Mummy Thoughts

Looking at the map this morning we decided our next destination.  Talk about last minute.  We knew that we were going west along the Florida Pan Handle, but not sure where to stop to take advantage of the beautiful beaches and make our journey to New Orleans tomorrow shorter.  We picked Fort Walton Beach, Florida, about 10 miles west of Destin, a big tourist town.  We left Orlando at 9:30am, so far the earliest ever.

The drive was uneventful, Natalie complained alot as they are not used to the long van rides.  I need to bring more books out for her to keep her busy. Matthew and Andrew did their school work in the car this morning so it broke up their day nicely, Matthew is learning patience as he helps Andrew with the reading of his school work.  I hope he is just reading the questions for him and not telling him what to do. I’ll have to check on that.

We had lunch at the “Waffle House” in Madison, FL and was impressed.  Waffle house is really popular down south, we saw them at every big exit on the highway in Georgia, sometimes on both sides of the highway.  We didn’t really want the traditional Fast Food, and thought of going somewhere different, so this was the next best thing.  All the kids had Waffles and really enjoyed it.

It was a nine hour drive today including lunch and the many potty stops, good thing we are in Central time zone, we get an extra hour.  We rolled into town at about 5:30pm, check into the Super 8 and changed into our swim suits.  We had to hit the beach before it got dark.  The beach was about a 10minute drive away.  As we were driving there, there were some really big black clouds heading out way from inland.  We were determined to get some beach time.  The sand here so fine and white.  The kids enjoyed the 20 minutes or so we had at the beach.  There was a sand bar so we were a ways out but the water was only to Natalie’s knees.  The water went from her waist down to her knees as we walked out.  The water was so warm.  As we headed back to the van, Matthew made a comment about the warm air.  He asked, “Is the warm air blowing a bad sign?”  I guess he don’t really understand about hurricanes.  Next Geography lesson!

We came back to the Motel and had hot soup(they had a microwave here) and sandwiches for dinner.  It has become a staple in our household.  Simple and can be made anywhere.  The camping plates and cutlery has come in really handy.

Being in the central time zone, they kids can get to bed and hour earlier, traveling and doing so much, they have been getting to bed around 9:30ish.  Tonight, after dinner, they brushed their teeth and then went straight to bed, we didn’t even have to tell them.  Falling asleep was a little harder as everyone wanted to talk about their day.

Matthew had four loose teeth and tonight there was one that was really loose so he asked Daddy to take it out. Kyle pulled the tooth out and then asked Matthew if he was ready, so painless.  After the tooth was out, he wasn’t too sure if he wanted to put it under the pillow or save it till we got back to Winnipeg.  He was laughing about the last time he lost a tooth, the “tooth fairy” left money and the tooth too.  Poh Poh(Grandma) was looking after him at that time, we didn’t have tooth fairies when I was growing up!!

Tomorrow morning, we are going to the beach for the morning and then driving on to New Orleans, it will only take us about 4 hours.  Will be nice, compared to today’s drive.  We will stay there for 2 days, Kyle is figuring what to do while we are there and figuring out where to stay.  Yes, we just go with the flow.  Well I am looking forward to spending more time at the beach.  Might be the last time before we head inland.