Trip to Pensacola

Lily and I got home yesterday and I have so much work to do in order to get caught up. I was excited to get on here and tell you all about our adventures, so I'll get started. Thursday evening I got Lily all ready for bed and then got on the road. Just as planned, she slept the entire trip. Yay!! We got to St. Pete in good time too. Lily woke up and played with Nichole and Chris and like the little Angel that she is, went right back to sleep. The next morning Lily, Nichole and I got on the road about 8:30. No traffic or anything. Lily slept all the way until about an hour out of Tallahassee. Nichole moved to the back seat and sang to her until we got there. Wow Tally has gotten congested!! Traffic was horrible but we made our way to Gordos for lunch. We sat outside and laughed to ourselves about the way that college students react to a baby. We had Lily dressed in a Halloween onesie and a pumpkin hat so she got quite a bit of attention. The girls thought she was cute and the boys were frightened to death. Back on the road to Pensacola! Lily got a little cranky on this leg of the trip but thankfully Nichole is a good singer.
It was raining off and on and the weather was a bit cold so we decided that Lily shouldn't go to the game. Nichole's mom took care of Lily and Nichole and I went off to our old High School. They changed a few roads so it took us a bit to find the place and we felt pretty stupid, but we made it. Once we got there we immediately saw a few familiar faces. It was so fun to be back there. I felt giddy. I couldn't believe it had been so long but it felt just like yesterday. Everyone had grown up, but no one had changed. It was so nice. Our school lost the game and the current students didn't have much of a presence, so some things HAD changed. Way back in 94, EVERYONE was at the game.....Especially homecoming! After the game we all went out for a couple of beers and had a wonderful time.
Saturday morning we got up early to go walk in the Strides Against Breast Cancer. Charlene had spoiled little Lily and let her sleep in the big bed with her. It took us too long to get organized and we ended up missing the walk :(
So, we took a tour of Pensacola and talked about old times and how much everything had changed.
Pensacola beach was kinda sad. Just a rough guess, but I would say that there are only about 10% of the houses that there used to be. The main beach area where people come to eat, drink and shop has been put back together, but it will take a decade to build all those bungalows back. Many lots had only a mailbox (see pic) or a slab of concrete. Some lots had picnic tables and lawn furniture as if the people are using it like a campground. I think I would do that too. I would stay there in a tent if I had to.
We had lunch at the beach and I had to include that cute cute picture of Lily for 2 reasons. One being that her face is so cute, the other to show our American over-indulgence. Nichole and I ate so much on this trip that I am sure we both gained 10 pounds!
Saturday night we were supposed to get together with our old friends, but being the losers that we are, no one called or returned our phone calls. And since we had Lily with us we couldn't go bar-hopping, so we just stayed in and took it easy.
Sunday we leisurely got on the road. Just short of Tallahassee we had a blow-out. Nichole was driving and she handled it really well. Even though I have a full size spare, neither one of us trusted our strength to change it ourselves. We waited on the roadside for about an hour for roadside assistance to change it for us. More bad news....The spare is dry-rotted. :( AND when the tire blew it ripped off half my fender! Always an adventure when I travel right?
We got into Tallahassee at about 6:30PM and could not find a tire shop that was open. Thankfully we still have a friend there who could help us cut off the part of the fender that was dragging on the spare. We had no choice but to risk driving on the bad tire. We drove 60 MPH all the way to St. Pete. We didn't make it there until almost 2AM, but we made it.
Yesterday morning Lily and I went and bought 5 new tires in St. Pete before we came home. She cried all the way across alligator alley where there is no where to stop, so by the time I got home I was pretty frazzled. I think I am going to hold off on vacations for awhile. or at least until Ross can go with me, Lily and I seem to have bad travel ju-ju.