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Published: September 8th 2007
Destin, Florida
Beautiful emerald green water and white crystal beaches.If you have any friends that might like to receive our travel blog and follow along on our travels all you need to do is forward them the blog. They can scroll down and fill out the subscribe section on the bottom right. Once they have completed that they will receive our entries as we update our blog.
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Ohio to Seattle
We are back on the road again and having a wonderful time. We seem to excel at road trips!!
On August 17th, we re-loaded the car and headed south, this time bound for the Panhandle of Florida and Fort Walton Beach.
Almost fourteen years ago we worked in Fort Walton Beach, Florida as traveling nurses and so we headed to back there to visit with our friend Marsha in her lovely home. She spoiled us and we had a great visit.
Although we truly enjoyed seeing the area again, there was some sadness too because the area has grown and developed so much. Twelve years ago the town of Destin was a sleepy little village and today it is wall to wall
oceanfront hotels and condos. Progress aside we had a wonderful time. It was wonderful to swim in the Gulf of Mexico again!!!
The beaches in the panhandle of Florida are a pristine white crystal and that makes the water almost emerald green. You must go see it for yourself. In addition to visiting with Marsha we were able to re-connect with our good friend Billie who lives in Pensacola. She was kind enough to drive to Niceville where we were staying and spend the day with us at the beach.
The next stop was the city of New Orleans, for a business lunch and we were very surprised to see the large numbers of areas that needed to be bulldozed so they can start over. The destruction left almost two years ago is still very much evident and there remains a tremendous amount of work to bring the Crescent City back to its former station.
From there it was on to Austin, Texas where we had a great time. We spent several days visiting with Rene ( MJ’s cousin) and her husband Gary. They took us tubing on the San Marcos River. With all the recent
MJ enjoying the pool.
MJ has "pool envy" of our friends Mark and Patti! rain, the river was moving pretty quick. We have not been tubing in twelve years, when we were traveling nurses in San Antonio. Years ago we considered a change in careers and longed to be professional tubers….but unfortunately we couldn’t find any place to sign up. If you haven’t been tubing we highly recommend it. We had a lovely dinner and went to Esther’s Follies, a vaudevillian comedy skit that has been going on in Austin for years. We were also afforded the chance to have dinner with Bob and Edith Shields (MJ’s aunt and uncle) as well as Rana (MJ’s cousin) and her husband Mike. We also played putt-putt which turned out to be fun and more challenging than we had hoped.
We spent a few days with our good friends Mark and Patti who have recently moved to Pflugerville, Texas. (a suburb of Austin) We spent some time enjoying their new home and their outstanding pool. I can tell you that I have pool envy!!! Mark and Patti took us to downtown Austin to the 17th annual Hot Sauce Festival. I’m not sure what kind of idiot dreamed of having the Hot Sauce Festival in Texas
Dave dancing in the desert
This picture is for those who know the website: WhereinthehellisMatt.com in August but it had a great turn out. I’m sure it has something to do with when the chili’s are ripe but since we didn’t observe any fresh ones we were clueless as to why they were having it in 100+ temps!
Our next stop was New Mexico so we could see our friend Carol. Carol is still a traveling nurse and having great time. She is currently on assignment in Roswell, New Mexico and has wonderful things to say about the area. Carol met us in Carlsbad after we had toured the Caverns and the three of us went to watch 200,000 bats fly out of the Caverns at sunset. It would have been an amazing sight on any evening but the night we went the moon was nearly full and as the bats flew out of the cavern they headed into the sky toward the moon…. it was eerie.
The next day we were on the road again. The road from Carlsbad to White Sands National Monument is a great drive all by itself. On our drive from White Sands toward Colorado on the back roads of New Mexico we saw three rainbows—as they say
New Mexico is the land of enchantment!!
On our way back to Seattle we explored Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands Monument, Mt. Rushmore, Devil’s Tower, Yellowstone, Glacier National Park and Mt. Rainier. One of the great things our government has done is to preserve some of the most outstanding beauty of our country in the form of the National Parks. We enjoyed the hiking!
I think the photos will say all that needs to be said. We had a marvelous time visiting these parks and suggest that you do the same. So far, Glacier National Park is our favorite. We challenge you to make a visit and let us know what you think.
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After 46 days and almost 10,000 miles, we returned to Seattle to rest and visit with good friends before we head overseas. We’d like to especially thank our old neighbors Don & Ann for allowing us to stay in their home. It’s a little odd staying next door to the house we just sold but it seems to have provided us some closure for selling a house that we loved so much.
Stay tuned…..next stop Singapore!!
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Marcus
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Too Cool
It is so, so cool to be able to follow your travels ! The photo of MJ in the pool, glass in hand - has got to be an instant classic - just as soon as I post it in the Admin. Hallway at VMC!!!!