Destin Diary: Vacation Day 6

Today started about as perfect as any day on the beach - a clear sky, nice breeze, emerald water, and that squeaky white sand.  But today was a different day on the beach for the Holloway-Lowe clan because it was our last day.  Fifty-one weeks from now we'll be back, but as we've learned from the past five years and especially the past six months, so much can change between trips to the ocean.  

I deliver you that poignant moment, and then offer you a picture of someone whose deepest thought on how their life will change between now and the next time they see the ocean is "I'll be eight!!"

Alli meets the ocean much like Alli meets life: head on, no fear.  Only this time, she was armed with a little more gear.  I wish I had a video of her walking in her flippers in the sand.  Pretty freaking hysterical.  She zoomed through the water like one of the dolphins at the Gulfarium.  She popped her head up long enough to grab my face and exclaim, "This is great!!" so suddenly that I was confused enough to ask "What?"  "Being at the beach, of course."  Silly Mama.

A storm blew up around lunch time, so Alli and I came up for a little Monsters, Inc. (replaced Nemo midweek as the go-to movie).  We went back down for an hour, but then the rain really came in to stay. We hung out on the balcony for a while and then all got ready for the annual dinner finale at Harry T's. Harry T's is not particularly better than the Back Porch, AJ's, Pompano Joe's, The Crab Trap, or any other of the numerous restaurants in the area, but it has become tradition for us to sit harborside and share a crab dip and watch the boats come in on our last night in Destin.

Of course we also spent a little time in the HarborWalk Village, where Alli begged to hold some rescued parrots for a $10 picture with my own camera.  Nice marketing, bird man.  My only consolation is that the proceeds go to bird rescue, although why anyone would want to rescue a bird is beyond me.  I guess visiting with Nibbler didn't rub off on me (click on the dolphin link above for a rundown of what I'm talking about).

How I overcame the terror that my child's eyes were going to be pecked out by these rogue fowl enough to take those pictures I'll never know.

Us Holloway ladies got all dolled up in our maxi dresses for the last dinner - no birds allowed.

And here's a non-shot of one of the funniest moments of the night, Ryan acting as if he was going to shove John Patrick into the harbor.  Imagine JP screaming like a little girl and you get the idea.

We capped everything off by coming back to our little home away from home at Unit 803 in Breakers East.  I've packed myself and Alli almost completely and Ryan has been asleep since we walked in the door - someone had a little too much fun on the beach today.  I am completely depressed about going back to my normal life tomorrow, but I know I've missed parts of it, I just can't remember which ones.  All I can think about is how nice it would be if I could live in a high rise condo on the water with nothing to do but lay at the beach all day.  But surely that would get old, right?  Nah.

I want to say something completely hokey before this last picture like "And now the sun is setting on our time here in Destin..." but I think you get the idea.