Vacation, Part One

I suppose at some point I should blog about my vacation, but so much happened in 5 days, it’s hard knowing where to start.  I was planning on going to Pensacola by myself, visiting my cousin and her husband on the weekend, then spend 2 days by myself on the beach before I came back to reality.  About a week after I bought my ticket, I decided to take my brother with me, which ended up being a good thing. 

 

Day 1: The first day, we left for the airport at 3:30 in the morning in the middle of a thunderstorm.  By the time we got our luggage out to the car, everything was soaked.  We got to the airport and made it to Pensacola by 1:00 in the afternoon.  Our rental was this strange little Pontiac G5 in BRIGHT yellow.  It was alright – definitely not a car I’d buy, but ok for a few days.  We got to the hotel, threw our stuff on the beds, met up with our cousin and headed straight for the beach.  When we got to Pensacola Beach, Kim asked if we wanted to go to the main beach, or a quieter beach down the road.  We opted for quieter, so we drove down the road to the Fort Pickens Gate beach.  The main beach is surrounded by little shops and restaurants, but this beach had a quiet little pavilion area, new bathrooms and was in front of a few condo buildings.  We only saw a few other people there, so we decided we’d stick with this beach for the weekend.  By 7:30, the sun was low enough that it was starting to get chilly, so we went back to the hotel to hang out by the pool.

 

Day 2:  The weather forecast worked out better to go on our fishing charter on this day, than as previously scheduled for a few days later.  We had to pick up our fishing licenses and meet the boat at 8:30 in Gulf Breeze.  We were running a little bit late, so we drove through McDonalds for a sausage biscuit.  Big Mistake.  We got to Gulf Breeze, found the bait shop to get our licenses, found the boat slip where we were meeting them and headed out to sea.  I haven’t been on a big boat in a while, but it was a blast to stand up, hold on to something and feel the wind and water.  We made one quick stop to pick up live bait from a boat a few miles off shore, then headed to our first destination.  Captain John knew that Lafe’s dream fish was a cobia, but he said they hadn’t really been coming in yet and it might be another week or two before cobia heated up.  Everyone agreed that the best way to find a cobia is to not look for them.  At our first stop, we let down a cigar minnow and after a few tries, I had a bite!  Captain John said the waves were 1-1 ½ feet, but I was still sort of leaning on the back of the cabin for support while I reeled this thing in.  Lafe said that these fish feel like you’re reeling in a bowling ball – they don’t fight out, they fight down.  I was bringing up a fish from 100 feet down that did NOT want to come up.  About halfway through reeling, I started to feel a little bit sick and was completely caught off guard by it.  I finished bringing him up (18” Red Snapper), handed it off to Allen, the deckhand, and pulled my backpack out to take a Dramamine.  Captain John said that if I didn’t already take it, it wouldn’t do me any good, but I took it anyway, thinking it couldn’t hurt.  I wasn’t really sure that I was seasick, anyway.  I mean, I kayak and sometimes the water moves fast underneath you and you get a little “whoa” feeling, but that’s fun.  I’ve kayaked in 18” chop before and giggled the whole time because it was so fun.  For Pete’s sake, I went on Batman at Great America 8 times in a row, never waiting in line more than 2 minutes, and I didn’t feel sick.  I thought I’d tested the limits on motion sickness, but apparently not.  Three minutes later, I was over the side of the boat, chumming the water.  Since we mostly fished around shipwrecks or sunken barges, there were a few other boats around us most of the day.  I had a little bit of privacy, thanks to huge sunglasses and a hat, but they all saw me hurl and a few lucky ones saw my breakfast.  I sat back down, had some water and another Dramamine, since I fed the first one to the fishes.  After a few minutes, I felt better and looked up at the boat closest to us.  I wish, I wish, I wish I had my camera.  The looks on those guys’ faces were hysterical!  It was a completely sympathetic expression, like what Dorothy must have seen when she woke up at the end of Wizard of Oz, but they all had a hint of “is she going to do it again?”  I smiled and waved, and tried catching another fish.  Basically, my entire day was spent either sitting down and enjoying the ride, standing up and feeling nauseous, or bent over the side of the boat expelling the most vile things from the pits of my stomach.  It was cool, though and I would do it again in a heartbeat, but next time, I’ll take a Dramamine the night before.  And, Lafe did end up catching his cobia, but I’ll let him tell that story. 

 

When we got back to shore, we headed back down to the Fort Pickens Gate beach.  After Hurricane Ivan came through in 2004, they rebuilt this park with gorgeous pavilions, permanent grills and really nice Cambria-type quartz picnic tables.  We had arranged for Kim & Michael to bring grilling & picnic stuff and we would bring the fish for dinner.  Lafe and I pulled into the parking lot and quickly realized we were not in Kansas anymore.  Both parking lots were packed with very nice, customized cars (spinners, stereo equipment, custom paint) and there were people EVERYWHERE.  Our windows were partially open, so we heard comments like, “They done took a wroooong turn” and “Look!  White people!”  Yeaaaaahhhh.  We found a parking space toward the end of the lot and claimed a table and grill while we waited for Kim & Michael to show up.  Within the next hour, the other families with enough common sense had left, but we decided to stay.  Nobody was bothering us, and we needed a grill to use.  There were police floating around, so we knew they were at least keeping an eye on the group.  While we were all eating, we saw a guy in the parking lot by us playing with a tazer.  That, combined with the crowds that were now walking down the road for this party, convinced us that after we were done eating, we would just leave.  But they weren’t going to end our AWESOME dinner.  A few minutes after the tazer appeared, we noticed 4 or 5 girls on the boardwalk near us smoking pot.  They just barely got going on their joint, when squad cars started tearing down the road.  I think there were 3 in the first batch.  You should have seen those girls scatter!  Anyway, the upshoot of the whole thing is 14 squad cars, 2 cops on 4 wheelers, a Sheriff’s helicopter buzzing the crowd, and yes…tear gas.  The one other family that was there was scurrying on to their car when the dad came by us to say that the cops were about to gas the rest of the crowd, so we might want to move.  Everyone jumped up to put everything away, but just as they were finishing, I saw all the cops run up a sand dune (upwind).  I “mildly suggested” that we all very quickly move our booties up the boardwalk, since there was no way we were going to get back to the car before the gas did.  We didn’t get the camera out in time to get pictures of the gas spraying, but this picture is right afterwards.  The pictures and video on the newspapers’ site were taken by the other family that warned us.  Some of the partiers were giving Mathew a hard time about taking pictures, but were fine when he told them he was “documenting police brutality”.

 

For your enjoyment – THIS is article 1, THIS is article 2, THIS video shows them arresting the girl we have in our pictures, THIS is the dog that cleared out some of the partiers, THIS is the moron that was resisting arrest and his stupid girlfriend that thought it was a good idea to hit a cop, and THIS is a video of the tear gas.  When the camera pans to the left in the last video, you can see a gray pickup with a Barq’s Root Beer logo on it.  My car is parked right behind that truck. 

 

So that brings you to the end of the first 2 days of vacation.  Jealous?

 

Edit: Click here for my vacation pictures.  Have you ever heard of Fort Pickens?  Apparently it was an old Civil War fort, but was once used as a prison for Geronimo.  We went past it in the boat and were able to see the fort and the cannons that are still standing.  Very cool.