Returning from Beach/Hurricane Winds in Memphis-

Well, after arriving home from Gulf Shores with Robyn (see last post), I washed a couple of load of clothes, took a nap, and started to catch up on my recorded shows on TiVo. As I was finishing the 1st show, Kevin called. He was working and said there was a storm that was so bad it had knocked down trees and it was headed towards our house. He said to get ready because I was riding with him that night, he didn't want me home alone in case the power went out. Right as he got those words out of his mouth, the electricity started blinking on and off, then just went out completely. I went outside to see the yellow sky and the winds blowing like crazy. Days later, the news said they were Hurricane Force Winds. When he got home, there was no power. His boss said there was so much damage out there that they weren't running.

We decided to go find something to eat. As we drove thru Bartlett, it was crazy. There were trees everywhere. (we found out later that a tornado had touched down there) We got to Highway 64/Sycamore View which is usually a very busy intersection with lots of businesses. No one had power there except KFC and McDonald's. There were so many people lined up that it was probably gonna take over an hour to get food. We kept driving thru Bartlett and the only other places we found with power were Domino's and Milano's- both pizza. We decided on Milano's and brought some home figuring we'd probably get power later that night. We went to bed in the dark. Kevin got called in to work at 3 am, I stayed home. When Kevin got home, he said that half of the apts. had power and half didn't.

We drove around and went anywhere we could that had air conditioning. The 2nd night without air was horrible. We woke up around 4:00 am so hot we decided to get a hotel room. There are about 10 hotels near out apts. None of them had vacancies. We ended up topping off the gas tank, putting Joey's futon mattress in the back of my Blazer, and sleeping in there with the car running. The AC felt so good after being so hot for so long. Joey was still at mom's house. They didn't have power either, but they had generators and fans. We figured he was better off there.

We ended up not having power for over 48 hours. We found creative ways to stay cool, and spent all that time together without the tv. Now, that was something.. 48 hours w.o tv, and we survived. We actually had a good time together, and I'd love to have another 48 hour no tv time, I just prefer to have air conditioning when we do it.

Beach Hopping With the Hubby April 09

I can't believe I never took the time to blog about my beach trip with the hubby in April. It was amazing! We invited Joey to go along, but as usual he wanted to stay with my parents! Kevin and I have only been away for 1 night/2 day trips twice since Joey was born, so it was a nice break. I actually kept notes on everything the whole time so I could blog with details, but now 2 months later, who knows where that is. I'll do it by memory (oh no, not what it used to be!).

We left on Good Friday. We all three worked that day, so after Joey and I got off, we picked Kevin up at his work. We took Joey to mom's and what was supposed to be a 30 minute drop off took 3 hours!!!! Kevin and our nephew Ricky got to talking and wouldn't stop. It was driving me crazy because I wanted to get on the road. We FINALLY left there about 9 pm to start the trek to Destin, Florida. It takes about 10 hours to get to Destin, so leaving at 9 pm after working all day was not my idea of fun. As we left mom's, Kevin put the address where we were going in the GPS, and it told us to go to New Orleans, then Destin. I knew that was wrong. Why would you go west to get east? Crazy! Then he put in Mobile because we knew we'd pass thru Mobile to go to Destin. Again it said to go thru New Orleans to get to Destin. Still crazy! So, we got out the directions I printed on MapQuest using my house in Bartlett as a starting point. (was planning to take Joey to Mom's the night before and leave from our house) We were already on I-55 going south from Hernando, so we thought we could go over to the highway MapQuest told us to take from 55 thru one of the small towns along the route. We got off on a Greenwood exit, headed east towards Highway 45 (I think that's right). Well, we never realized we'd be on that highway for HOURS before getting to 45. We went over 100 miles without even seeing a business, not even a gas station. About midnight we decided to start looking for a hotel since we had been up since 5 am. Again, we found nothing. At 1:30 we decided we had to try to get some sleep. We found some Civic Center with a huge parking lot so we pulled in to sleep. We tried to lay the seats down to sleep, but since we just bought the Yukon, we couldn't figure it out. The back was also OVER-full because I ALWAYS tend to overpack. I tried to sleep in the backseat and Kevin in the front, but the seatbelt kept poking me in the side. I ended up moving into the front passenger seat and Kevin moved in the back. Kevin feel right to sleep, he can sleep anywhere. I couldn't sleep. All the commotion of trying to figure out where to sleep made me WIDE awake. Also, every time I heard a car come down the highway (which seemed to all of a sudden get busy) I kept thinking it was a cop comeing to find out what we were doing there. Around 3:30 I woke Kevin up, and we started on the way again.


DAY 1- Saturday---We made it into Saraland, AL about 8 a.m., went to Wal Mart to stretch our legs and eat breakfast. We hit Florida around 10ish and we went straight to Pensacola Beach. Check-in wasn't til 4 pm anyway, needed to kill some time. Man, Pensacola was gorgeous! I am probably partial though, my fave place ever is the beach, and just about any beach'll do. ;) After staying there a while, we decided to leave. I noticed a sign for Navarre Beach. We stopped there too. Stayed a little while, and decided we were both anxious to at least find where our condo was. We rolled into the Destin area around 1 p.m. We were SOOOO ready at the point for a shower, so I called the condo. They said our room was ready and we could go ahead and check in 3 hours early! Hot Dog!!!!!

