms. So here I was holding this baby for 10 minutes, and by the time I boarded the flight my arms were dead to the world. I’m surprised I didn’t drop her, seriously. My arms ache just remembering that.

About the time we went to start descending into Pensacola and you need to start clearing your ears, baby girl started crying. Her ears wouldn’t clear and she was crying, crying, crying. Anyone who was around us, I’m sorry.

We learned when you’re traveling with an infant, you can check a carseat for free. Thank you American Airlines! Then when we boarded at DFW they checked grandma’s bag for her complimentary so she didn’t have to put it up on the plane so we had to go find baggage claim. Once we had our stuff located it was time to hook up with our driver to head into Pensacola Beach. Best $35 we could have spent, seriously! We went with Pensacola Airport Shuttle and they confirmed with us and then texted us with a picture of the driver and what he’d be wearing, where he’d be parked, and the color of the van. Extremely awesome.

He then drove us in to the Holiday Inn Resort Pensacola Beach, FL.

I will admit, I thought it was a little funny that there was a toll booth and you had to pay $1 to get onto the island.

Once at the hotel, we checked in to our rooms, changed into swimsuits and ran (almost literally but not quite) to the beach. Then ended up in the pool before going back and putting on clothes and eating at the hotel restaurant. While we were waiting on our food I went and snapped my only sunset picture. Clouds were out a couple of the days and the last night there when I could have gotten a great shot, the camera was in the room and we were at another restaurant. Oh well… I’ll survive. I guess that means I just need to go back!

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