You might be a redneck if....

The past few weekends have been quite busy. We visited with friends who are moving away and enjoyed the children's end of year school activities.

End of School Year and Moves

Our friends Lisa, Mark, Jacob and Jeremy are moving to Colorado Springs and they had us over to their home last weekend and visited with us one last time on Sunday. Being the great influence that we are, Lisa and Mark bought a truck with a camper on it that will be Lisa's home in Colorado until the house is sold here in Georgia. It is a great alternative while in transition like that. They have decided to "stop and smell the diesel." :-)

Rachel and Anna both had water day parties and then their end of year school programs. We stayed for Anna's program but left for Florida and missed Rachel's end of year program. We gave her the choice of leaving for the beach earlier and skipping the program or staying. She chose the beach. Her teacher presented her with her certificate and a beautiful scrapbook that Mrs. Crawford made for Rachel throughout the year.

Memorial Day Weekend

We traveled to Florida this past weekend and stayed at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park in Santa Rosa Beach. This was our second trip to Topsail. Our first visit was last June and we enjoyed it so much that we wanted to go again this year. It didn't disappoint us either time.

The park itself is immaculate and the camp sites offer a good bit of privacy. And, the best part is that it is only a short distance to the beach. It's a good idea to bring a bike as that is the easiest and quickest way to access the beach from the park. The beach area for the park is pristine and not very crowded. The best part is that it is more of a family beach so it's relatively peaceful and lacks the huge skyscraping hotels, tiki bars and loud boom boxes. Of course the emerald waters and white sand beaches are absolutely beautiful. One day while at the beach, we caught one of the small crabs and Rachel named him "Sandy." We let Sandy burrow back in the sand shortly after catching him.

We met Harold and Gail there for the weekend and their camper was parked behind ours. Rachel and Anna slept each night with them instead of in our RV. They enjoyed the time spent with Grandma and Poppa. And, Jeff and I enjoyed having the camper to ourselves each night. That is a rare treat.

We arrived on Thursday and came back home on Monday. We spent Friday at the beach, Saturday at the park pool, and then back to the beach on Sunday before deciding that we had enough of Vitamin D to last us a long while. Anna is our coppertone baby. She just tans in the sun. Rachel, on the other hand, is like her Momma. Even with the same sunscreens and other protective measures, we still get sun burn. Rachel even has freckles on her face like me. In many ways, she is a mini-me.

The wind was blowing pretty hard so it was perfect for flying a kite. But, the ocean was pretty rough. The temperature of the water was still pretty cool too. So, we didn't venture far into the water. While taking a break from the pool on Saturday, I rode my bike around the park and found a beautiful pond filled with lilly pads. You'll see a close up of one of the lilly pads at the beginning of this post.

On Thursday night we had dinner at Bayou Bill's Crab House. And, on Saturday we traveled to Panama City and enjoyed dinner at the Treasure Ship's Main Dining Room. I have to admit that Panama City was very disappointing. It has been over 13 years since I visited Panama City and I couldn't believe on delipidated it seemed. Panama City used to be the place of choice for seniors after high school graduation and for House Party and Spring Break during my college years. The Miracle Strip was the place to cruise each night. Yes, it's always been known as one of the "redneck rivieras" but what we saw was not the Panama City I remembered.

Dinner at the Treasure Ship was a treat. It was my first time to ever eat there and a first for Rachel and Anna. They enjoyed visiting with the pirates and we all enjoyed the view of the bay from the restaurant. We tried the main dining room for dinner. The food was a bit pricey but I would definitely recommend it for other families visiting Panama City. And, Bayou Bill's is a great family choice in Santa Rosa Beach.

We drove on Hwy 98 while traveling to Panama City and then we took Hwy 30A driving back to Santa Rosa Beach. All of the quaint towns along Hwy 30A were interesting and some were very nice. We drove through Seaside and other similiar developments. Seaside is a town where some scenes in the movie The Truman Show (starring Jim Carrey) was filmed. After a long drive back to Santa Rosa Beach, we decided to visit Brusters Ice Cream for some dessert. We have a Brusters in our home town but have rarely patronized it, mainly because it is located very close to Baskin Robbins and Baskin Robbins has my favorite ice cream. The ice cream was a great treat to end the day.

The weather was absolutely beautiful throughout the weekend and we couldn't have asked for more perfect weather.

Those reading this may be wondering why I titled this post "you might be a redneck if...." It's not because of my discussion of Panama City. It is because of a comment made to us while staying at Topsail. We brought our ferrets with us which we usually do. The ease of portability while traveling was one of the reasons we chose ferrets. Because we do take them with us, we bought a portable, configurable fence that is large enough that the ferrets can run around and play and the girls can get into the fence with them to play. This works great as it allows the ferrets some time out of their cage without the fear of them running away...or at least the fence slows them down so that we can catch them before they scale the side and jump out. One afternoon the girls were playing with the ferrets in the fence outside on our patio. A man and woman walking by our camper noticed them and asked us if Rachel and Anna were "playing with puppies?" We replied that they were "playing with ferrets." So, this couple walked up and struck up a conversation with us asking us about the ferrets. Now, this isn't unusual. Most people that we have encountered have been extremely friendly and a pleasure to speak with. And, it's not atypical to strike up a conversation with people to discuss their camper, places they've traveled to, etc. We met one man this past weekend whose wife died in December of 2006. He now travels with a lab that his wife bought for him before he died. He has tried to find a companion who might enjoy traveling with him through e-harmony on-line but hasn't had any luck just yet. He reminded me of just how fragile life is and how every day is precious. Then there is an 80-year old man who had trouble walking through the parking lot but tells us he is still active square dancing. He reminded me of how despite our circumstances, we can still make the best of what we have. And, last but not least, the family whose son was camping for the weekend who is in the Army and will be deploying to Iraq in a few months. They reminded me of how precious time is with our family and friends. Now, back to the couple inquiring about our ferrets.

After we answered their questions about the ferrets the man said "Well, rednecks never cease to amaze me." To which Jeff replied, "I'll take that as a compliment." You could tell that the woman then realized that her husband may have overstepped some congenial bounds with the comment and they quickly excused themselves and went on their merry way.

Jeff Foxworthy defines a redneck as someone who lacks sophistication. And, we aren't sophisticated nor high maintenance people. And, if being a redneck is what those people weren't, I will definitely take that as a compliment too.

Westward Bound

Jeff will be starting a new job in a few weeks. Before he starts his new job, we are planning time off to drive west in our motorhome. Rachel and Anna will be staying with Harold and Gail in Alabama during this trip. We figured we did a family trip for a week in Orlando at the end of April and this recent trip to the beach. The trip out west may be the last long trip that Jeff and I will be able to take for a very long time as leave from work is always tough to come by for long periods. We plan to go to Yellowstone National Park, Badlands National Park, the Grand Teton National Park and other areas near there. Jeff worked at Yellowstone one summer while in college and he has always told me about the beautiful areas out there. After almost 13 years of marriage, I'll finally get to see all of the areas that he has told me about. It will be the longest road trip we have made to date in our motorhome. And, I can't wait. We never had a honeymoon after we got married. So, I guess we can call this our much delayed honeymoon. And, with our 13-year anniversary coming up in June, I'd say it's about time that we had a honeymoon. I can't wait for our western adventure to begin. We'll be leaving June 7th and won't be back for two weeks.