Starting off
A couple of late night outs into 2 AM early this week, working from home had caused me to feel tired and decide on an early exit from office on Friday at 6 PM with the plan being to sleep it out. Just before I left office, was talking to Chris and he mentioned about his plans to have oysters and how only months with 'R' in it are the right months to eat oysters.
As I picked my wife and kids from our apartment park, Divya said 'Why don't we go for a trip?'. I said 'Sure' and we would have left just like that without any luggage, planning to buy stuff from walmarts on the way. Divya mellowed it down and said let us go back to the apartment and pack some stuff and leave.
Once at home, there was a struggle to pack in clothes , book a hotel, pack the kids in and get out. We had also had our dinner at home. Since I was quite tired already, I could focus easily on just the drive without any distractions. It was a nice long drive.
Red roof inn
We left around 9 PM and reached the red roof inn at 2:30 AM. We were first put into a queen room which was too tiny for the four of us and luckily got allotted a double bed quickly. Tired, I slept like a log till we got up to make it to the breakfast.
Breakfast was modest, bordering on poor. I did some research on fodor's choice places to visit in the panhandle area and they were all to the tune of 100 miles away.
Pensacola beach
Finally we decided to hit the Pensacola beach first and then decide on further plans as time permits. The vacation was quite typical - sea sights, sea food, sunset chase. Florida was sunny, warm, green , pleasant and felt very familiar as we have done quite a few florida vacations earlier as well.
Sea food included shrimp, crab, red snapper, raw oysters, salmon and mahi mahi. Pensacola beach was pleasant with soft white sand, light greenish blue water.
Jelly fish started appearing in the waters suddenly due to the winds and the crowd started dispersing quickly. We had not understood why the crowds had dissipated. We guessed there was an impending rain or something. We realized this when Niya started having trouble walking and we noticed a tiny jelly fish sting. A teenage boy from the 'lifeguard' group poured some vinegar on her legs thus breaking the proteins in the jelly fish's venom. That was when we understood why the crowd left in a hurry.
Johnson beach
It was around five pm now and rest of the known sights were either far or closed. So, we found a new site - johnson beach, coastal isles as that is good for sunset. It was a nice secluded beach with hardly any crowd. Divya and Amey chose to sleep in the car. Niya played with the sand at the beach while I lost myself in the sights of the sea on to infinity, trying to capture some photographs. When dusk set in, insects started appearing and this time, we just left right away from the beach.
Oysters
Oysters. On the way to the johnson beach, we had seen a big Oyster Bar / Marina neon sign from a flyover. That is where we headed for dinner, in Perdido key. I got myself ray oyster dozen while Divya had to order blackened oysters to satisfy my oysters drive. Great food. Great ambience inside/ outside. Niya had hot dog.
That was an eventful day.
Sunday
NAS ( Naval Air Station)
Today we return back. Another 6 hours back of drive. Fodor's choice item was 'Naval air station' , Pensacola which has 'Naval aviation museum' and 'Pensacola' light house. As we reached NAS, ID checking was in progress and as Divya did not have an ID, we were 70% sure that we would have to go back. But we went right in and stopped first at the light house. Amey did not satisfy height restrictions. So Amey and myself walked to the beach behind the lighthouse while Divya and Niya climbed the light house as Niya wanted to. I was still tired and welcomed the nap on the lush white sands with Amey on me. We walked back to the car.Niya/Divya reached back quickly too and we drove a few more yards to the museum. Chance of a formal lunch was slim. So we had pasta, gold fish etc and called it a lunch.
The museum was striking and continued to hold fodor's choice listing in good honor. Reminded me of the DC museum of aviation. Many striking planes enough to feel like a feast.
At one such plane, an old person came by and introduced himself as the pilot who had flown the plane way back in 1954. That was a unique experience.
Return
That was about time, we had to go back. Niya has to go to school, I have to go to office. We roamed around looking for the next seafood restaurant, essentialy wasting time, ended up in Miller's ale house where we had superb blackened Mahi Mahi, Fish Tacos, Salmon dish, hot dog and chocolate ice cream cake. Great food.
Then we drove back and reached around 2:30 AM to Atlanta.
It was a fun trip but was quite taxing. Weekend trips need to be to closer locations. But it was a pretty full fledged a trip for an extempore like that.
