Labor Day Weekend

Donald and I decided to go to the beach for Labor Day weekend, but just the two of us. We picked up pizza at Pizza Hut in Sylvester, drove out to my parent's house and had dinner. We thought we wouldn't get to leave Atlanta until later in the evening, but luckily, Donald got off work early. Our original plan was to leave Saturday morning, but we figured it would be harder on Stella and since we were in Worth County earlier than planned we went ahead and left Friday night. 

My parents are almost through with the cook house. It's looking great. Especially bathed in  evening sunlight.  We drove Stella around on the golfcart to find the Moo's, then said our goodbyes and drove to Mexico Beach. Donald and I talked the entire time and never got sleepy. I love those trips.

Saturday we headed into PSJ to get some groceries and swing by Goodwill to see if we could find anything for the house. I found a bronzed pineapple lamp to go in place of the Asian lamp  (so weird for a beach house, especially when nothing else is Asian) by the chaise lounges. I really, really wanted to buy all of these books for Stella, but I restrained myself. I hope her love for books and reading continues. I don't remember reading any of these classics as a child and I look forward to reading them along with her in a few years. 

We went over to Larry and Lisa's for lunch and to watch the Georgia game. Later on we went down to the canal for what they call the "council meeting". I walked out towards the sand and noticed this stairway. Stairway to heaven.  

The wind was really blowing out on the beach and I actually had chill bumps for a bit.  We thought it was about 6 or 7 pm but it was really only 3 something.  It had been cloudy and rainy all day and really threw us off. 

We stood around bullshitting with locals and Sylvester locals in MB for a while, then went to Crazy Beach Pizza and dined on a fantastic Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza. We sat outside and it was really nice. We attempt Tommy T's for ice cream but the line was crazy. So we drove to Gulf Foods, bought an 1/2 gallon of Breyer's Strawberry and went home. We were really lazy, just flipped through the channels, I read, we both ate ice cream on the couch. It was quiet and boring, but nice.

Sunday, we got invited out on the boat with Larry and Lisa and another couple. The plan was to fish, but no one was catching anything so we anchored at Crooked Island for pretty much the whole day. Monica and Becky pulled up just down the way a bit and we all just floated and mingled for hours. 

This is what the local bear did to our fence. Apparently he likes to use our fence and backyard as an alley-way to cut through to other yards. We've decided to leave it unfixed until Mr. Bear is properly removed from the area.

Either Saturday or Sunday night we went down to the water with a blanket and just sat out under the stars making out. It was fabulous.

Monday we drove over to Panama City for our usual trip to Home Depot. Then we had lunch bay-side at Bayou Joe's with Daniel, Jaycie and Josh. The place is very casual and open air and the food was really good. I was very upset to hear they were sold out of the dessert I wanted. A concoction of cheesecake and peaches and deliciousness. 

Tuesday we dropped off a lot of stuff at the Humane Society's charity store, then drove over to Apalachicola. We took the scenic drive through Indian Pass and drove out to the landing where we would leave from to go to St. Vincent's Island. We got into town and drove around for a few minutes killing time before the restaurant opened.

We had lunch at Up The Creek Raw Bar. We ordered 1/2 dozen raw (for D, of course), 1/2 dozen of the Southern Fella (collard greens & bacon) and 1/2 dozen of the Mediterranean (olives, capers, garlic, vinegar).  Then we split the Grilled Conch Cakes with a tupelo  honey-lime cream sauce and coconut mango slaw.  Oh my goodness, it was amazing!!!

We walked around the oh-so cute downtown and found a few great things at this store below for little Maddux and Ian's baby shower in November .

We had dessert at Tamara's Cafe. We ordered a white and red sangria and then one of us ordered the key lime pie and the other the tres leches cake. We pretty much inhaled everything!  We drove the short trip back to the house, changed into our bathing suits and headed down to the water. We stayed for about four hours. We just had 2 chairs, 2 towels and a cooler and that was it. The weather and water were perfect. I read almost an entire book just sitting there. And D did his fantasy football draft on the sand.

Hot dog legs!

We couldn't get over how deserted the beach was the day after Labor Day.  

To my right.....

And to our left...

Just one person walked in front of us the whole four hours we were out. And at one point, we did have a lady behind us, but she just sat there meditating or something. She only stayed for maybe 30 min. We saw one or two people in either direction throughout our stay, but that was it. So peaceful. Actually, the wind was blowing off of the water towards the highway so you didn't even hear the roar of cars and logging trucks for once. I noted how quiet out it was. 

This view never gets old.

We showered and headed up to Mango Marley's for supper. What we really should have done was just get it to-go. I didn't feel like doing anything after we sat on the beach the whole afternoon, but the to-go thought never entered my mind for some reason.  We got our usual-the Kahuna burger and the Floribbean Fowl.

This trip was great. We really didn't do much. We woke up fairly early and really went to bed fairly early as well. I read a lot and just enjoyed the quietness. We did a few things around the house, but that was it. It was nice to get away. I will say though, I did miss Stella a whole lot more than I did on our Austin trip. We had so much downtime and I know how much she loves being there so it was hard to not want her there.  

We left Wednesday morning just before lunch and headed to Don and Wanda's. My parents had come over to bring some of Stella's stuff over and to spend time with her before leaving. I walked in the door first and she basically ran past me asking, "Where's my Daddy?" Everyone just laughed as he walked in the door and she went to him.  We visited for a short while, then loaded up to go back to Atlanta as Donald had a softball game. She conked out a little while later and slept until 6:30, just as we were coming into town.