We had a nice day checking out Fort Pickens, Pensacola Beach and Navarre Beach.
We are in Florida! While we are on the west side, and it’s still Central Time zone here, this marks the last main leg of our trip. Daylight savings time started yesterday, so as I’m up at 6, it is completely dark outside, and the sun will rise in about an hour, just before 7.
Since there was no light out and we have the noise from the AC fan blowing, on top of the daylight savings time change, no one woke up earlier than they should today. So, I got both girls up around the same time at 7:30, so Bia has time to change and eat, and be ready to turn the camera on for her class as needed.
Bia had a good day of school, got all her work done, participated, and the math work she had was easy and she got 100%. She had to present her Obama project today, and did fine with it. She had some free time so we had her working on some extra math review stuff, Carol got an app for that. Bia was not too happy about that, but did a little anyway.
Bella had a good day as well, and pounded through the normal work and was done quite early actually. She did a bit more science to get closer to being caught up, but the teacher assigned more today, so she’s back at being about 10-12 pages behind. But, she did all her math, all her ELA, etc and had a great attitude.
Both girls took a 30 minute break around 11, so we went to the bridge to try to fish. Bia had a net and I took the fishing pole. No fish were biting, but there were a couple of crabs by the bridge’s posts again, one small and one much bigger one. We had bread today for bait, but they didn’t care much for that, they like chicken or shrimp, or fish. It was still fun to be there with them.
I got a lot of stuff done today. I got posts written, and caught up. I did all the work I had to do to send our taxes documentation to our accountant, which took a good chunk of the morning. I did some work on the consulting business, caught up some customer emails and wrote a proposal to a potential new customer.
Carol did some work on her computer, did some reading, then made lunch. She made a small batch of gnocchi from scratch, which turned out awesome. She also made a beans chili, which is always great.
After we had lunch, we cleaned up and got ready to leave. Bia was playing with her phone and showed me that her screen was peeling off from the phone even more, and when I looked at it, it was raised quite a lot. She had shown it to me before, but it was just a bit, now both sides are raised and one side is almost a quarter inch up. This is due to the battery bulging, which is very dangerous and sometimes if the battery pops, it can catch on fire. Well, that is it for Bia’s phone, it was immediately decommissioned due to imminent danger. Now, Bia needs to ask for a new (to her) phone for her birthday, which is coming up anyway. Or, I’ll just have to buy a new battery and take a shot at replacing that one.
After lunch, the girls were chit chatting by the dinette and they were so into their conversation they were not paying attention to what Carol and I were saying. We asked them like 10 times to get ready to go, as we were almost ready, but they didn’t even move. So, Carol and I just said we’d wrap up, and leave, and if they were ready they’d come otherwise we’d leave them… hahahaha. So, we got ready, got our stuff, keys, wallet, etc, Carol even said “bye Maggie”, closed the door and we went outside. I opened the truck, turned it on, and nothing… I drove away (around the block) and NOTHING! They didn’t even notice we had left. hahahahaha… Carol forgot her phone in the trailer so we had to go back in, otherwise I’m not sure how long it would have been before they noticed we were out. Hahahahah
We left towards Pensacola Beach, which is 19 miles away. There is another bridge in the area that is out, so a lot of that traffic comes this way and we heard it is getting pretty busy with that traffic plus all the spring breakers that are here already. We were lucky there was not a ton of traffic, but it was also a crappy day, overcast, with some drizzle here and there. As we made it across the bridge, I followed the signs to Fort Pickens and we went that way, to the furthest point to the right of the island. Fort Pickens is part of the National Parks Service, so we used our national pass to enter. It is a very pretty area, with white sand around both sides of the road, with the bay to the right and the ocean to the left. The fort is one of the 4 forts around the area built to protect the area, and a good amount of the buildings are still there. It was a nice walk around, seeing some cannons, old ones and newer ones. The girls enjoyed walking in the buildings and exploring the secret rooms, and the mazes of rooms to navigate the structures. We walked around and explored for a bit, then hopped back on the truck and drove out just a bit then stopped at the beach.
The beach here is very nice, even though the day was crappy, overcast and a bit drizzly. The sand is soft, white, but actually feels heavy. Not sure if it feels heavy because it was a bit wet, but that’s my bet. The water is very clean and clear, and the beach is pretty clean as well. We hung out there for a while, the girls played by the water, made some holes, jumped some waves. Then we kept driving.
From there, the goal was to go all the way to Navarre Beach, on the other side of the island, so we kept driving. This is a very nice area, felt like a nicer version of South Padre Island (TX), but to be fair, we did not see much of SPI as it was extremely foggy when we were there. After a while, the road turns into a very small two lane, and is protected by the National Parks Service, so you don’t see any buildings or places to stop. There were just a few pull outs with small parking areas and minimal infrastructure. The speed limit was 25-35, and it was like that for a good 8 miles or so, so it took us a bit to get to Navarre Beach.
We went all the way to the end of Navarre Beach, then stopped to check out the beach. That area is very nice too, longer beach front, fine sand, and really nice infrastructure with bathrooms and gazebos for larger gatherings. There was a wedding going on by the beach, and one of the gazebos was all decorated for that as well. We walked in to the beach, checked it out a bit, but didn’t stay long. It was a bit after 5 and we were hungry, so we left with the plan to get dinner somewhere, then groceries and be on our way back.
Carol found a nice Sushi place and we went there. It was the Slippery Mermaid. The sushi was really good there, and we ate quite a bit. Carol and I had some local beer which was nice too. Two funny things happened at this place. As we were almost done eating, our waiter came to the table and refilled everyone’s water glass, including Bella’s. The only problem was that Bella was having Sprite, not water. hahahahaha… we all laughed, and then laughed again when we asked the waiter for a Sprite for Bella and he said “oh, I just put water in her Sprite didn’t I?” Hahahah. The other one was that before we paid the bill I used their only restroom, and saw that someone had put a sticker on the soap dispenser that said “Voice Activated”, I started laughing and took a picture. As we were leaving, Carol went to the restroom and I just said “you need to say it loud” hahahaha. When she got to the car I asked her if she said it loud, she just laughed and as we were laughing at that, Bia goes: “Are you talking about the soap dispenser? I tried to make it work, but it didnt work”, and she kept going…”I said SOAP, then VOICE ACTIVATED” hahahahaha we were all laughing. We should try that some day in a public place, so we can make videos of that. hahaha….
After dinner, I dropped Carol and Bia at the closest Publix grocery store, and I went to a gas station, and Bella stayed with me. After that, we just drove back. On the way back, there was a white car behind me that was swerving on and off the lane, sometimes crossing the median to the other side, sometimes getting close to me fast, etc. It was quite dangerous, and when I would see the person getting close, I’d tap the brakes a few times to make sure they’d slow down far enough away. Carol decided to call 911, so she gave them the scoop and they said they were sending someone to check. The cars behind that person would flash their lights here and there as well. Something was not right with that person.
We got back and it was around 8, so we got the girls to shower and then got them to bed. I got some pictures ready for a post, and uploaded them, then showered and went to bed as well.
We had a nice day checking out Fort Pickens, Pensacola Beach and Navarre Beach.