A couple of late night outs into 2 AM early this week, working from home had caused me to feel tired and decide on an early exit from office on Friday at 6 PM with the plan being to sleep it out. Just before I left office, was talking to Chris and he mentioned about his plans to have oysters and how only months with 'R' in it are the right months to eat oysters.
As I picked my wife and kids from our apartment park, Divya said 'Why don't we go for a trip?'. I said 'Sure' and we would have left just like that without any luggage, planning to buy stuff from walmarts on the way. Divya mellowed it down and said let us go back to the apartment and pack some stuff and leave.
Once at home, there was a struggle to pack in clothes , book a hotel, pack the kids in and get out. We had also had our dinner at home. Since I was quite tired already, I could focus easily on just the drive without any distractions. It was a nice long drive.
Red roof inn
We left around 9 PM and reached the red roof inn at 2:30 AM. We were first put into a queen room which was too tiny for the four of us and luckily got allotted a double bed quickly. Tired, I slept like a log till we got up to make it to the breakfast.
Breakfast was modest, bordering on poor. I did some research on fodor's choice places to visit in the panhandle area and they were all to the tune of 100 miles away.
Pensacola beach
Finally we decided to hit the Pensacola beach first and then decide on further plans as time permits. The vacation was quite typical - sea sights, sea food, sunset chase. Florida was sunny, warm, green , pleasant and felt very familiar as we have done quite a few florida vacations earlier as well.Sea food included shrimp, crab, red snapper, raw oysters, salmon and mahi mahi. Pensacola beach was pleasant with soft white sand, light greenish blue water.
Jelly fish started appearing in the waters suddenly due to the winds and the crowd started dispersing quickly. We had not understood why the crowds had dissipated. We guessed there was an impending rain or something. We realized this when Niya started having trouble walking and we noticed a tiny jelly fish sting. A teenage boy from the 'lifeguard' group poured some vinegar on her legs thus breaking the proteins in the jelly fish's venom. That was when we understood why the crowd left in a hurry.Johnson beach
It was around five pm now and rest of the known sights were either far or closed. So, we found a new site - johnson beach, coastal isles as that is good for sunset. It was a nice secluded beach with hardly any crowd. Divya and Amey chose to sleep in the car. Niya played with the sand at the beach while I lost myself in the sights of the sea on to infinity, trying to capture some photographs. When dusk set in, insects started appearing and this time, we just left right away from the beach.Oysters
Oysters. On the way to the johnson beach, we had seen a big Oyster Bar / Marina neon sign from a flyover. That is where we headed for dinner, in Perdido key. I got myself ray oyster dozen while Divya had to order blackened oysters to satisfy my oysters drive. Great food. Great ambience inside/ outside. Niya had hot dog.That was an eventful day.
Sunday
NAS ( Naval Air Station)
Today we return back. Another 6 hours back of drive. Fodor's choice item was 'Naval air station' , Pensacola which has 'Naval aviation museum' and 'Pensacola' light house. As we reached NAS, ID checking was in progress and as Divya did not have an ID, we were 70% sure that we would have to go back. But we went right in and stopped first at the light house. Amey did not satisfy height restrictions. So Amey and myself walked to the beach behind the lighthouse while Divya and Niya climbed the light house as Niya wanted to. I was still tired and welcomed the nap on the lush white sands with Amey on me. We walked back to the car.Niya/Divya reached back quickly too and we drove a few more yards to the museum. Chance of a formal lunch was slim. So we had pasta, gold fish etc and called it a lunch.
The museum was striking and continued to hold fodor's choice listing in good honor. Reminded me of the DC museum of aviation. Many striking planes enough to feel like a feast.
We were allowed to get into the cockpit of a few planes and while Divya,Niya and Amey were hopping around into various planes, I photographed them.
At one such plane, an old person came by and introduced himself as the pilot who had flown the plane way back in 1954. That was a unique experience.
Return
That was about time, we had to go back. Niya has to go to school, I have to go to office. We roamed around looking for the next seafood restaurant, essentialy wasting time, ended up in Miller's ale house where we had superb blackened Mahi Mahi, Fish Tacos, Salmon dish, hot dog and chocolate ice cream cake. Great food.
Then we drove back and reached around 2:30 AM to Atlanta.
It was a fun trip but was quite taxing. Weekend trips need to be to closer locations. But it was a pretty full fledged a trip for an extempore like that.
No comments:
Post a Comment