Lessons Learned: Pensecola, FL trip

One of my goals for this blog is to chronicle our vacations to help me remember and share cool places we visit and places to stay. So here we go...

Lessons we learned on the Pensecola trip:
1. Always print off directions to where you are going and places that you want to see when you get there. My memory fails me 101% of the time these days. Result of this mistake- Ally has zero confidence that we'll be able to find our way around. Whenever she'd start whining we'd joke that instead of "turning this car around" that we'd go and get lost. It took us two weeks until she regained confidence that we could find our way around our hometown :).

2. We need to watch more than just cursing in front of Ally, seriously, she is a sponge. When we decided to take a family bike ride along the Gulf shores national seashore (awesome, by the way), Kate was extremely angry. She screamed the entire way. Ally decided she couldn't take it and screamed right back with "shut down!" (her version of shut up)! Ok, that is NOT nice even though it is pretty funny.

3. When a restaurant mentions that it's more casual than their neighbors, that doesn't mean it's casual. After a full day on the beach, wind blown and sandy, we wanted to find a restaurant to eat some fish. Well, needless to say, we were grossly underdressed. Sorry Fish House!

4. Make plans for the last day to stay "grounded" and explore the park you're camping at. It will make the day less rushed when it comes to packing up! By the way, camping in state parks are the best! We had a great campsite at Blackwater River State Park. It was 18 miles from the beach, which wasn't a bad drive...

5. Charge the camera every night... the best day of the trip was our day at the beach. We flew a kite, collected seashells, built a sandcastle, walked the pier... took lots of pictures. Then sunset came and the camera died. Fooey.

6. When visiting museums, don't pack the stroller with so much stuff that your purse falls out and you lose it. Enough said.

7. Finally, no matter how many "mistakes" you have on trips, you'll have the best time and remember even the stressful times as happy memories :)

Counting down to sunshine

Spring break can't come soon enough. After a stagnant travel year, we are about to take our first excursion to the sunny beaches of Pensacola, Florida. Excitement resonates from our household, with the exception of Kate, of course, she has no idea of the sights in store. Although Jon and I have become worthless in all capacities other than trip planning and prep, Ally is the most excited. Nearly every word out of her mouth is related to the camper, the ocean, the beach or seashells. She's never seen the ocean. We took a walk in a park that borders the Meramec yesterday and she was transfixed by the muddy water. She'll be ecstatic in a week. I can't wait!

A little trepidation lingers in the air. This will be Kate's first camping trip. Hopefully she'll sleep well in the camper for our sake and the sake of our camping neighbors. I'm feeling optimistic, though. That's part of the fun, right? The fun of the unknown? We'll be makin' memories, like Grandma Lohse always says.