First Day & First Sunset

September 4, 2013-We slept in this morning after arriving after midnight last night.

These are the two palm trees providing some shade on our deck.

The ocean beyond the dunes.

We worked hard today to unpack our stuff and get settled in for our stay.

We brought a lot of the organic/specialty foods that aren’t available down here or that would cost much more.  We loaded our freezer with all our meats too.

Kate got these “Banker’s Boxes” and they were an absolute lifesaver when we were packing!

Our first day in Florida ended with a beautiful ocean sunset


Noah tried out a friend's RC car on the beach: 

Packing Up

    September 2, 2013-This fall we are taking a trip down to Panama City Beach, FL!  We’re staying at the same beach house from our last visit back in 2010.  We’ll be bringing down a lot of stuff including my computer and Kate’s computer since we’ll still need to do some work.  Therefore, we thought we’d pull the trailer with our van like we did last time.  However, the van is having transmission problems, so instead, we’re bringing the van and Kate’s car.
We tried to get everything packed and loaded into the van...“everything packed” is a good way of describing what we’re bringing on the trip!

Lydia’s “lamb-y” stuffed animal was placed in the clothes washer.  While it was being cleaned, she stared at the washer and kept on “asking” us to get it for her.  Then the washer switched to the spin cycle and the noise scared her away!

Computers, hard drives, monitors, etc.

Boxes of food, files for work, sewing machine, kefir bottles, Noah’s bike...

skim board, cooler of meat...

Heading Home

Well today our faces will be headed North as we begin our first day of the drive to home.

Before noon we had the van and trailer loaded and had made sure none of our things had been left behind. Ben and Noah fed the seagulls our old bread:

I was holding Lydia while I was taking pictures and a seagull ran right into her!

Noah made friends with a neighbor just a few doors down…Miss Peggy.

On our way out of town we stopped by what we call, “The US’s smallest Post Office.”

Kate read from “Of Plymouth Plantation” in preparation for Thanksgiving. The road noise was pretty loud so I rigged up a headset that plugged into the van’s sound system.

The sun went down and we were driving on an Alabama highway at 70mph when the car behind of us started flashing their bright headlights. The trailer’s gate was on the ground! Mom pulled over unto the shoulder. We figured that the boxes on the back of the trailer had fallen out the back and our stuff was scattered all along the highway. However, when we checked everything was still there-the bungee cords were just a little bit old and had stretched out from the force of the wind on the gate. We secured the gate and slowly drove a few miles to an exit with a gas station where we could buy some fresh cords. Interestingly enough the town was called Good Hope.

We ate dinner in Columbia, Tennessee and then slept at a hotel in Centerville.