ANOTHER WEEK IN SOUTHERN ALABAMA AND FLORIDA PANHANDLE

After the boys left on Saturday, it was finally sunny enough to sit out and enjoy!!  Of course, a good book helps.

Audrey

We later met up with Canadian friends, Ted and Connie, to go to Pensacola to McGuire's Irish Pub again.  We enjoyed it even more the second time!  They made a stop for a week here in Gulf Shores, though not in our park, to meet up with several friends and to take a break in travel.

Gary with Connie and Ted

Ted, Connie, Audrey and Gary

Ted and Connie, it was a great visit and good to catch up.  We wish you a safe trip the rest of the way home!  We first met Ted and Connie at Thousand Island NY in 2008.  This is the second time of catching up with them on the road, though Gary checks in with Ted often via e-mail.

Easter Sunday was a quiet day for us.  Service was great, especially since we enjoy our pastor's messages so much.  The church was packed for both services, though this pictures was taken before it reached that point.  The full orchestra played while the full choir of at least 120 sang.  They are awesome!  There is a new choir director this year and he is good, but we miss Leo Day. There was probably at least 2000 at each service.  I do not know what the sanctuary will hold, but it was full.

View of just half of the sanctuary
at Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola.

Our next week began very slowly, which was probably good after all of the running while the boys were here.  Monday was doctor appointments, which took most of the day since it is an hour or more from the motorhome to Pensacola.  We also picked up the mail.  This led on into Tuesday with laundry and many phone calls to catch up. 

On Wednesday Gary took a bus trip to Biloxi MS to Imperial Casino while I went to GiGi's Scrapbooking here in Foley AL for the day.  Gary has been chomping at the bit to go, so I took advantage to get more work done.  GiGi's have many die-cuts and I sure made use of them!!  I am stocked up for a good long time.

Thursday ended up being another trip in to Pensacola, so we picked up mail again while there.  We had hoped to get our driver's licenses renewed, but we did not have enough ID with us.  So have to go back and we found that with an appointment we can bypass all those waiting in line.  Yahoo!!   I will make that appointment.  We also had my mammogram appointment to take care of, and they decided it warranted additional pictures.  So two hours later we went on to a quick lunch and then out to Ft. Pickens National Park to see friends from Ohio.
Going through Pensacola Beach area to get there, I could not bypass taking some wonderful pictures.

 

 

This is the campground where Wilson and Linda are, and they are just a stones throw from the beach.  I loved the drive out there as you can see water on both sides of the highway much of the time.

 

Ft. Pickens National State Park campground

Wilson and Linda  Baughman

We love it when we find people from back home all across the country.  We had a couple hours of visiting and reminiscing.  Great time!!  Thanks Linda and Wilson.  Linda was in Gary's graduating class and her sister was our neighbor on Goshen Rd back home.  And Wilson's father was a great Scout mentor to our youngest son, Ben.
On the way home we stopped at The Oar House, a neat little place at a marina on the Pensacola Bay.  We did not get our usual fish and chips, but shared a chicken quesadea and cheesecake.  Good thing that we shared, as it was still enough damage that way!

The Oar House in Pensacola

Audrey and Gary at The Oar House

Gary and his friend

Audrey and the local Pelican

 

On Friday we kicked back for a while and then in the afternoon we drove through Foley AL to go to Camping World.  Not sure that it was worth the long drive, but it broke up the day.  And Gary got some new wax for the motorhome.  Seems that the old stuff was not doing enough to keep us shining.

Karen and Audrey

Then on Saturday we met up with a friend from Ohio who also was a former renter of ours from years back.  We met her at Walmart's lot as she had restaurants to suggest that we did not know the location of.  We had dinner at the Undertow (a local bar with Cajun boil).  Very good, Karen.  But it did not end there!!  She took us on to Orange Beach to a Cheesecake specialty shop.  We never knew that there could be so many different cheesecakes! Yum-yum!  Karen, you sure topped our week!!
It was great to visit and catch up on family and friends.  Tell Dennis that we missed him. 



Our Sunday was a quiet one and a good thing, because of my cold.  I sure hope that it leaves just as quickly as it arrived.  It is not something that I enjoy in this climate. 
You all take care and will be back soon.