Miramar Beach, Day One (Jan 6)

Scenes from the Drive

It is a 4.5 hour drive from New Orleans to Miramar beach. And in that time, you drive through 4 states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida. Not too shabby.

The Pool

The children were dying of excitement pretty much as soon as they woke up. They wanted to go swimming! Right the heck now. Never mind that it was cold outside. We started getting ready to head to the pool, which meant finding all our swimming gear, which necessitated unloading the car. It was quite the process.

It took forever. Especially with two very unhelpful two year olds. It requires a ridiculous amount of gear to take 5 kids swimming. We had to find all the things…so many things. Tempers were flaring a bit. Finally we got our crap together enough (in terms of physical stuff and attitude) to head to the pool.

And despite the fact that it was sprinkling, and 65 degrees the kids swam in the unheated pool. All except Isaac, who snuggled with me the whole time. But all the rest of the hooligans were in the pool for a surprising amount of time. Clara especially. I really do think she is part polar bear.

After a little while, the children were so frozen that we decided to be done at the pool.

The Beach

We went back to the house, warmed up a bit, picked up a whole other pile of junk gear, changed clothes, etc. And then we were off. The beach is a five minute walk from our Airbnb.

It is down a sizeable set of stairs from the entrance. That would’ve been good to know….

Y’all. It is such a beautiful beach. And the name Emerald Coast is utterly accurate.

What an incredible beach. The sand is like sugar. And the water is the most amazing color.

While the kids and I were hanging out, it misted a little bit, but it didn’t phase us.

Eventually Jonathan joined us. And there was much rejoicing in the land.

We all hung out on the beach for a while. It startled sprinkling. We figured it wouldn’t last long. We figured wrong.

It not only lasted, but it got worse…

Quite the Ending

Once we realized that this was not getting any better and that it would only get worse than it already was, we went into high gear.

We gathered all the crap we brought. And then the real fun began. We started hauling many (crying) children, and much gear up many stairs. In the pouring rain.

I was even less fun than it sounds.

Isaac and Evie literally screamed the entire walk home. #wambulance

And even once we got back to the house, we had to hose everyone down with cold water from the hose, so as not to track a small beach’s worth of sand into the house and into the showers.

There was a great deal more screaming.

The whole thing was utterly ridiculous.

We made a few resolutions:

1. And we will watch the weather more closely.
2. We will never, ever, ever, under any circumstances, bring that much crap to the beach ever again. Especially now that we know that there is such an impressive flight of stairs.

I was so grateful that Jonathan had been there to help me. I honestly don’t know what I’d have done if I had been required to navigate our hasty (and chaotic) exit all on my own.

We bathed everyone. And had some much-needed downtime.

Clara’s Hafty Birsday Celebration

Later in the evening, we did Clara’s Birthday celebration, since we were on the road on the day of her birthday.

She requested Zoodle pasta, Naked juice, and chocolate pie. And she got to choose the movie we watched. She chose Ocean’s Eleven, which rather surprised me. All in all, it was a lovely celebration. I can’t believe that she is ten already.

It was quite the eventful day. It makes me tired just thinking about it.

I’m glad that we are going to be here for a while. It has been getting old having to load/unload and pack/unpack every couple of days. We will be able to have a little bit more downtime.

And this Airbnb is awesome. It just has so many great touches and amenities. We are happy to be here. And I am looking forward to some more relaxed trips to the beach. ; )