Back In The Saddle!

Well, hello everyone!  We're back.  Each year we try to take a little vacation.  We like to go tent camping on the beach at Fort Pickens National Park in Pensacola, Florida.  Russ, our oldest, was kind enough to take care of the cows, goats, chickens, and garden while we were gone.  There is so much going on on the homestead right now.  Without his help, we wouldn't have been able to get away.

I'll show a few photos of the trip.  It is a short 6 hour trip from back door to sea shore.  The last few miles have a 25 mph posted speed limit, so it seems like you are crawling.  But we made it and did a good bit of relaxing from Thursday - Monday at 11 am when we checked out.

We got the tent set up.  The last time here we picked out the spot we wanted.  It had plenty of shade and privacy.

Can you tell we are relaxing?  The beach is about a 1/2 mile walk from the campsite.  We set up our umbrella, laid out our towels and soaked up the sun.

In Pensacola, you are far enough away from the Mississippi River that the sands are sugar-white and the water rivals that of the Caribbean. 

The wildlife was abundant!  We saw blue herons and pelicans.

Just beyond our campsite was a tree that had an osprey nest in it.  We watched the osprey dive down on the gulf waters and emerge with fish that she (or he) would take back to the nest.  You can see the creature below in the nest in the crook of the tree.

Dolphins came very close to us in the water as we swam.  This morning numerous sand sharks came pretty near as well!  On Monday night, a storm blew in.  Unfortunately, it rained in our tent - not just drips.  It poured down!  I have a new item on my to do list:  Re-apply waterproofing to the exterior of the tent!

The mornings were breathtakingly beautiful and quiet.  The beach was vacant except for us.  There was a little seaweed on the beach.  I follow the Florida Survival Gardener's blog.  He says that he takes the seaweed home and incorporates it into his soil.  It adds marine minerals and other beneficial nutrients to his soil.  Don't think I didn't think about raking a bunch of this stuff up!

This is mostly how we spent our days.  Peaceful.  We re-charged our batteries.

All good things must come to an end, though.  This morning we bid farewell to Fort Pickens as we sat by the beach and listened to the waves for just one more hour.

In six hours, we pulled into the driveway at 5 pm.  It was great to get away, but it's good to be back home, too!  

We'll be scheduling some more of this in the not-to-distant future!!

Toes in the Water, Toes in the Sand

I decided to make a career change at 55 (Yikes!!) and Friday is my last day at this job before starting another next week.  I gave my two week notice but added a couple of days to it as I still had two personal days that I could use that I wouldn't be compensated for.  We left town Friday night after work and headed to the beach!  Tricia had booked Friday night, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday at Fort Pickens National Park near Pensacola, Florida.  We would be tent-camping and were looking forward to it.  Russ took care of all the animal chores while we were gone.

We arrived in Pensacola after a six hour drive.  It was after midnight.  We pulled up to the campsite and began to pitch our tent in the dark but found out that the poles were broken!  Defeated, we found a hotel for the night and purchased a new tent in the morning.  Home Sweet Home for the next few days!

We cooked on a little Coleman stove for the next few days.  Camp food always tastes great.  I don't know why that is.

The further you can get away from the Mississippi River, the whiter the sand is and the bluer the water is.  There's a reason they call it the "Big Muddy."

We saw bottlenose dolphins jumping out of the water, sandpipers poking in the sand, and two stingrays gracefully flapping their "wings" in the water.  That's them below:

It was SO RELAXING!!  No agenda.  No plans.  Just soaking up the sun and napping.

The days were very comfortable, but the nights got cool - into the 40's.  We made campfires and had s'mores!

Tricia and I were able to spend a lot of uninterrupted time together.  We read the Bible, we sang, we laughed and talked.  Just before 5 PM, the sun put on a performance on the western horizon.  We didn't miss it. 

If we could just catch it and make the days on vacation last longer!

Going....

Gone...

Relaxed and Refreshed!

A nice beach vacation...