Random Thoughts and Musings

I was out of the house by 7:45 to head to BFF’s. We left her house by 7:55, went to Wal Mart, headed into town to meet up with her sister. We stopped for ice around on the way (we waited to get in town so the ice wasn’t melted - it is a 40 minute drive). We got the coolers of food (we’d each contributed $20, A did all the shopping/preparing).

Off to the beach!

We arrived probably around 9:30, and claimed our spot UNDER the Destin Bridge, so that we’d have shade all day. There were people camped out EVERYWHERE: They’d spent the night to ensure they got THEIR spots! We put sunblock on all the fair skinned little ones, sun protection on the rest of us. Then, we headed to the water. The water was cool at first (it WAS still morning, after all), but we hopped in anyway, and spent some time splashing around and lounging in the gentle current while basking in the sun.

Once the rest of the group arrived, we spread the coolers out, spread out a sheet, set up the chairs, and sat down to eat. The drinks were nice and cool by then, the food  (cold fried chicken, watermelon, oranges, green & red grapes, ranch dip with chips/broccoli/carrots, and three flavors of potato chips) was delicious, and the company was wonderful.

We all had a great day! The kids stayed in the water all day - literally. I think they came up for a total of an hour and a half, and we had to FORCE them to do that, because they’d been out there for five hours without eating! We adults read, played frisbee, played with the little ones in the water, and talked. I laid out for a little while (no sunburn!), then  went for a walk to say hi to my brother (we spread his ashes in the pass 9 years ago on the 4th of July).

By the evening, the kids were good and tuckered out. The three youngest took naps, the other kids just lounged on floats in the water. We were all ready for fireworks so we could pack up and go home! Since the sun wasn’t beating down on the beach after about 6pm, we moved out of under the bridge and claimed a spot from where we could watch the fireworks. C, her sister, brother, and mom played games with the kids (the rumor game, etc), and I read some more of my book.

The fireworks were bright and beautiful, and we listened to the radio station that was playing the background music. We were the only group to stand during the National Anthem (shame on all of you who did not!), and it brought tears to my eyes to see our kids shoot up like arrows and stand still as statues!

After fireworks, we did sparklers and packed up the vehicles, then headed home … it took us twice as long as necessary, despite our trying to delay past the traffic jams. It was after 11 pm when we reached home, and we shuffled the kids inside and through quick showers and into beds.

Despite the bittersweet memories for me at this particular spot, it is still my favorite spot to celebrate, and has been for the last 20 years (when I was a kid, we brought our boat from Poquito Bayou across the bay and to the Destin Pass for the day). I didn’t get sad until the end of the evening, and so I just kept to myself and let everyone else go about their partying.

All in all, a spectacular day.

I hope you all had a great day too!