Day #4 Vacation

 

our view from the upstairs deck off from the  kitchen

     Monday...awaken to a cloudy day.  It remained over cast all day, and the waves, like yesterday was strong and a lot of them.

    We saw the dolphins again in the bay.  A whole pod of them.  You just see them coming up out of the water, and then right back down as they swim. They swim one way-probably eating their breakfast, then eventually they might come back by going back into the bay.  

    We  drove back to the two Dollar stores.  One was like a grocery store too, bigger than what we have back home.  On the way here, in southern Alabama, there was a dollar store every 5 miles! Really! And they looked busy too. 

    Anyway, we decided to buy some beach chairs, probably should have brought some folding chairs from our camper-

    I found 2 chairs left that were not folding, but were a better price then the folding ones.  Those were they kind that sit low to the ground.  For the beach.  But I did not think they would be easy for me to get in and out of with my one knee (former surgery). No others were available and I really did not want to drive back to a walmart.  (20 plus miles).

    So I negotiated the  price down... originally priced at about 11 dollars each, I got the one for 5 and the other one for 7-1/2.   Once back, we spent the rest of the day on the beach or back in the house. 

our beach chairs 

 Scott got his metal detector out and searched the beach. 

 This is what he found:

The waves were good with the shells, found a lot of smaller ones.  Only two of the larger type of shells.  I do not know what I will do with all of them, but I like looking for them.

Day #3 of vacation

So we woke up and enjoyed the sunrise, watched dolphins playing in the bay---

then spent the morning settling in.  We decided to go for a drive, and went back to that park for more photos.  It was on the way to a walmart we needed to go to for some things we needed for the week.  Then we drove the other way, to a few more stores.

I found these shells.  Later I found out the one had a resident in it. We argued about who got to keep the shell, I won.

this is one of those things...not sure what the name is..swims all over the place

cool tree with moss on it by the bay

the tree roots

tree roots

We went back to the home we rented, and found that no internet connection still.  I have school work to do, (I am doing distance program) so we d rove up to a McDonalds, and I spent a half an hour getting on line! Ugg!
Then 2 hours to do homework while a family with children including teens, screamed and laughed beside me.  Hard to concentrate.
I have to say, I have a wonderful patient husband that waited for me to finish....
The McDonald's did have christian music playing, that was nice.  I do not eat their food, but did thank them for the selection of music before I left.

We got back to the unit

That evening, we watched the sunset on the beach and watched the dolphins again, some jumping out of the water!  I did not get photos of the dolphins, but did get a video I might post later somewhere!

Vacation Day #2

The hotel we stayed at told us that Donald Trump was in town for the day.  We did not go hear him.
Up and on the road by 9 am (yes we slept in, it is vacation after all).

Today we would arrive about 4 pm at the place we rented.  That was the plan. But it did not happen.  Instead, lots of traffic once we left the hotel.  The drive into alabama, and the first major large town, took about an extra hour and a half than it should.  Then once past the town, it took an hour to drive 13 miles! The traffic went at a whole 10-15 mph.  Yes that was as fast as we went.  So much for the 4pm arrival time.  We did not get to our area until after dark.  We were about what we thought was only 5 miles when we went over the bridge you see below in the photos, but the GPS kept saying we were 20 + miles away.  I did not believe it, but thought-well maybe?  We stopped after going over this bridge, at a small roadside park by the ocean.  When we got out, I said, wouldn't it be neat if we could see a dolphin swimming? No kidding, but less than one minute after I said that, there was a dolphin swimming in this bay.  Scott and I both were excited about that, it was the first time for me to see one in the wild!  I have been to florida before, but never saw one in the wild that I can remember.

The bridge we first went over on day #2 just before our area where we will stay.

view of that same bridge, when we stopped at the road side park

the small bay area

sun going down

another view of the bay

a selfie! 

So we thought we better get  back on the road to get to our location, I could have sat at that park for a few more minutes, it was so  fun and relaxing.  Nice to be with my sweetheart!

So on the road we went...and the GPS kept us going, and going, and soon it was dark.  Then we were still going, those 20 plus miles, and we were out in the middle of no where.  The ladies voice says: you have reached your destination.  We saw trees, no buildings, nothing...darkness...nothing.  We turned around, and I gave up on technology and we found the place the old fashioned way, hand held map, and common sense.  This was the second time this GPS thing took us to the wrong spot.  (the other time was the hotel..it had us exit 2 exits before we should have...I knew better, but listened anyway...we drove thru town and shopping areas looking for the hotel!) 

That GPS sits in the glove compartment now. 

So we arrive, and I have to figure out the lock system.  Finally here! We carried everything in, food for the week, our luggage and my mountain of pillows.  

We went to the sliding glass doors and opened them and just enjoyed the sound of the ocean, which was just steps away from this place! So peaceful!

Sleep was wonderful, relaxing. Great day #2, I will post more later! 

Vacation 2015 Day #1

Well we finally got to have a vacation! The summer of 2012 was the last time that Scott and I went on a vacation anywhere.

We came to Florida.  Now this state is one of my least favorite states, but I wanted to sit on the beach.  We thought about the east coast, along the carolinas, but that did not seem like the area we were to go.  Glad we did not, they had a hurricane there last week! SO this week would still not be the best time to go there!

We decided to try the gulf area, along the pan handle.  Mexico beach.  I searched and searched for a cabin, one with all of the amenities we needed and wanted.
Found one, and so the plan was to leave on a Friday afternoon, and take 2 days to drive to Florida, enjoy the area for 5 days and  go back home.  So this is day one information!

