Are we there yet?

Airplane

You probably think most people leave bright and early for vacation.  This year we left at eight o'clock at night and drove about four hours to Nashville, Tennessee.  When we arrived at twelve o' clock I think my mom, dad, sister, and I were all exhausted.  After checking in we went right upstairs and fell asleep.  The morning came before I knew it, and boy was I hungry!  When I found out the hotel didn't have breakfast I was a little bummed, but I think I was alright.  We decided to have star-bucks when we arrived at the airport at about  nine and had a great muffin that 's smell can not be described.  We didn't take too long, because before I knew it my mom was telling us to hurry up.  It was time to board the plane!  As we grabbed our very comfortable seats I closed my eyes because I do not enjoy planes!  Before I knew it I looked out the window and there was the ocean, beautiful and blue.  We had arrived in Seaside, FL!

Seaside is such a beautiful, relaxing vacation spot.  It is located in South Grayton Beach on the panhandle of Florida.  It is thirty miles north of Destin and thirty miles south of Panama City Beach.  The weather here is amazing!  There are only 50 to 60 days without sunshine, and the average annual temperature is 67.20 degrees F.  In the winter the temperatures usually range from 50 degrees F to 75 degrees F.  The summer here is much warmer and seems to range from 80 degrees F to 91 degrees F.  A natural resource here are the forests.  They cover forty percent of the land area in Florida!  Most trees are pines.  Seaside is such a magnificent place to see!

Seaside:)

First Day in Paradise

As we walked in our rental in Watercolor (Watercolor is right behind Seaside, that is where we stayed, I just always say Seaside ) I notice the smell of sand and what seems like new hard wood floors.  While my parents and sister took a while to unpack, I on the other hand wanted to get out of the beautiful house and see the even beautifuler ocean.  I decided to discover the house.  There were three bedrooms, and three baths.  The house also has a beautiful front and back porch.  The living room/ TV room is a very comfortable room, and the kitchen is large and spacious.  Without too much time passing my parents and sister were ready, so we went to the beach, and of course we rode our bikes, we ride our bikes everywhere in Seaside.  As we walked to the pavilion I could feel the ocean breeze on my shoulder.  I could smell the salt water, and I was loving it.  We headed down to the beach and quickly got in the water, but then jumped out realizing it was freezing! But after standing there for a few minutes I got used to it and walked out to the sandbar to look for shells.

 I did not happen to find many shells, but did see a cute little crab.  After relaxing in the water for about twenty minutes I decided to tan with my sister, so I layed out in the warm afternoon sun, it felt amazing.  After taking a long walk on the beach I saw my friends Emily, Lilly, and Natalie.  We talked for a minute or so and my family and I left the beach and looked around in the stores in Seaside.  I found many cute cloths, bot they were very expensive.  We next took a bike ride to one of the many Watercolor pools.  I got in and cooled off and it was dinner.  I will just say I have never had food that is as good as any restaurant in Seaside.  We decided to go to one of my favorite restaurants, with great pizza, Pizza by the Sea.  We ordered a margarita pizza that my sister and I shared and my parents ordered a cheese.  We enjoyed the pizza and talked for a while.  We were all tired and exhausted from a great first day in Seaside. I couldn't wait for the next day!

View of the the Gulf at sunset

Exercise Mania

The third and fourth days were very fun.  We all went on a huge bike ride both days in the morning.  We were very exhausted, and especially hungry.  So we rode our bikes to Seaside an had lunch at the Modica Market.  After that we enjoyed another great day at the beach.  This trip was shorter though.  We headed down and of course I got in the ocean splashed around, and cooled off.  I could smell sunscreen as I jumped out of the water.  It was time to tan with my sister.  I tanned, but only for ten minutes because it is kind of boring, but relaxing.  I got up and I looked for sea shells, but had no luck until I came to a biggish shell.  It was much bigger than any other shells, but unfortunately there was something living i it.  So I threw it in the ocean.

 As I finished looking for shells we decided to leave, because we were all hungry.  So we rode our bikes home and got ready for dinner. We decided we were going to go to Great Southern on the third night, Great Southern is a great restaurant that has fantastic fish, and everyone loves their fantastic crab cakes.  They are also known for their fried green tomatoes.  I decided to have their amazing cheese grits, and of course the fried green tomatoes and the crab cakes.  After the filling and delicious meal I had to try their key lime pie that they are also known for.  I shared it with my mom and sister because we were all very full. My dad also tried a little.  When our great meal was over we headed back to the house and my sister went out with her friends while we watched American Idol.  The third and fourth days were packed with lots of activities and exercise as you can tell.

