Vacation Adventures '09, Part Two!

For the first part of our trip, we decided to visit some of Joe's family since a couple of his family members might not be with us for too much longer. This day we were spending in Tallahassee with Joe's relatives on his father's side. We haven't been all that close to some of them before, but we all mutually felt that it was time to get over past issues and get closer as a family.
Joe and his parents got some songs together to play (clarinet, piano and bass) for granddad at the assisted living center. It was kind of a pain to carry the bass and the amp all the way down there, but it worked out well. Joe's granddad loved jazz music and was a music professor at FSU, so we figured this would be a good way to connect with him. After playing, visiting and spending the day with family we came back to Marianna and had a Memorial Day dinner at a Chinese resturant with Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Bill.
The next day was a wet one. This was the day to head over to the beach. Yay!!

After sleeping in we started the day with loud thunder and lightning as our companion, and the rain was drenching. We had planned to hit Flordia Caverns before going over to the beach but the rain and the anticipation of walking on the muddy trails deterred from doing so. Looking over the map and seeing the next town we would be going through, Joe recalled that there is a very interesting natural attraction.... Falling Waters State Park, a waterfall falling into a big sinkhole. Joe had been there once before with a friend and thought it would be good to take Amber. It wasn't even too far off the interstate.

It was actually pretty cool, there were boardwalks going around a series of sinkholes in the forest and one of them, the one with the water falling into it actually had a cave at the bottom where the water drains into. This sinkhole had walls of sheer stone and it was as if someone had taken a cookie-cutter to the stone. We took some picutures to help illustrate :) If you ever find yourself in the Chipley, FL area of I-10 with a half-hour of extra time, this would be worth it.
Back on the open road, through some fun, blinding thunderheads, and two hours later we're making our way through the ten-thousand little towns toward Gulf Shores. The condo was great. We even got some nice enterainment by a little bunny rabbit and several little bitty lizards as we boiled in the hot tub! We ate dinner that night at a local oyster house. Amber, before meeting Joe, hated fish and all types of seafood even though her last name was Fish, guess it must be a cannibal thing ;) When she became a Glotzbach, Joe began the process of trying to break that hatred of seafood... heck, how can you live in the South and not like seafood? The first time Joe introduced her to oysters she was scared to death. But it was actually a very positive experience. Now, whenever we go to the beach, we have to have oysters at least twice on our visit. That night it was good to sleep on a nice king sized bed again.
The next day was obvious... we spent it at the beach! Amber has always been afraid to go into the ocean, especially after getting stung by a jellyfish last year. And of course that had to be the first time she had ever ventured out into the ocean, Utah... what's an ocean? (Amber: I know what an ocean is. Joe: I've seen China on the map before).

The water was really pretty and clear this year, Joe was even able to talk Amber into coming out into the water. The beach is great. The waves are so much fun to wade in, especially if you get to the point just beyond the breakers when you get a nice ride going up and back down again with each wave. The sandbar wasn't too far here. We made it to the sandbar and continued enjoying ourselves until Amber looked into the water, pointed, and said what's that? It was a huge jellyfish of course. Okay, back to shore!
Beautiful sunset that night at the beach. Dan, the local weather expert here had predicted storms at the beach all week long. So we were prepared to have to stay on our balcony all week. Luckily, Dan was wrong. After driving though the storms on the way to the beach we didn't see a drop of rain the rest of the week. We took advantage of the sunset and took pictures of us at the beach at sunset. We found a nice lady who just finished having their family pictures taken, to take our picture for us. We think it turned out pretty good!