For years, we
have talked about taking a beach vacation with Lisa's family. It finally happened. The whole Ramsey clan rented a beach house
and spent most of a week at Navarre beach in Florida. Lisa's parents drove from Arkansas. We flew from Kansas City and Lisa’s brother
and his girlfriend flew from the Denver area.
We had a blast. I had
reservations about a beach vacation because you don’t “do” anything. We had so much fun and all of my reservations
about a beach vacation are now gone.
Here is what we did on our trip.
Day 1 -
Early flight
Tiny fast airport – The Pensacola airport was
pretty easy to get in an out of. We
could tell it had been built before 2001 because there were several areas that
were adjusted for security issues.
Fancy car – We had rented a full-size car, but
I decided to upgrade to a Genesis. It
was pretty nice and fun to drive.
Stopped at military blockade – We drove around
Pensacola sightseeing because we were earlier than the rest of our group. We thought we would check out the military
museum and lighthouse. When we got
there, there was a blockade and we were directed to turnaround since we did not
have military clearance. It was kind of
funny in hindsight and the MP we talked to was very nice and understanding.
Drove around exploring
Ate at The Reef - pretty good – We explored
the island of Navarre beach and found the west side was like Osage Beach at the
lake of the Ozarks. It was a little
crazy, but there were a few spots to eat.
Lunch was ok.
Went to Turtle conservation - met Sweet Pea
the rescue turtle – The kids loved this.
Dive beach store - lot of junk
Met rest of family at Dollar Tree and grocery
store - everyone had a different idea and plan for the food/drink
Finally got to go to house, great space, right
on the beach
Walked on beach, kids had a BLAST
Cleaned up and went to dinner - Slippery
Mermaid, took a really long time, REALLY delicious
Woke up early - kids found Easter baskets
Coffee on deck while kids play
Kids went to beach with G&G; Easter bunny
came while playing
Had fun finding eggs around house and in the
sand
Beach fun - boogie boards and sandcastles
Pizza lunch
Bought fishing supplies - rest time and
relaxing fishing
Dinner at Broussards - largest oysters ever;
yummy Cajun food, kids destroyed their chicken fingers and were a hoot at
dinner
Came back to house - Lisa, Dale, Tyler and
Zack played cards - the kids got tired and went to bed on their own / by
themselves; stormed last night, tornado warnings but none spotted and wasn’t
strong enough for a tornado; terrible coverage
Day 3
Slept better and longer
Made breakfast at house
Beach fun - more boogie boards and football
fun
Lunch and nap time - Lisa and I went back out
after lunch by ourselves, the kids napped
Paddle ball and raft
Searched for shells - Tyler found Sand Fleas,
Dale found a crab
Built a sandcastle - someone stopped by and
took a picture
Fished - caught a pompano
Dinner at Dewey Destin’s - yummy food and
fancy drinks
Uno and bedtime - the kids put themselves to
bed again
Day 4
Slept even better and even longer
Breakfast at house
Went to pier, fished off pier, saw some fish,
a turtle, and a Ray in the water - great people watching
Went to shop for souvenirs
Lunch at house
Beach fun - paddle ball, seashells, raft, tent
today, family time
Dinner at East Bay Crab House - felt like
going back in time, pretty good seafood
Packing and bedtime
Day 5
Didn’t sleep well, got up a little earlier to
pack
Drove to Pensacola to see the Blue Angels -
they were great, and the kids loved it
Drove to PNS - through some traffic - dropped
off car (Lisa fell down, she’s ok) - got to gate with enough time for a bagel
snack
Short flight - pretty easy
Looong layover in Atlanta 4.5 hours - ended up
having a decent time; explored 3 terminals, the international was the best, I
got left at the train station, Grady was a bear now and then (2nd say no nap);
ate dinner at Pei Wei and The Varsity
Flight home was good, kids did really well on
all flights this trip
Made it home - Grady talked in the car almost
all the way home until he stopped talking and was asleep
Takeaways
I enjoyed the beach more than I thought.
Helped to have a bigger fun group to do stuff with
Dale wanted to do it all and got all of the
toys - he goes all out on vacation
The kids LOVED it - they loved all parts of it
I did not like Pensacola and the area around
the beach house was ok. Not as much to do around the beach, which allowed us to
have more time and fun at the beach
Still mixed on Airbnb
Kids are becoming good travelers - Ellie and I
explored the international terminal, and it was fun to talk about places I’ve
been and where places are and where she wants to go.
House was great for this trip and this group -
the setup/location
Lisa 2 cents - wants to go more often and
loved being in a house ON the beach
Food was hit or miss - we really liked sushi at
the Slippery Mermaid; the others were ok
