Two Thirds Beach (24th, 25th and 26th July)

Hello, once again I'm going for the mash of several days to bulk up a post. I'm going to write about Friday, Saturday and Sunday in this one. 

On Friday 24th we took a trip down to the Gulf Coast. We went to John's Pass Village. It's about 2 hours away and it rained pretty much the WHOLE way... We didn't turn around though, we took the chance that it would stop raining by the time we got there, but it didn't... We found ourselves sitting in the car eating our picnic while it stormed all around us. It was quite exciting as we saw the lightening and heard the thunder roll around us. 

After lunch and the rain still not relenting, we drove across the street (which had flooded so much a boy was standing in the water up to his ankles), there were small souvenir type shops and we found an arcade where I wasted about $6. But as I say, you can't go to a seaside town in the rain and not go to an arcade. There was one particular shop that had the weirdest collection of things, there were the usual shells and postcards, but then there were weird dolls heads on sticks, which I couldn't really see the appeal of...

We got some ice cream and then headed back to the car. The journey home was longer than the way up as we had to take multiple diversions. We stopped at a Target on the way back and picked up a roast chicken to have with some tater tots, salad and veg later. 

Lizzie's ice cream

Even though it rained all day and we didn't make it to the beach other than to look at it, it was still good fun. I would definitely like to go back on a sunny day sometime, it's just annoying that it's two hours away.

On Saturday 25th we went to Cocoa Beach. It was a beachy couple of days. Cocoa is the closest beach to us. It's near where our friends Mark and Marie live so we drop off the dogs with them and usually head down to the beach at Patrick. Unfortunately we lasted less than half an hour before the rain started chucking it down. Luckily we had only taken our towels and lunch, we hadn't bothered taking boogie boards and the beach tent so we could run nice and fast back to the car. 

Unfortunately the deckchairs didn't make it into the car in time...

 While it rained we drove to Ron Jon, a famous surf shop. I found myself a pin badge and then once it had finished raining we found another beach; Lori Wilson. It was much busier than the other one but there were proper waves that we could boogie board on. We wasted little time in getting in the water, the black clouds were far enough away we figured we would have a decent amount of time in the water. It was warmer than at Patrick. I can't remember how long we spent in the water but it was a good amount of time. There did however come a point where the black storm was above us and the red flag went up, meaning the water and beach were being evacuated. We were just leaving at that point anyway. It was much more successful than the Friday and the beach at Patrick!

We went back to Mark and Marie's and made good use of their very nice swimming pool. We also had a delicious BBQ with steak, lamb burgers, chicken kebabs, and mango salad to name just four things. There was also a yummy trifle for pudding. 

Mark and Marie's Pool

All in all a very good day, I love going to the beach and a BBQ afterwards just tops it off. 

Sunday 26th was spent at the pool in the morning. Then later on it was the classic Sunday clean of the bathroom. I was tasked with cleaning the loo (yay, my favourite...) while Meg and Liv tackled the bath and Lizzie did the sink and mirror. I must say, it is so much quicker with four than two. I'll miss the cleaning company next week! 

Later on we went to Downtown Disney. It's a place with lots of Disney shops. Lizzie found herself a Captain America tank top and Liv and I bought ourselves some great 'thick shakes' from a place called Ghiradelli. Yes, I had vanilla, but it was good! 

In the evening we went back to Millennia so Lizzie and Meg could buy some jeans from 'Lucky' where Debbie works. I was a teeny bit jealous, even though I have a couple of pairs already... I think I may be buying myself some more clothes from that store, I need to stock up on clothes for sixth form. 

The best part of the day was yet to come though, once the jeans were bought we headed down to the food court where we could choose what to have for dinner. Given that there was a Chipotle there it was pretty much already decided. Naturally, the food was heavenly. 

We looked at laptops in Best Buy on the way home and then I watched some TV in the evening and had a relatively early night. Aquatica was planned for the next day so I needed to be up early so we could get there in good time and beat the rush.

Okay, the stupid "Today" has gone on long enough, if I don't write on the day then I'm not going to write "Today"... I should have come up with that plan a long time ago... 

The Big Wide World has taught me: You can still have a good time even if the Big Wide World appears to be raining on your parade. You may have to adapt your plans, but it doesn't mean you won't have a good time. Be open to diverting from the original plan sometimes.

That's about it for this post, until next time, 

L
xxx