The trip down here for Spring Break had us visit each of the three beaches we’ve grown into the habit of going to.
Destin: Cross the Bay Bridge, turn left on 98, make the first right, go until you can’t, turn left, and about 1/2 mile down is a small parking lot with beach access (Pampano Street Public Beach Access). Of the beaches we visit, this one is the most convenient, and, the most crowded. The neighboring condos have their umbrellas and cabanas out and you are constrained (or, better said, feel to be constrained) by that (technically, i guess, you could set up in the middle of their stuff). We went here on Sunday in the late morning and there were still a lot of people around. Not so many in the water, though…it was cold. Boys (and Dad) trudged out, and today, at least, there was a big sand bar about 20 feet from shore that extended about 100 feet further out from shore. Yellow (moderate surf) and Purple (wildlife present) flags were up, but, didn’t see any ‘stuff’ in the water and we didn’t think the surf was all that bad.
The view from the beach….one of the dots out there is Christopher.
GINS: The Gulf Island National Seashore is about 45 minutes to an hour from the home base in Niceville. Only recently reopened after repairs from hurricane damage, it’s also the prettiest of the beaches we visit, and the least crowded of them as well. We went here on Tuesday after visiting the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. Again, the boys and Dad were the only ones in the water (but we all thought it was warmer Tuesday then it was on Sunday) and the surf was again labeled as ‘moderate’. We spent a lot of time in the water wave-jumping (or diving) as the case may be, and also had fun on the beach throwing frisbee (Kevin, finally, has gotten pretty good at this so we had a good time diving after the disc in the waves) and flying a cheap kite I picked up at Walmart (for $3 it worked just fine).
Superman, Batman, and Green Lantern at Matthew’s command
There is also video (about 3 minutes) of the boys playing in the waves. It’s nice because it’s one of the few moments on this trip where all three of them are playing nicely and getting along.
Navarre Beach: On the way to the GINS you pass by Navarre Beach; it’s more like Destin in that it’s pretty crowded most of the time. The main attraction of the beach is that there are tons of seashells. The boys, equipped with goggles, like to dive down and look around; in previous years we’ve brought home buckets and buckets of seashells as the boys have just picked up everything and anything that they’ve run across.
This year, the rule was it had to be pretty or big to make the cut to go in the bucket; no shells with holes, no fragments, etc. Still yellow flags, and the surf here is pretty rough (found out later that almost everywhere else in the area it was red flags). Surf was really tough getting in, but, if you made it out 20-40 feet it was more than manageable…it helps that, as always, the boys are bigger now and quite capable in the water.
Anyway, we’re playing some frisbee (really windy, so it was tough, and if the disc went too far near the shore you lost if for a while in the surf and got hammered by waves as you tried to recover it) and the boys are diving for shells…and they are pulling up some real beauties! Christopher found 2 of the biggest shells we’ve ever pulled out of the Gulf, and, after some wave-jumping towards the end of the trip, the boys grabbed a few shells for this girl and her Mom who were looking for shells along the shore (there were nothing but fragments there…the real ‘swag’ was out in water).
