Quality Inn Bayside Fort Walton Fort Walton Beach

... roasted red peppers and artichoke hearts and mozzarella cheese. Delicious! And for the main course mushroom and chicken pasta. Mhm....slept in a bed and it was wonderful. Torrential downpour the next morning. But clear skies after that on our way to Louisiana!!!

Dave blew it!!

I knew we needed to get on 98 but took the first turn instead of going to Pensacola first. So we went at 50 miles out of our way around the Gulf Coast, totally lost but finished up where we wanted to be in the end, except it was going to be Destin but became Fort Walton which is OK. Did about 240 miles instead of 200 but here is lovely, right on the water and tonight as ...

4:12 pm
 
I'm here for Bridgets wedding staying at a beachfront condo with some other Chicago classmates.  We were all down at the beach catching some rays and Kyle and I decided to throw the football for a bit in the nice clear water.  He dove for a ball and lost his wedding ring in the nice clear water.  We hunted for about an hour in the nice clear water, but were unfortunately unsuccessful.  Helicopters from the nearby airforce ...

2 am

The sky is clear and lit by the stars and the moon.  The water is pretty calm and the temperature is perfect.

This is some sort of paradise....

 

Tonight: I walk

When stars can be seen
I take walks
So tonight I walk
My hands and heart open
But not alone
The path below me
An hour glass
Still
Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, United States americanpoet

On our "Farewell Tour" Lauren and I definitely wanted to see her grandparents and relatives on her Mom's side, since we really didn't get a chance to see them on the first leg of our Farewell Tour when we were in Wisconsin a few weeks back. Low and behold her mom and Grandparents had rented a beautiful beach house in Florida for all the relatives to stay in. So Hooray! We didn't have to go to Wisconsin but instead traveled to Santa Rosa Beach near Destin ...

... Big Kahuna, which is a giant water park. I did almost all the rides, and my grandfather, who is 74, did too! He was very brave and crazy. We did Thunder River and Lazy River, the wave pool, tons of Giant Slides, and had a super fun time. On our last day, my grandfather took us deep sea fishing. Our captain, Ed and the first mate, Joe, where nice but very strict. We went 8 miles out to sea and fished for red snapper. I caught the first fish and the biggest fish, and got to ...

... the country. Sugar white sand and blue green water. We visited family, at Appilachicola oysters and shrimp. Terri cooked some thick, juicy, all-American size steaks for dinner one night and she also made biscuits and gravy with grits for breakfast one morning. Why is this trip so much about the food??? We also did some shopping. Every store was ...

... Navarre, FL, we found out the job was a no go. So....we were so bummed, we didn't explore much further. We headed to our final destination in Philly with the goal of finding a job to finish paying for our explorations. A a result, we are now in philly...finishing the blog we never finished... Sorry for the anticlimactic ending to this adventure. We do promise to ensure our next adventure concludes in a more exciting fashion... -signing off....K&C

... amp; rice. Very Good. Pompano Joe's is a large seaside shack style restaurant sitting right by the ocean. We had a ocean side view with a large waterfront view window. A seagull sat by our window as we ate. We did some shopping, blogging, and packed for home. Kept it a light evening in the condo. This was the end of our Spring Break!

Finally we were ready to head out!! We were delayed by one day due to recovery from One Mighty Weekend. We head north to Guy's house in Fort Walton Beach, this was to be our last night in Florida. There are no pictures as we took the interstate all the way and the real trip was to begin the next day. Thanks Guy for ...