Blondie and the Beach

Monday was a VERY busy day! We all got ready early and headed out for a day at the beach! Well, that's what we thought, anyway!

We stopped at one of the beach stores called Alvin's Island and got some beach shoes, flip flops, cute flowers for MacKenzie's hair, and a new beach hat for Momma. Then we traveled out to Ft. Pickens to see the fort and go to the beach. As we were driving out the long road in the National Park, we saw an osprey guarding its lunch-a good sized fish! I had never seen an osprey before, so that was VERY exciting to me! We stopped at the camp store and they confirmed that it was an osprey. They said that there are about 16 or so osprey nests at Ft. Pickens every nesting season. After driving out through the fort area, we headed back towards Pensacola Beach and one of the spots where you can park and walk out to the beach. In the meantime, Uncle Pat called and wanted to meet for lunch. We decided that would be lovely so we kept going right on to Pensacola Beach! We saw another osprey in a different location on the way back, sitting on a tree branch next to a nest. So exciting!

We met Uncle Pat, Matt and Matt's dad who had just driven down from Pittsburgh, PA at Flounders. Flounders is a great restaurant on the Santa Rosa Sound side of Pensacola Beach. The restaurant opens up right to the beach, where they have a little playground and a volleyball court. MacKenzie got to play a bit while we ordered and again after lunch. I had a great hamburger that was topped with shrimp, crab, fish and Swiss cheese. So good!

Then it was on to the beach! We all set out for the beach under the water tower painted to look like a beach ball. We set up our chairs, and hung out there for a while.
MacKenzie got wet in the waves...the water was cold! You should have seen her face! She built a sand castle with Daddy, looked for seashells, and played with her sand toys.


She loved having so much freedom! It must have felt like the world's biggest sandbox to her! I got to walk a little bit and look for some seashells. While I was picking up shells, a young man who was also looking for shells started a conversation with me. He was stationed at Pensacola, and was from Nebraska. He was looking for shells to send home for his mother, who loves seashells. So sweet! I found some that were perfect and unusual, so I gave them to him to send back to her.
After the beach, we were all VERY tired! We didn't do much that evening at all...we started dozing off in the den before 8pm!