"Come in CQ,...CQ are you there?"

Shaun had a four day weekend coming up so we decided to take advantage of the beach being only 4 hours away. It may seem a lot to some of you but to us its a vast difference from El Paso with the nearest beach being 12 hours away. We had 3 choices, Savannah, Panama City, or Pensacola. Savannah would have been my top choice, but this was all last minute and I wanted to look more into the things we could do while there and not miss out on anything. I looked up Panama City, which was only 3 hours away but the more I read about it the more it turned out to be a party town. So Pensacola it was.

We stayed on mainland Pensacola, and had to drive over two long bridges to get to Pensacola Beach which bordered the Gulf. That was where the white sand beaches where.
Isabel was super excited. She kept asking a few days prior if it was time to go to the beach yet. Lately she has been doing this new thing when she knows that we are going somewhere fun, like Monkey Joe's, gymnastics, or the beach she'll tell who ever is driving "Drive faster please! Go Faster, Faster"! Our response at the time she said this was that we were stuck behind a very slow car and we couldn't go any faster. At the time we were driving by some construction workers who were building more roads on the other side. The road we were on was only two lanes, one for each direction of traffic. Isabel saw the dirt road that they were working on and told Daddy "Look Daddy you can drive on that road over there, nobody is on it". We just laughed and told her we are almost there.


She went running up and down the beach just loving the sand, water, and sun.

You can't be at the beach without burying each other, can ya?
Shaun loved the construction of the Pier underneath. He thought it would make a great picture.
This is the only fishing Pier on the Pensacola Beach. It was privately owned, and you had to pay $1 a person to walk on. The guy in the food stand behind me said he gets a few jumpers every year which lands them in jail with a $500 dollar fine.
Just as we were walking by this fisherman he started to pull up on his line, so I told Izzy to come look at what the fisherman caught. Turned out to be a little baby shark!! It kept twisting and turning, and ended up being completely wrapped around in the fishing line. Shaun offered to help and ended up holding the little guy. I got my nerves up to touch it because Shaun once told me sharks feel like sandpaper and I was curious to experience that. The first touch freaked me out and then I gave it another go. It was awesome. The poor little shark was pushing blood out its gills by the time Shaun threw him back into the water.

This is my favorite picture.
Panoramic view of the beach on the Pier. We tried to stay out till it was dark enough to see those aquatic life that give off a fluorescent glow in the water when you run your hands through, but we were tired and hungry so we didn't quite make it. Maybe next time.



DAY 2
Isabel found a friend to play in the sand with. Some boy that looked to be just a year older maybe. It kept her occupied for quite awhile. She was wild and crazy just like in this picture.
We stopped by the store to get snorkeling gear, and a skim board! I would have loved to get a surfboard, but they are expensive!! So we got a skim board instead. I thought the waves were great! Shaun, being the guy he his, thought they were okay, and wished they were bigger. Silly boy! By the way, Pensacola is not a good snorkeling place what so ever.
Here is the start of the hole that Shaun needed to dig. Something about boys and digging holes, you just can't have one without the other.

The finished project. Shaun's words "I'm not going to stop digging until I hit water" My words "Whatever, there is no way you'll get water this far out from the waves". He proved me wrong.
Shaun wanted to bury me in the deep pit and see if I could get out, and I would have let him except Ian wasn't in the mood to let me put him down so Shaun had the honors. He said it felt like sandpaper scraping his legs on his way out the hole. FYI, his legs were sunburned so image the pain he was going through.
My little beach boy.
Beautiful Isabel, and her matching ocean blue eyes.
Last thing we did before heading back to the hotel was go for a swim. We called a day with Isabel freezing and tired, and Shaun and I completely burned on our legs, face, and shoulders. At least Ian escaped unscathed. I kept him under the towel the entire two days so not a bit of sun was on him. Isabel just got a little burn on the shoulders where Shaun missed a spot. I will have to say though, that it was well worth it to experience being on the beach once again. We absolutely loved it.