I decided to take a trip to visit my sister at the beach. The plan was to go in May, but I couldn't get the husband to go with me, so I went in June solo.
Let me tell you, a 7 hour car-drive by yourself is no fun. There's no one to talk to. No one to help copilot. I think I should get mad credit for doing a road trip by myself.
The drive.
I drove down on a Thursday. I took a barre class in town this morning, went home, showered, and took way too long getting out the door. I got gas and I was on the road by about 1 p.m.
About an hour into the trip my CD player broke. Yay.
The GPS took be right to the Atlanta airport and I wondered it it would have been cheaper to fly. (No.) That seemed out of the way. I drove practically to Montgomery Alabama and then south. I stopped once at a rest stop. Because I needed to stop and it was easier than a gas station. The GPS took me through a national forest (the one I told it to avoid). I saw all sorts of funny restaurants. What is a Del Taco? They were everywhere. There was even a Del Taco/Subway combo that I should have stopped at. There was a Gator Cafe I did not stop at.
Finally I got to Florida. I drove through my first toll ever. Seriously, I have never driven through a toll ever. There aren't toll roads where I live. I've been through a few with other people driving before. I paid my $3 and that was it. Hooray.
I got to Florida at 6 Melissa's time. She offered me tofu for dinner. I picked up Panera for us.
THE BEACH!!!!!
Thursday night, we decided to go walk on the beach. My sister's house is only a mile or less from the beach, so we drove to the public beach and walked around for a while. I made her take a handstand picture of me.
Sand is super hard to do handstands on. I had to go to the harder packed stuff closer to the water for it to be harder. I couldn't find my balance on the softer stuff. My calves were killing me towards the end of our walk. We went home and had strawberry shortcake. Melissa watched Legally Blonde.
FRIDAY
Friday morning, I was up early and couldn't go back to sleep. Melissa woke up early too, so we went to the Donut Hole and got donuts! and went to eat them on the beach. Best morning ever.
I then took a Pure Barre Class in Destin. The owner taught the class. She taught a tough class with a few things I hadn't done before. Of course she corrected me for some of the floor work. The Athens owner always does. It was a good class. I bought a tank when I was there since the class was free. (It was their one year birthday.)
After that, we went to Chicken Salad Chicks. I LOOOOOOVE chicken salad. I'm not sure why there's not one in Athens. I told Melissa she should open up a Chicken Salad Chicks in Athens.
Then it was nap time. At my sister's house we sorted some baby clothes for a while.
We went to the beach again. I tried boogie boarding—something I'd never tried before.
I picked up thai food food dinner and we made salads for side dishes.
Melissa had never seen "What to Expect, When You're Expecting," so she ordered that movie. And I think we went to bed early.
Saturday
Late morning we packed up the paddle board and headed to the beach—the private beach by Daniel's family's rental property. We stopped by the Lululemon. I wanted those white crops (they didn't have them) and ended up buying a swim suit. Packing for the trip I realized I hadn't bought a swim suit in 8 or so years. So I tried a reversible black and white stripe one on—and it looked good on my athletic body. I bought it!
We went to the Jones' beach house to drop off some sheets. The beach house was super nice. It was three stories, had a hot tub.
Private beach
The beach house was by a private beach. You have to walk down a board walk (half a mile!?) It seemed really long when I was lugging a beach umbrella and beach chairs. We set up and the beach was paradise. Deserted and beautiful. The waves were still a little too rough for boogie boarding. I lost my cheap sunglasses. Then we tried paddle boarding in the lake by the beach.
After burning at the beach for a few hours (seriously my skin turned neon red in few brief hours), we got Mexican food. I wolfed down all of my fajitas. Melissa and Daniel split an entree. (I eat too much!)
• A Vera Bradley travel bag and beach towel
• A new pair of Cole Haan work shoes
• Chocolate. This is a vacation tradition.
• Thankfully they were out of the black and pink asics in my size or that would have been expensive.
On our drive home, we picked up a hitchhiker. Well, a tree frog fell from the sky and onto our windshield. We quickly pulled over so the frog wouldn't fall off in traffic. It was the craziest thing.
Sunday morning, I headed back. I was so sunburned I didn't want to spend any more time on the beach.
The drive back
The drive back was even less fun that the drive down. I was sun burned and trying to keep my skin out of the sun. And the phone GPS directions did not match the directions I'd printed at all. I went west to Panama City (that took an hour) and then up through Alabama. The plan was to stop for lunch. But sadly, Chick Fil-A is closed on Sundays. I was looking for Moe's but for hundreds of miles all I saw was Hardees on every corner and KFCs. (No Del Tacos!!) I ate my trail mix and decided I wasn't that desperate. The GPS had me take 78 back home. I'm not familiar with that way at all, so I went through Atlanta and wanted to take 316 back. Mistake. I should have listened to the GPS. Atlanta gridlock traffic added 45 minutes to my trip. They were doing roadwork and had two lanes closed in the busiest part of the Atlanta 85-285 mess. I got home around 5 p.m. Despite stopping for a total of five minutes I made awful, awful time and never want to do that trip by myself again. I'll have to take someone with me.
By the numbers
Miles driven 830.7
Hours in the car 15
Donuts eaten: 8 by 3 people
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