Spring Break

Sunday was the last day before we started our babysitting duties. We headed out to have a look at the spring break activities on nearby Okaloosa Island. The Panhandle of Florida has a fair amount of spring breakers with the majority centered on Pensacola and Panama City. The beaches and associated businesses were busy but not swamped. Having seen several areas of south Florida during the same period, this is a very quiet gathering.

A local park fishing pier on the inter-coastal side only had two fishermen, and they were giving away some of the catch to an observant crane. There was the usual gathering of beach goers, mostly of the youthful variety, engaging in the mandatory beach volleyball and obtaining a sunburn. There was also a lightly attended surfing contest, with most of the contestants having a difficult time catching a wave. After trying for several minutes to catch one of them on a wave with the camera, I gave up, as they did not last more than a second or two upright.

We strolled the main area and enjoyed watching the activities and checking a few stores, and then we headed back to see how Victoria was doing without us.

Waiting for my Hog

What can I say, our time is almost exclusively spent watching our granddaughter develop and starting to show her personality. Now that she is seven weeks old, It looks like a Harley could be in her future. Of course, she will have to wait until these grandparents are far away, as that is a risk we would not approve of.

Boy meets girl

Our daughter Gretchen and grandson Aleister made the journey down from northern GA to see and get acquainted with Victoria. It was a great visit and hopefully these grandkids will one day be good friends. For now, they seemed to appreciate each other and that is a start.

Most of the time was spent visiting with the new addition, but Aleister also wanted to go to the beach and collect shells for his grandmother back in GA. He enjoyed the hunt for shells and certainly picked up enough to make his grandma happy. On the way was a nice park where he had some fun and spotted a few geese close to the walkway.

The weather here has become warm and sunny and thoughts have turned to yard work. I have approached this with some ambivalence, as one of the great things about being on the road is not having to take care of the yard. Maybe, this will make me long for a yard again-or not.

An untitled story

Time seems to be just drifting by as we enjoy are extended stay in the FL panhandle. Our granddaughter Victoria continues to dominate the daily activities, but we have spent some time around the RV park. One morning I noticed our neighbor across the way apparently moving out of their RV. I was amazed at the volume of stuff coming out. Finally, after speculating about what they were doing long enough, I strolled over and asked what was up. It turned out our number one thought was correct. They had bought a new to them RV at the recent RV show, that we also visited. They had stayed in the current one for a year, while helping out their daughter in the area. Since they thought they would be here for still quite some time, they decided that they needed some more room.

Victoria also made her first visit to an RV park and seemed to really enjoy herself. Maybe she will become an RV enthusiast some day. There was some decorating in the park in preparation for Mardi Gras and a number of events in the area will mark Fat Tuesday.

We also celebrated the new mother’s birthday. Her last before she changes decades 