About 9 months ago, a friend of mine sent me a link to one of these daily deal sites that was offering 3 nights at the beach in Pensacola for like $150. I’m not a big beach guy (I don’t like the ubiquitous sand and salt, plus I tend to spontaneously combust if I’m left out in the sun too long), but I figured David and Christy would enjoy it, and more importantly, it would be a good dry run vacation for future Disney trips. Christy and I have become big fans of vacationing in the off-season, and work has been slow-ish, so on Thursday of the week before last, we decided to leave for Pensacola on the following Monday.
So on Monday morning, we woke up, packed up the car and headed out. The car ride was pretty uneventful. We left right about the time that David was ready for his first nap of the day, so he slept through about the middle of Mississippi. We stopped at the Alabama welcome center, had some lunch (Golden Potstickers FTW), then drove for another couple of hours and arrived in Pensacola around 3 in the afternoon.
As one might expect, we immediately got beach-ready and headed to the ocean. David has a sandbox at home that he loves, so he was pretty excited about all of the sand on the beach. I think he’d have been happy to just sit there and dig for 4 days. He wasn’t quite as certain about the ocean, but once we’d walked in the edge of the surf a little bit, he was ready to go out with mom. Christy carried him out to 3 or 4 feet of depth, and he had a great time kicking his legs in the water until a wave inundated him, then he was ready to go play in the sand some more.
And that was basically how the whole trip went, with lunch and dinner mixed in. We did have a small accident on the last evening we were there - Christy was playing chase with David on the boardwalk while we were waiting for dinner, and he tripped and did a face-plant on the concrete. He got a little bit of a bloody nose, but all in all, not that bad. He didn’t like it very much, though.
Obviously this wasn’t our first short road trip with David, but I’m happy to say that the travelling experience is getting better every time. This one didn’t really have any fussing or crying until about 30 minutes outside of Pensacola. So, basically 4 hours of happy toddler. We turned his car seat around before we left, so he is now facing the windshield. I think he likes it a lot better. I certainly do - now when he whines or makes noise, I can see that nothing is wrong and just ignore him. And the hotel-room-with-a-baby experience wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected either. By the time we got settled and ready for bed at night, David was so tired that he probably would have slept on the floor, so my worries about him having issues with a foreign sleeping environment were unfounded. Anyway, I have high hopes that another 12 months or so will find us with a 2 year old that is ready for 12 hours in the car to Orlando.
So on Monday morning, we woke up, packed up the car and headed out. The car ride was pretty uneventful. We left right about the time that David was ready for his first nap of the day, so he slept through about the middle of Mississippi. We stopped at the Alabama welcome center, had some lunch (Golden Potstickers FTW), then drove for another couple of hours and arrived in Pensacola around 3 in the afternoon. As one might expect, we immediately got beach-ready and headed to the ocean. David has a sandbox at home that he loves, so he was pretty excited about all of the sand on the beach. I think he’d have been happy to just sit there and dig for 4 days. He wasn’t quite as certain about the ocean, but once we’d walked in the edge of the surf a little bit, he was ready to go out with mom. Christy carried him out to 3 or 4 feet of depth, and he had a great time kicking his legs in the water until a wave inundated him, then he was ready to go play in the sand some more.
And that was basically how the whole trip went, with lunch and dinner mixed in. We did have a small accident on the last evening we were there - Christy was playing chase with David on the boardwalk while we were waiting for dinner, and he tripped and did a face-plant on the concrete. He got a little bit of a bloody nose, but all in all, not that bad. He didn’t like it very much, though. Obviously this wasn’t our first short road trip with David, but I’m happy to say that the travelling experience is getting better every time. This one didn’t really have any fussing or crying until about 30 minutes outside of Pensacola. So, basically 4 hours of happy toddler. We turned his car seat around before we left, so he is now facing the windshield. I think he likes it a lot better. I certainly do - now when he whines or makes noise, I can see that nothing is wrong and just ignore him. And the hotel-room-with-a-baby experience wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected either. By the time we got settled and ready for bed at night, David was so tired that he probably would have slept on the floor, so my worries about him having issues with a foreign sleeping environment were unfounded. Anyway, I have high hopes that another 12 months or so will find us with a 2 year old that is ready for 12 hours in the car to Orlando.
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I love this post. Probably because it reminds me of vacation.
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