the Wednesday hodgepodge

 

Happy Wednesday, friends! I'm linking up with Joyce today for my favorite post of the week. I'll jump right in! 

1. When does time pass slowly for you? When does time pass quickly for you? Time passes slowly for me when I'm not busy. I think of all the summer days I spent working in the bookstore at my church when there's nobody in the building, or so it seems. I would much rather pass the time by being busy than the opposite! Time passes quickly for me very often. Marilyn and I were talking about this on our beach trip this weekend; it seems like just yesterday that we were eagerly awaiting January 1, 2025, and now here we are 202 days into this year. We are going to blink and we'll be right back at the holidays! Is life like this for you?

2. Do you have a favorite beach? What's your favorite beach activity? Tell us what we'd find in your beach bag. 

Any beach I'm on at the moment is my favorite, but truthfully, I love the Emerald Coast (otherwise known as Destin). My favorite beach activity is being in the water out deep where the waves don't break. I couldn't say that last year, but I can after this trip! I had several things in my beach bag on this trip: my towel, a little pouch with my earbuds, some lip balm with SPF and lip gloss, a hair clip, my Kindle, extra sunscreen, and a little cooler with drinks and snacks with an ice pack. 

3. Your favorite book or movie with a beach setting? 

I loved the movie Indian Summer from 1993. Did you ever see it? It had Bill Paxton, Diane Lane, Elizabeth Perkins, Kimberly Williams Paisley, Julie Warner, and Alan Arkin. The premise of the move was that some long time friends from summer camp all got invited back for one last summer before the campground owner decided to sell it for good. I realize that this isn't technically the kind of beach this question refers to, but it's one of my favorite movies from all time. 

Also, I love every beachy book that I read during this season. I look forward to summer reading every year! 

4. What's a food you love to eat, but is a pain to eat? Is it worth it? The first thing that came to mind with this question is crab legs! I love them, but it's so much work to get full from all the effort you have to put forth. I don't consider it worth it anymore. 

5. Do you like roller coasters? What's the best (or worst) roller coaster you've been on? I loved roller coasters as a young girl, but I haven't ridden many as an adult. I loved going to an old amusement park that used to be in Memphis, Liberty Land. I rode rides like The Zippin' Pippin and The Revolution time after time as a teenager. At one point, me and my friends would get dropped off, but as time went on, we would drive ourselves there or ride with guy friends. I think that the best roller coaster I've ever been on was Space Mountain at Disney World. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

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Did you know that if you have cracked ribs that are hurting and you need to laugh hysterically, you can raise your hand like this and it won't hurt nearly as much? No? Well, you're welcome for this tidbit of daily information. 

Thanks for reading my blog today, friends! I'll see you back here tomorrow. Love to all!

Jenn 

weekending at the beach

 

Happy Monday from the beach! It's our last day here, and instead of waiting to do one big recap, I thought I'd talk about Friday through Sunday here today, and I'll recap today another day this week, but probably not tomorrow. I'll be back tomorrow afternoon, and I have plans immediately after arriving back home. 

Marilyn was at my house around six thirty Friday morning; we hit the road within fifteen minutes of her arrival and made a ridiculous amount of stops before arriving to the coast! It was mostly me, I'm not going to lie; I kept having to stop. The first stop always involves getting energy drinks together when we travel. We had our own lunches and snacks for our trip; and we packed all of our food so that we wouldn't have to grocery shop once we got here. I love the freedom that traveling by car gives regarding this. We packed my little car to the brim!

We stopped at a place in Canton, Alabama that Sophie Hudson recommended on one of The Big Boo Cast episodes; friends, this was the best key lime pie I have ever had. By Sunday morning at breakfast, we had finished it off. Yes, you read that statement correctly; we had pie with our breakfast that day. It felt good and right. 

I always love to stop at this little market in Andalusia, Alabama; I bought cheese straws that are delicious. 

We got stuck in horrible traffic once we got to Fort Walton, so rather wait in the long line of cars heading into Destin, we took a right instead and had dinner at this great little harbor restaurant called The Shack. It was so good! After dinner we made our way to the condo, and when we got settled in, we walked down to the beach. 

It felt so good to be on the beach with our feet in the sand! We discovered that the sunset hour is the time that everyone takes pictures. There were tons of families and couples out there that we tried not to pay too much attention to...that'll always feel a little painful to me. We both cried a little on this trip. 

I had to take a picture of our matching hanging toiletry bags, thanks to the recommendation of Tanya! 🤣

We were on the beach by 9:30 that morning and we stayed out there until about two. I did something I haven't done in ages; I swam way out in the ocean with Marilyn. We went out past where the waves break, and we just floated and talked for a long time while the waves took us up and down. It was so much fun! I'm proud of myself for going out there like that and not letting my fears take over. We were careful and kept an eye on where we were positionally, but we were out there with lots of people. It definitely helps to have a friend to coerce you into doing something like this! It ended up being my favorite part of the trip, honestly.

We came back for showers, snacks, and baby margaritas!

We got dressed and went to dinner at AJ's for more seafood. I had a lobster roll that was to die for!

And I had this run coconut drink that was also delicious. There was live music, and we sat outside, once again. We soaked up eating outside with beautiful views! 

After dinner we shopped for souvenirs for people we wanted to buy for, then we stopped for frozen yogurt and laughed over Mare having two cups. 

We came back to the condo, but before coming inside, we took a sunset stroll on another part of the beach for pictures. Isn't it beautiful?!

 

And then we came back and finished off the first bottle of wine we brought with us. I wish you could hear us laughing in this picture above! This was such a fun night for us. 

We had eggs, sourdough bread, and the last of the key lime pie for breakfast. We had zero regrets over our choice! 

Mare ended up getting a phone call, so while she talked, I walked on down to the beach. I wore a hat on Sunday since I got a little more sun that I meant to the day before. The water was crystal clear! We did what we did on Saturday and went out to where the waves were no longer breaking, and stood out there and talked for at least 45 minutes. The water felt amazing, and I feel like we were solving all kinds of life issues while we floated and tanned in the water. When we went back to our chairs, we had snacks, then we dozed off while listening to the music she had playing on the Bluetooth speaker she had with her. It was so incredibly relaxing! We walked back to the condo around two and worked on blog things for the afternoon. We eventually got dressed and headed to another early dinner. 

We ate at a place called Marina Cafe; we had fried green tomatoes as an appetizer, then we both had blackened shrimp tacos. It was good, but it wasn't the best night's dinner that we had. After dinner, we walked around the docks that was off the back of the restaurant. 

We took time and posed for actual pictures...and then we started sweating. 🤣 We went to a souvenir shop, then we ended at Publix buying a pie, candy, and ice cream. But hey, we didn't drink anymore today after an afternoon margarita, so there's that. 

After all of that, we ended up back at the condo for ice cream and soft drinks, and we worked on our blogs. We'll be driving home tomorrow, so I'll see you back here for the Wednesday hodgepodge. In the meantime, thanks for being here to read my blog today, friends! Love to all. 

Jenn ❤️