Sandestin Resort Florida (Days 162-210)
Along the way we were accompanied by numerous dolphins as we are discovering, they love to surf in our wake.
I did not get the best video because the Blue Angles surprised us coming out of formation right above the boat. I grabbed my camera and caught them making their final approach. They had been out of town and were just returning to Pensacola Naval Air Station.
As soon as we arrived at the marina, Mike rinsed the boat with fresh water given several days with it in the salt air. To our delight, the marina had our golf cart waiting for us at the dock.
For Thanksgiving we took the golf cart to the beach and walked along the gulf to the Surf Hut. It was cold and I thought it was about a mile walk. Turns out it was almost two and we had to walk back in the dark! Thankfully, dinner was terrific and well worth the long hike.
The sunsets from the marina were very nice as well as the reflections of the boats at night. Jackie B is the center boat in the far right photo.
We still met people and had a lot of fun! Both of these couples had boats on the Occoquan River, back in Virginia. We hadn’t ever met Kathy and Fred (Left), but were so glad to have them on the Loop. John and Suzy (Right) were old cruising buddies on the Potomac River who now live on their boat in Florida. They stopped by on a road trip and we had a terrific visit with them.
We also had a mini reunion with Mike’s high school friends, Scott & Pam and Ralph & Gail. They rented a VRBO on the 14th floor of a condo on the beach. What a great view!
We took them all out on a cruise. We saw lots of dolphin and beautiful jellyfish.
We ate out a lot and spent time at The Wharf.
Mary-Ann is the resident Macaw at the Marina Grill.
Before they left we tried one more new thing, an escape room at The Wharf. Working together, we escaped and had our picture taken!
We left the boat for a week and went back to Holland to visit my Mom since we missed our flight home for Thanksgiving. She is so much fun!
We also enjoyed the older grandchildren. Christmas with kids is so magical.
What a wonderful family. Absolutely love these kiddos!
Unfortunately, it was much colder there than we thought it would be. Some Looper friends, Jaleen and Hunter, from Catniss joined us for one night, but left early for an unexpected weather window to cross the Gulf.
The water there is beautiful. They call it the Emerald coast because of the greenish hue of the water due to white quartz. Consequently, we walked on the beach almost every day.
Some days were warmer than others. This is Mike imitating the shorebirds who often perched on just one leg.
The water is soooo clear!
Not all the fun was on the Gulf side. We also had a small beach at the marina on the bay side. Mike was able kiteboard there when the wind was blowing out to sea on the Gulf side. The evening walks there were beautiful too with the sunset through the trees.
Because it’s a boat, there is always something to fix. Here our refrigerator stopped working. Mike spent a couple of days trouble shooting the problem and finally brought in an expert. Turns out we had a leaky valve on the compressor so a new refrigerator was not required. It would not have been fun getting the old one out and a new one in...what a relief!
Our favorite activity was definitely Pickleball. We had enough players for our own round robin .
When we returned to Florida more Loopers stopped by from our River Flotilla #4, Nevadatude. It was fun to show Jerry and Denise around.
We rented a car to go to Lindsays for Christmas and Enterprise actually gave us a couple of days for free before the holiday rush. We took care of some errands. One errand was getting our National Park Pass for when we go to the Everglades later on the Loop. We toured Fort Pickens, the only Union Fort in the South which was held by the North the entire war.
After touring the fort we walked the beach. Gulf Shores National Seashore is undeveloped and beautiful!
The highlight of our trip to our daughter Lindsays home was meeting our new grandson.
Back at Sandestin, we celebrated the New Year at a piano bar. Afterwards, we watched a drone light show followed by amazing fireworks.
I caught this video just before the fireworks. I had never seen anything like it before. We counted about 200 drones. The actual show took about 5 minutes. I condensed it down to 90 seconds.
This is our last night and last sunset at the resort. We really loved it here.
Our Journey
”The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.“
Psalms 19:1 NIV
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