Our Beach Vacation

Well, we're here! Santa Rosa Beach. If you've never been you are really missing out! We've been coming here since the mid 80's. Of course, back then, there was nothing here---just beautiful, pristine beaches. There was no one around. It's a little more---okay, a lot more---grown up now. Actually that makes it even better. You do not have to leave the area---ever---if you don't want to. No fighting the crowds and crazy traffic in Destin! We did hit some of the traffic coming down. We left at 5 a.m. But there's no avoiding one bottleneck area. It took us an hour to go 8 miles---which was why it took us an extra hour to get here. Then, there's this:

The grocery store is insane! We brought most of our food supplies from home. Still we had a list that we divided 4 ways so we were finished pretty quickly---until it came time to check out. It ended up taking us about an hour. There was a young girl that came up to me and asked about Stephanie. Turns out Steph was her 5th grade teacher. Steph recognized her right away!! Small world!

Our first day at the beach was just plain hot. There was algae in the water too, so that's why it's green rather than the normal beautiful turquoise. That's not really a problem for us because out of 10 people, only about 3 or 4 even want to get in the ocean. It was still pretty.

And considering it's 4th of July weekend, the beach is not crowded at all. The chairs you see here is where people come down early and stake their claim. Just for fun, I wanted to move the chairs. They didn't even show up until about noon. We get down to the beach by 10 a.m. That  snow white, pristine sand---total love! This is not the kind of beach where you will find lovely sea shells. Apparently there's a ledge not too far out from the beach. Everything tends to drop there. Still there are unusual things you can find when you walk the beach. Not always cute stuff but lots of nasty stuff like sea pork! This day, there were a lot of sea snails---and big ones too. They were in the ocean, so I didn't get a picture.

Elizabeth and I only lasted an hour on the hot beach. We spent the next couple of hours in the pool. The rest of the gang joined us upon their return from the beach.

We've been so surprised at how it doesn't seem crowded at all---so unusual for the 4th of July weekend. There's hardly any traffic on 30A. I'm so glad to stay away from Destin where it is bumper-to-bumper. Everything we want and need is right here! I talked to a woman from Indiana. She said they booked in January and there was hardly anything left. Everything was all booked for the 4th, so there are a lot of people here---I just don't know where they are!

Day 2 at the beach---the algae is completely gone. It's amazing what changes there are in the ocean in less than 24 hours! It's still hot!