A Trip to Destin, Florida

Last week, Momma's sister and her kids Ricky, Erin, Wes, Jake, and Luke came down from their home in Oklahoma to visit us.  They stayed a few days, and then Momma, Annie, and I went with them on a short vacation in Destin.  We haven't been to the beach since I was quite small, so I was excited.

 My aunt had rented a condominium in Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort, and we all stayed there.  The condo was nice, and it happened to be on the top floor.  Thus, it was very quiet, and we had a marvelous view of the beach and the ocean. 

We played in the water (The water temperature was about 65 degrees), kayaked on the bay side, went biking, ate seafood, shopped a little bit, and just enjoyed being with one another.  Every morning, Momma, Annie, my cousin Jake, and I got up early and went down to the beach to have our time with God, see the sunrise, feed the seagulls, and hunt for shells.  As it warmed up, the whole group of us would put on our swimsuits and wade into the surf.  I am not a particularly good swimmer, so I never strayed too far out from shore.  My cousin Ricky likes to hunt for critters in the water, and he came up with some pretty neat things.  We caught a puffer fish, a starfish, two large crabs, and many lovely shells, and also saw jellyfish (We have the marks of their stings to remember them by!) and a small stingray that my cousin Erin accidentally stepped on while wading.

Kayaking was lots of fun.  We rented three boats for an hour, and three people went into each boat.  Annie and Jake were in the boat with me, and Momma, Auntie, and Luke were in another.  Ricky, Erin, and Wes took the last boat.  No one flipped their boat, and no one fell out, but we got quite wet.  Momma's boat kept colliding with mine, which we thought was funny.

One evening, we went to the bay side, where a band was performing Celtic music (my favorite), and we also got to watch some Irish dancing.  It was very good, as both the dancers and the musicians were skillful and talented.  I really like Irish dance, and the performance had me wanting to join in and dance, too.  After watching for a while, we stopped by Starbucks for coffee.  It was delicious.

We really enjoyed our trip and our visit with our cousins.  We don't get to be with them often, so this was a special time.  I discovered that I really like the beach, and I hope we get to do this again someday.

Annie looks out over the ocean from our 21st story condominium as fog from the bay drifts between the buildings.



The ocean at sunset



The setting moon

Luke enjoyed playing in the sand.

We had fun biking together on the resort.

Ricky caught a puffer fish.

We went down to the beach at sunset almost every evening.