Travel log: Feb 17-22 Fort Walton Beach

Sunday:
Up and on the road by 7:30 after our last breakfast at the Embassy Suites Hotel in West Palm Beach.  We drove all day and arrived at our condominium in Ft. Walton Beach at about 4:30.  Ryan met us at the car rental lot at the airport at 5:00, then took us to his house for a quick visit.  Unfortunately the kids were all done for the day, so we didn't get to spend much time at all with them. We stopped by Publix on our way back to the condo to pick up some food, then went home and had soup and crackers with cheese for dinner. I was too tired to unpack so we went to bed knowing there was plenty of time to take care of all the work.

Monday:
We went shopping in Destin, bought Ornery some shirts and p.j.'s at Life is Good store, then several Polo shirts at the Hilfiger outlet.  We ate lunch at Chili's and then went back to our condo, with the intention of going back to Ryan and Ale's house.  Apparently Makayla had gotten pink eye in the night, so Ryan ended up coming over to visit with us for an hour or two in the late afternoon.  After he left, I made grilled chicken and cheese sandwiches and finished off the laundry I had started earlier in the day.  Ornery finally seems to be relaxing and is getting some good rest.

Tuesday:  (My birthday)
We woke up to a stormy day and rough and tumble waves in the gulf outside our window, but by noon it had started to clear off, and by 2:00 the skies were sunny and bright.  We went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Shalimar (I think) then we drove over to Destin to Barnes and Noble, then across the street to Panera where we were able to log in online.  The condo offers free wifi, but it has been disabled and there isn't really a comfortable place to work in there, so we opted for the more pleasant atmosphere of Panera--always a winner in my books!

Wednesday:
We stayed in most of the day, only going out for a late lunch at Mulhollow's Bistro.  We had been there before on previous trips, but it wasn't as satisfying this time.  Otherwise, we started getting things ready to leave in the morning.  The weather in the mid-west was quite daunting with snow, sleet, rain, and ice.  We figured we would leave a day early to give us a chance to arrive at home during the daylight hours--before any precipitation had a chance to re-freeze.

Thursday:
We took an alternate route from our norm, headed out of FWB toward Montgomery, AL to trick Naggie into giving us a route that would not take us through Mobile, AL.  There was a flash flood warning for Mobile Bay, and there is a tunnel you have to drive through which didn't sound fun to get trapped inside...
We ended up spending the night in Bossier City (Shreveport), LA using another free night from our rewards. The hotel was situated right next to "The Boardwalk" sort of a mall, and all around were casinos, and a train which rumbled through every so often throughout the night.  But it was free, so we didn't complain!

The forecast for the other route we normally take showed rain most of the day along the way, but the new route saved us from a lot of that, and we only had about 2 hours of fairly hard rainfall and rough driving conditions. By the time nightfall came, the roads were almost dry.

Friday:
With only a five hour drive home, we opted to sleep in a bit.  The drive was dry and mostly sunny, but the weather was still pretty cold.  We made fairly good time, and arrived home at 4:15 PM.  Went through all the mail, paid bills, submitted charges, etc.  Now to unpack and get back to the business of living.

When we got home I realized that we did very few of the things I had hoped to do while we were away, but we did have a wonderful time together, and the vacation was a nice break from the daily routine.  We wished we had been able to see the grand kids more, but between Ale starting a new job and recovering from her appendix plus the kids coming down with various illnesses, it just didn't work out.  They were both very shy around us so we didn't even get hugs.