Memorial Day Weekend at Seacrest Beach, FL

We packed up the cars and headed down to the Gulf coast for Memorial Day.

We gathered at the Wade's at noon on Friday to caravan down to Florida. We stopped somewhere in Alabama at a gas station that backed up to a wildlife reserve. You could walk around behind the station and look at the alligators and feed them marshmallows through the fence.

After dinner at the beach we stocked up at the grocery store and then hit the sack.

Early Saturday morning, Andrew and I got up and went out for a run. Everyone else was awake when we got back, and then we had breakfast together. After eggs & bacon we headed out to the beach where the water was cool but refreshing. We had noticed the previous night that the water was pretty rough. It didn't take long to realize that there were riptides. While out of the water, we played some games of Bocce Ball and enjoyed the sunshine.

Around lunch time Pauli's parents and sister stopped by to visit. We made sandwiches for lunch and laid around the condo for a while and took naps. Around the middle of the afternoon we heard sirens and went out on the porch. A guy from the group next to us had gotten caught in the riptide and become exhausted while trying to get back to shore. He was OK but was taken to the ambulance to get checked out. Eventually they put up the second red flag and wouldn't let anyone in the ocean. We even saw a police truck drive down the beach and threaten to give a ticket to someone who was wading knee deep. We heard the next day that were was 100 rescues in the Destin/Panama City area.

Saturday night we went out for a nice dinner at The Fish House. Afterward we drove to Seaside Beach to take pictures and walk around the Jazz Festival.

Sunday we decided to go deep sea fishing.

We made reservations on a boat that took about 50 people and left from the port in Destin. Stacy didn't go with us because she gets sea sick easily. She also had some friends that were staying nearby so she could meet up with them and hit the beach. We bottom fished at five different spots and caught mostly snapper (Vermilion, Lane, and Red). We had fun and I was the last one of our group to finally catch a fish. At least it was a Red Snapper of decent size.
We headed down to the beach again once we returned to the condo in mid afternoon for some swimming and bocce ball.

On Monday morning we packed up our stuff and drove to Grayton Beach State Park. What a beautiful place! There are no condos or buildings along the beach and it was so peaceful. The water was calmer and we wanted to get a little more beach time before we headed back to the ATL. There was a second sandbar where you could swim out a little ways and then be in shallow water again. Andrew set up his camera on the tripod so we could get a group picture in the water.

We were all sad to go, but eventually we had to pack it up and head back home.