Friday we tried to leave by 11 am, Scott worked 4 hours and came home at 10:30  but we had a few things come up and did not get to leave until noon.  We were driving until Nashville, then planning on staying in a hotel.  Driving went fine, but there was so much road construction that we were delayed a bit.  We wanted to get to the hotel by 8pm but did not arrive until about 9:30 or after.
The following are some of the photos from day one.

On highway 65 south

My view

Scott's view

entering Kentucky

Vacation part 2-2012

So on our vacation to Tennessee....spent time sight seeing up in the mountains.  I never tire of that.

Here are a few more views...

We traveled around for the day, then a nice dinner out.  

This was Tuesday  and once we were out of the mountains, I noticed I had a message on my phone.  I listened to it, and wow!  It was the manager from the resort-finally.  So I called him back, with the extension he gave in the message, and no answer.  SO I left him a message telling him we were up in the mountains, no signal and I would call him when we had one.

Once we were down from the mountains, we did have that dinner out, at a steakhouse-nice meal.  I called the manager before we went into eat-again, no answer, so I left a message that I was in a area where I now had a signal, and he could call me.

Now it was up to him...

Finally a phone call.  He basically started by saying phone tag and your it!  I did not laugh.  Nor did I comment.  Does he and his staff can ignore me from our arrival-Saturday evening, until now Tuesday? Really? Does he not pay attention that 2/3 of our vacation is OVER?????

This is NOT service.

I am not pleased.

I tell him that, he looks back to all the calls, and tries to basically act like things were taken care of.  I talked about the gross pillows, about the one spoon and 2 forks, and he talks like-well I did not say anything at first-hey guy-keep talkin....he just made me more upset. 

I explained to him, that I was not going to continue to call and call and that when someone showed up, I would talk about the problems (I had net even told him about the cleaning issues and such)

He said he would get some one out about the hot tub, but to the fact that I had to buy pillows, pillowcases, dish soap etc, no comment from him.

Ok, I am not happy.  But we will continue to make the most of our vacation....that is all we can do.  But this DOES effect it.  I spent a lot of money, I could have spent it somewhere else-and had better service. Actually:  I would have spent LESS at the other resort we had always went to, AND had good service!

Stupid me....

So someone finally showed up and changed the heating thingy in the hot tub.  He said they go out often.  Scott showed him how the area was burned-and he said that is from the problem with the hot tub, the heating thing, not working right-and guests try to fix it by unplugging it and re-plugging it and such.  Well, remember the staff told US to re do all of that....maybe the staff should NOT tell its customers to do those things, and they should come out and do it themselves? Just a thought.  Again, IF I was the property owner-I would want the staff --someone skilled---to handle any major problems.  But that is just me.

The hot tub was up to 100 by Thursday (remember it was tuesday evening when he 'replaced' the element) 

So on Wednesday, we spent the day relaxing around the cabin:

I did like this style of couch.

still down stairs, the 3D TV.  Out the window, you can see the hot tub, and the mountains in the back ground.

the door and window looking out down stairs, see the hot tub...

the main level.  couch, fire place (electric-which looked stupid.  I would rather have a wood one, but understand the possible fire hazard so a gas one would be better at least!)

main level, stair way going down to the lower level, where the hot tub, other living room is, and bedroom, and main bathroom. Then you see the stairs going up to the 'game' room, where there is a loft that has the pool table, a couch, and the game table with about 50 old style games like space invaders.

deck....the advertisement said there was 2 decks but there was only one. So sad, had to enjoy only one!

kitchen area. on the main level.

now after all of the other photos, you might say, why did you complain so? Well this is just a few of the rags that I used to 'clean' the already suppose to be clean---cabin.  The hand rail, just one-had all of this and MORE.  I had to clean the counters, all hand rails, door knobs, switch plates, all places you touch and usually people do not clean well.  The most germ filled places!

But the sunrises and sun sets observed on the deck made it worth staying.!

COFFEE!!!!

So by wednesday.....

My right knee was hurting a lot (and that is not the one I had surgery on) so thought I should prob take it easy.  It was prob from all the driving, with it in one position....that can hurt a persons knee!  

We watched some movies, even one on the tv downs stairs that was a TV that had 3D.  So we watched a 3D movie.  There we sat wearing those funny glasses... (I had to clean them first...they were filthy...a film all over them)

I sacrificed  things by occupying the hot tub....

We also played the games (old style like space invaders) on the game upstairs

played some pool

sat out on the deck

took a nap...a great restful day.

By the evening, my knee and lower leg was hurting, I finally looked at it (you'd think I would have sooner-as a nurse-) I found 2 areas swollen, on veins, (not deep veins) that were possible clots.  So I thought ---gotta watch those!

Evening: time in the hot tub...got to keep the sore leg up (opps, photo shows the wrong leg!)

By Thursday morning, they were more swollen, so I sat on the couch most of the day, with leg propped up, hot pack on it, and taking aspirin....

It was finally down by Friday morning when we had to leave, but not completely.  Scott drove the whole way home...I could have if I could have had the auto on cruise all the time, but with it being my right foot-the actions of driving-would not have been ok.

It was nice for me-but tiring for Scott.

We left just before 10 am on Friday for home, and arrived home about 11:30 pm.  We did take lots of breaks at rest stops, longer ones, (usually we allow about 5-10 minutes) but we took from 10-30 minutes.

We also took a longer route, why? Well we wanted to see a different area-but prob should have taken the fastest route home!  Silly us.

Home, that means we did not get to Virginia and West Virginia like we had planned.  So I guess if we are to move there, it will be on total faith for Scott-since he did not get to see the area!