Well, the condo was SUPER nice.. actually nicer than I thought it would be for the price.. only $100ish a night. When I went on the balcony and saws the water, I forgot all about being tired or needing a shower. I wanted to hit the beach. Poor Kevin, I know he was exhausted. He went with me to the beach anyway. We only stayed about an hour or so, then came up to the room for showers so we could go eat. My only rule for the day was I wanted to see the sunset. So, at this point it was about 4:oo on a Saturday and everywhere was PACKED. I wanted to go somewhere really "touristy" but settled on a place called Gilligan's since they had AYCE fish and shrimp for only $12. I ate my usual hamburger, since I don't like seafood, but Kevin really enjoyed that meal. It was still daylight so we thought we had plenty of time to go buy food to take back to the condo. Wal Mart was extra crowded, and when I walked out- disappointment set in. It was dark and I missed the sunset. We spent the evening sitting out on the balcony watching the water and listening to the waves. Well, Kevin actually didn't the whole evening. He fell asleep by 9. I stayed out there til midnight, then left the balcony door open all night to listen to the waves as I slept.. Man, that was amazing!!! God is soooooooo good to make something like the beach with crashing waves just for us to enjoy!

Day 2- Easter- I set the alarm and made Kevin get up at 5 am. I know you're thinking, who sets an alarm on vacation!!! but we were only staying in the condo for 2 nights, and since I missed the sunset, I was determined to see the sunrise! I got the most amazing pics of the sun coming up and the moon still being out. It was incredible. We ate breakfast on the balcony after walking along the beach (in our pajamas) at sunrise, then Kevin went back to sleep. I was going nuts because I SOOOOOO wanted to be on the beach. When he FINALLY got up, and was ready to do something, it was 11 am. Oh, I was so frustrated. We ate lunch at Fudpuckers, then petted the alligators. We hung out at the beach and the condo for the rest of the day, and just ate dinner "in". I wasn't planning to turn the tv on at all, but since Kevin was such a good sport about the beach, we turned it on. What was funnym is there was one of those shows on The Weather Channel about Memphis. It was one talking about if an earthquake actually hit Memphis what would happen. I found it ironic that we were at Paradise watching a show about Memphis. I mean, that is what we wanted to get away from-- Memphis.. Oh yeah, was there for the sunset, but clouds started rolling in late in the day. It went from gray clouds to black night. No pretty colors... so, still missed it.

Day 3- Monday--Good thing we were planning to check out of the condo today. The clouds and wind came in worse over night. (loved the sound of the waves that night especially while we slept) Right as we loaded the car, and got on Highway 98 headed outta town, a HUGE storm hit. You could barely see the road. We saw and heard later how it rained there for 2 days and even had waterspouts over the water, that produced one that was still formed when it hit land. My hurricane-phobic husband would have flipped out if he was still at the beach when that happened.

We didn't really have an agenda which is probably what made the trip so awesome. We just knew we wanted to be home Thursday. When we got to Pensacola, we were FINALLY out of the storm. Still not knowing where we wanted to go, I saw a sign for Beach Express Parkway (almost to Foley). We decided to see where it ended up, and before we knew it we were in Orange Beach, AL. We got out there for a little while, then went up coast (about 1-2 miles) to Gulf Shores, AL. We both talked about how much more we liked the Alabama beaches than the Florida beachess- especially the Destin area. Alabama seemed more "homey", more "family-oriented" instead of just commercialized. I could have stayed there forever. I absolutely LOVE it there!!! Around 2:30, we both started getting hungry so we drove into Foley. We ended up eating at Lambert's. Oh my, Kevin got the biggest salad I had ever seen. And then they bring you all these pass arounds. We left stuffed and had enough left-overs for dinner. While in Foley, we went to the outlet mall. I LOVE that Nike store. If I had an endless supply of money, think I'd spend it all on shoes...LOL.. We got back on the road about 6- still not having a destination in mind. We decided to stop in Loxley, AL and get a hotel room. Oh man, this place came right out of the 1940's probably. But it had a comfy bed. We were both exhausted.

Day 4- Tuesday---- We left Loxley, still not knowing where we wanted to go. When wed got to Mobile, I asked about going to Biloxi, MS. I hadn't been there since a year after Hurricane Katrina when we down and did some Missions work. 2 of the washed out bridges were rebuilt by now, and I've always had a place in my heart for Biloxi. We used to take the kids there when they were little, had even talked about moving there years before. I got so emotional going over the Ocean Springs/Biloxi bridge. I had taken pics. last time I was there when there was no bridge because of Katrina. Kevin was so awesome and drove the entire coast for me.. all the way to Bay St. Louis. He let me see everything I wanted to see. Again, as much as I love that area, the Alabama coast is still my favorite!!!! There are no waves at the MS Gulf Coast. Just still water, almost like a lake with sand.

Another thing I noticed was the lack of real restaurants in the Biloxi area. There are a few, but mostly Waffle Houses. Like one on every other corner. Seemed crazy to me to have that many so close together. And I'm not even a WH fan. We ended up eating at the Hard Rock Cafe in the Hard Rock Casino. Funny bc we have a HR Cafe in Memphis and never go. Guess cause it's on Beale St. Anyway, we had this amazing looking appetizer. Filled us up too,had something else, but can't remember what it was. We each played $2 of pennies in the slots and were done. Big gamblers, huh? That night we stayed at a Super 8 across the street from the beach, no wave sounds this night though. ;(

Day 5- Wednesday--- We decided to come back a day early so we could spend the day with Joey Thursday. We drove to mom's, picked him up, ate the awesome dinner Joey had made everyone that night, and headed home. Not really a lot of details this day. Just driving back home, enjoying the last few hours of our "alone" vacation, and thinking back to how much fun we had had the last few days together.

And oh yeah, the next day- our family day with sweet Joey.. Joey took us to the Olive Garden- he even paid, and then we went to see "Fast & the Furious: Original Parts". A great ending to an awesome week.