Vacation Blog '10 - Day Five - The Final Hurrah

Today was our last day at the beach and the forecast was for high 50's and sunny. Natalie was determined to get some sun or die trying. So we got up at a leisurely 9:30-ish and after a bowl of Peanut Butter Crunch, starting gathering our accoutrement for the beach. (Towels, flip-flops, books, phones, ipods, cameras, bucket, shovel, sunglasses, and sunscreen/oil.) As we arrived on the beach it felt nippy but good. We dumped our stuff for a walk on the sand and after like 3 feet, wimpy Natalie trotted back to the swimming pool/lounge chair area because it was warmer (less breezing) than the beach.

I braved the chill and took a lovely walk down the beach. I did not get my feet wet and that helped keep them warm. I found a bench made of sand and sat down to say a prayer for Sophie (that'll be another blog) and just generally absorb the waves, but then decided Natalie was right and it would be warmer by the swimming pool area.

This is a good time for today's Dear Tom, as it was on this walk that I found the subject of today's question. First the most recent word from Tom:

Natalie is correct, the holes in the sand when the tides goes out are air holes for little crabs (sand crabs, I believe). You can dig them out (they don't have shells) ... the sea gulls go nuts for them ... fine dining I suppose.

Thank you Tom. Now for today's question:

Dear Tom,

See this picture? Do you think this piece of flotsam/jetsom could be from the Dread Pirate Roberts' ship? Thank you for your assistance in making this week fun AND relatively educational. Now back to our blog...

So picture this (and no, I don't have any pics as I thought it would look creepy for me to be taking pics of Nat in a bikini), Natalie is in her bikini - covered in sunscreen/oil and all decked out on her towel, timing her laying out so she'll know when to flip over, doing everything she can for sun. I am sitting there, indian-style, fully-dressed (see above pic), with a hat on, reading a book. Guess who gets the sunburn. Yup, you guessed it. My nose is a shocking shade of red as is the skin that was above my neckline (fortunately not on my scarlet pimpernel, as I'm sure the dual itching caused by both would drive me to madness) and, oddly enough, the underside of my chin. Very weird. But we had a nice peaceful time listening to our pods and her snoozing and me reading my not-so-smutty book.

We didn't really go anywhere or do anything else for the rest of the day. There was a nap in the room, some more NCIS, and the playing of Treasure Madness. But along about 5-ish, the power of advertising wins us over and we decided that we really needed to find (and go to) an Olive Garden. We had two choices, Pensacola and Mobile. In retrospect, I may have been wrong, but I said the Pensacola one would be closer and easier to find. We were starving and therefore it made the trip all the more unbarably long, but thanks to Jason and the girl behind the counter at the Panera Breads in the mall at Pensacola, we found the Olive Garden. The two of us were seated at a lovely table for six! and we gorged ourselves on breadsticks, salad, and their newly advertised (thus our submission to the power of suggestion is complete) the Four Cheese Stuffed Pansotti with Chicken. It was delicious.

By the time we were ready to leave to go back to the hotel, Jason was ready to take a dirt nap. Frankly, we almost had to call Nat's parents and have them Mapquest directions for us back to the hotel. Fortunately for Jason, he was able to eek us back to a road that looked familiar before he died or else his dirt nap would have been long-term.

The day didn't hold much excitement, other than the potential for being lost in Florida, but we were tired and satisfied with our selves by the time we got back, so we watched Burn Notice and went to sleep. After all, tomorrow is another long car ride north!