There's No Place Like Roam

Friday....WHAT.A.DAY! Friday we finally were able to Kayak the Ecofina Creek. 7 miles if smooth paddling that passes 6 beautiful springs. It was a long day and Carter & Graham both ended up in the creek, but I absolutely loved it!

On Wednesday we had a "dry run" on the kayaks, since we plan to have a 3 hour paddle on Friday. We had no problems. Graham & Hunter sat nicely in the boats and Carter was a big help with the paddling.  Later in the afternoon, we hit the pool for a bit and then took out the bikes to get ice cream. That trip was quite comical. Jason & I took turns pushing our bikes and hanging back with Graham. It took much longer than expected, but the ice cream was very yummy! Later that evening, Jason and Hunter fished in the lake, but still no luck! On Thursday there were "double red flags" due to Tropical Storm Andrea. The waves were 5-7 feet high and there is a strong rip tide. So, though we couldn't go into the ocean, we went to the beach to check out the 5-7 foot waves. We were able to see how the ocean comes into the coastal lake, which makes the lake brackish. My friend Laura and her son Lawson came for a visit in the afternoon and we went to the pool and to dinn...

We started off Tuesday with a swim in one of the pools. Sanctuary at Redfish has four pools and is not crowded at all. Everyone at the pools had an entire pool to themselves!  After lunch in the condo we headed to Grayton Beach State Park. We took a hike on a one mile trail through the coastal dunes and around a costal lake (brackish water). You would have thought we forced them to traverse Death Valley, but we all survived! The boys were hoping to see an alligator, but no such luck today. After we cooled off at the hotel, we headed shopping get bike helmets and buy bait for surf fishing. We headed out at sunset and the boys chased fish, crabs and a big crane while Jason fished in the surf and Big Redfish Lake. It was a great day! The boys fell fast asleep in minutes and Jason and I had a few minutes to enjoy the stars, waves crashing and lightning in the distance in peace. :-)

Monday contained a huge surprise! There are 20+ miles of flat bike trails adjacent to  Hwy 30-A, perfect for traveling to all the shops and restaurants with the family. Our condo included several adult bikes, so we didn't bring ours down. We headed over to the bike rental place to get some bikes for the guys, but they were pretty pricey for they entire week. So, since we already had my bike rack attached to the van, and the boys have all outgrown their current bikes at home, AND the bike shop happened to have the perfect sized bikes just calling their names...Jason bought all three of them brand new bikes! They were very excited and spent a good while driving them in the parking deck of the condo. Later in the day we headed into Destin to play mini-golf and ate dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, where Carter ordered his first meal off the adult menu....gulp!

Today we started our summer vacation. Technically, we headed almost halfway last night and stayed in Clanton, AL so we could visit my dad, brother and their families. We had ice cream at Peach Park, played on a really cool playground and picked strawberries at Sunshine Farm. We had lunch at my dad's favorite Mexican restaurant and headed down to Santa Rosa Beach, FL. This is our first visit to the "Highway 30-A" area and I love it already! Much more like an island feel, with colorful houses and small shops...instead of high rise condos and mini golf! Looking forward to a relaxing week!