My friends

  My sister went out every night with her friends and I had not seen my friends yet.  On the fourth day I was going to call Lilly, but I thought she brought a friend with her, so I didn't want to cut into what they had planned.  But she didn't bring a friend they just stayed down the street from each other.  I was getting bored  and luckily she called me and we went to the pool by the beach.  The beach side pool has a beautiful view of the ocean, you can see the horizon from his beautiful pool in Watercolor.  The down side of this pool is that it is always crowded, and one time I found a baby diaper in the pool.  I was trying to ignore that since we were going to have so much fun!  As I walked in I met her friend Mary Charles.  She also goes to Lilly's school- Sacred Heart Model School.

  She is pretty nice, just a little bratty, but I wouldn't let that get in my way.  As we sat there talking I realized it wasn't that crowded so I jumped in the pool.  It felt amazing, like jumping in the pool when it just opens at the beginning oft he summer.  It relaxed me, it wasn't too cold nor too warm.  Unfortunately they would not get in , but it was OK because I had the whole pool to my self.  Before I new it Mary Charles wanted to go to the beach, but Lilly and I wanted to go to Seaside and shop, and eat.  So Mary Charles went to the beach and we went to Seaside and it was very fun, we looked in almost every store, and I saw a really cute bathing suite, but did not buy it because I didn't have enough money.  We decided to head down to the Seaside Beach, because in my opinion it is more fun than the Watercolor Beach.  We had a blast, it was a very fun day!

OUR Beach House

I forgot to mention that we bought a house ( it is not completely finished yet) in Watercolor, Florida.  This is a big deal, now we have a house to go to when ever we want, we don't have to rent a house any more.  The house is so beautiful, it is yellow with two floors.  There is even and upstairs and downs porch!  The inside is magnificent.  There is a bunk room, and a few other nice rooms.  The house is amazing, I am so happy and thankful that we bought a house in Florida.  In the back of the house is a very tiny porch, and behind the porch has wild life preserve.  I found that very cool.  The house is awesome!

There are a few cons though.  The location is not that ideal, because you have to cross a big busy road to get into what I call,"the real part of Watercolor."  I feel like it is more of a community across the way.  That is the main reason I did not like the house, I hope I will get used to that.  The house is also a little more secluded with nothing in the backyard.  All of things are really bothering me now, but once the house is fully done I think I might come to like it better.  Our house is pretty close to the beach, which is awesome! Most houses we rent are  two miles from the beach, but this one is only one!  Being close to the grocery store is handy also.  So maybe the house is not as bad location wise as I thought it would be.

Relaxing

Boy was I tired from swimming the day before.  I woke up and my parents, my sister, and I decided to head to the Modica Market to get waffles.  We had been waiting for this all week!  Modica Market's waffles are so good!  They are  two times the size of a normal waffle and are twice as good.  After they cook it, fresh strawberries and whip cream are added.  You also have get choose to put syrup or butter on them.  Although hey might take a while to eat, they are so delicious!  After eating my whole waffle,  I was full and bloated, but satisfied.  As the bright sun was beating down, my sister was getting sun burned.

She was bright red already from the day before when she tanned with her friends.  So my parents gave her some money and I went with her to buy a cap.  I knew this would be a fun experience, because last time I was with her in Seaside walking around a little girl was talking to her grandma and said," wow look how young her mom is."  I was cracking up when that happened.  Any way we went into Sun Dog Bookstore and bought a cap.  The price was so expensive, it was twenty seven dollars!  My parents said they care more about her skin, she doesn't care, she just liked the cap.  We bought the cap and went upstairs to the porch of sun dog, and stared at the beautiful view of the beach.  We stayed there and lost track of everything around us.  Relaxing in Florida is so calming!

Last day with my friends

As the week was coming to a close I was getting very sad, because I hate leaving a place I love so much.  I still had two more days, but it felt like one since literally almost everyone who came to Seaside for Spring Break was leaving the day before.  I had a blast with my friends on their last day.  Lilly and I went kayaking!  We rode our bikes on the curving, fun paths through the wooded area until we reached the beautiful lake.  We grabbed a life jacket and headed out!  The guide told use how to paddle and left us on our own paddling !  We headed out  and paddled in a loop around a pavilion and then under a cool bridge  that you can ride your bike on.  While on the kayak I was perfectly content.  Just a little scared of alligators, but the guy reassured me there were no alligators, because they take them out when they see them.

 I could feel the wind blowing on me and the sun felt amazing beating down on me.  Lilly and I talked and paddled around in our kayaks for probably an hour.  Kayaking with Lilly was such a great experience!  Lilly and I rode our bikes to the beach to meet Mary Charles, and Avery.  The ocean was freezing so we instead dug  a hole with a few guys from Holy Trinity.  The hole was at least three and a half feet deep, when we helped them finish a guy came up to us from the chair rental company and said we had to fill it in because someone could fall in it.  We were hungry, so we went to the taco bar and had fantastics fish tacos!    Louise was gong to join us, but decided not to.  I was so sad everyone was leaving the following morning.  We talked, they were jealous I got to stay for another day.  I was sad they wouldn't be there.  We said bye and I headed back to the house.

A blur

The last day of Spring Break was literally a blur.  Of course it had to be the foggiest, ugliest day.  I still enjoyed it since I was in Florida and everyone else that was on spring break was home. On this day we decided to spend our time at the beach.  We stayed their for probably four hour, it was so fun.  I flew a fish shaped kite with my dad and met these cute triplets, but I can not remember their names.  Their mother was from England and their father was from India.  I played with the little kids for about an hour and they loved the huge bubbles I was blowing so when they left I gave them the rest of them.  I was going to get into the ocean, but I hardly could see it!  There was fog everywhere and ships had to travel only about fifty yards from shore.  It was fun however watching the huge waves, the sound almost put me to sleep!

My sister and I at the beach 

 As I tried to sleep I couldn't so ended up looking at the clouds and saw it was clearing up a little.  I was wide awake now and my dad and I decided to go up to the get a frozen ice from Frost Bites.  We headed up the beach and as we reached the pavilion something happened.  My dad broke his toe.  You will never guess what he broke it on, me!  I was in front of him and he was not paying attention and he ran into my heel.  He screamed and then set his toe back into position.  I could tell it hurt him a lot, we still got the frozen ice and then headed back down the beach.  It hurt him too much so I went down to get his shoes and towel and then he went back to the house to ice his toe.  Shortly after, my mom, sister and I went back to the house, my dad was doing better.  So we were happy!  Since it was our last night we decided to go out, we had a great meal at Great Southern!  We went back to the house and packed.  I was sad that we were leaving in the morning.

Coming Home

I was tired when I woke up in the morning.  I was a little excited that I would see my dog soon, so that changed my mood.  It was seven a.m and our plane was leaving at nine, so we had a pretty long time until we had to leave.  We didn't want to be late though, so after packing all of our suite cases we headed out.  I tried to sleep in the car to the airport, but couldn't so I listened to my ipod.  Before I knew it we were at the airport!  The southwest people checked our bags and then we went through security.  Security scares me for some reason!  Any way it was thirty until nine and we had not eaten breakfast.  So we grabbed a muffin.

The muffin had 500 calories!  So I only ate a little bite of it.  Then we boarded the plane.  My mom and I sat together in the back of the plane and watched as the stewardess showed us what do do with the life jackets incase of an emergency.  That to me is the best part of the flight it always cracks me up fro some reason.  They finished explaining and we took off, we were heading home!  Well to Tennessee and then driving home.  I read for almost the whole time, I also actually feel asleep!  We landed and I had to say it was the smoothest flight I have ever been on.  We got our luggage and then drove home to Kentucky!  

Looking Back

Looking back, I think Spring Break this year was very fun!  The number one thing that i loved was freedom.  Freedom from school and from a busy schedule.  I also felt like I had a lot of freedom hanging out with my friend who I don't get to see as much as my friends from school.  There was no drama on Spring Break, like there is at school.  I just love having any break I can have.  Going to Florida is so fun and is almost like a tradition in my family since we have been going down there since I was three.  Spring Break 2011 was the bomb.  I have had better I have had worse, but when you are in Florida you only think about the good things.  Because everything in Florida and especially in Seaside and Watercolor makes me smile.

 Spring Break 2010 was fun too.  Same for 2009.  Now back to my story of Spring Break.  The car ride was five hours from from Tennessee to my house, it seemed longer though.  It was kind of fun because I had not been in a car for a while.  Before I knew it we reached Pet's, that is where my dog stays.  I went inside and he was so happy to see us!  We took him for a walk when I got home and I told him about Spring Break and how it was so fun. I will never forget Spring Break 2011!:)