We hit the road and crossed the remainder of Tennessee reasonably quickly. We took I-65 south into Alabama. While Tennessee has some beautiful landscape, Alabama is a state that is sort of plain and boring and apparently the size of two Texases and a New Hampshire. Fully 80% of the day, if not more, was spent traversing the length of this state. The girls kept asking "What state are we in now?", and I had to tell them "Alabama, still," to which Elizabeth would respond with a disgusted raspberry. We stopped to pee at a Cracker Barrel in Birmingham (safe choices for biology breaks, the CBs), and we stopped for lunch at a Cracker Barrel in Montgomery (safe choices for gravy covered entrees, as well).
We followed the route that was given to us by AAA on the TripTik we requested. We thought this route had been confirmed by a TripAdvisor forum member (Baked-and-blended). It turns out that Baked's route went further south on the interstate, then turned off on US Highway 31. AAA's route took much more of the southward journey along US Highway 331. This was two lanes, curvy, not clearly marked, and not exactly a mecca for roadside services. So the travel of the day was somewhat tedious. At one point, near Opp, Alabama, the road forked and I bore right where I should have borne left. It took us about 30 minutes to realize that the setting sun was on the wrong side of a supposedly southbound vehicle, then to figure out where we went wrong, and make our way back to 331.
We crossed the Florida state line around sundown at the town of Florala, and continued for about 90 minutes more until we reached the Fort Walton area. The moment we crossed into Okaloosa county, it started to rain. We had completed nearly 12 hours of driving, and at this point, the girls had reached the saturation point for being couped up in a smallish vehicle with little to do and/or see, and they started to act up a bit, raising the stress level for the final half hour of the trip. The dark and rain didn't help much, either. We crossed through Eglin Air Force base, then drove through the town of Fort Walton, and finally over the John Brooks bridge (really, John, that's what it's called!) onto Okaloosa Island and the resort area of Fort Walton Beach.We pulled into the condo complex of Destin West. Making a left across Highway 98 in the dark and the rain was sort of tricky, especially as we weren't sure where exactly we should do it. In fact, we attempted the left one "exit" early, until I realized we were headed toward the locked gate of the marina next door to Destin West. We had to swing back out onto 98 and move down to the next "left turn lane". Once we made it in, I parked outside of the rental office, and Lorie gathered our paperwork and went in to check us in and get our keys. The second that she set foot on the wet tile on the front "porch" of the office (it was still pouring down rain, remember), she slipped in her flip-flops and went down like a sack of rocks. She really hit hard on her knees and elbows. It must have hurt like a sonofagun, because she just laid there for a while, with a scrunched-up look on her face. I thought I was going to have to find the local hospital for a second, but then she gathered herself and her paperwork and went inside to take care of business. Poor Lorie.
Destin West is a complex of several different condo buildings. Some are on the north side of Highway 98, and face the Choctawatchee Bay, while others are on the south side of Highway 98, and face the Gulf of Mexico. One of the longest pedestrian bridges in the country connects the two sides of the complex and allows the residents access to facilities on either side without having to risk their lives crossing the constantly congested highway.
We really wanted to stay on the Gulf side, but the one gulf-view condo we found on VRBO was occupied over the weekend, and wasn't available to us until Monday. But the owner of our target condo also owns a one-bedroom unit on the Bay side, overlooking the pool complex (which features a lazy river and several hot tubs). We were able to stay in the Bay unit for two nights, then move over to the Gulf unit for the rest of the week.
So, we all went up to Sandpiper 601, and checked it out. It was nice - a little small for a family of five, but serviceable for two nights. The bedroom was on the street side of the building, with a lanai overlooking the parking lot. There was a bunk "room" (no door, just bunk beds in a little cubby off the hallway) where two of the girls would sleep, and a kitchen/dining/living room with another lanai that overlooked the pool complex. One of the girls would have to sleep on the couch, but there were no complaints about that.
As I was making several trips up and down in the elevator bringing our luggage up to the room, I noticed several groups of younger men, all wearing Louisiana State University athletic attire. They all seemed to be carrying beverages of some sort.
We got moved in (although we were hesitant to actually unpack, as we would be moving again within 48 hours), relaxed for a bit, then decided to head out for dinner. After some discussion, we finally decided to try the Crab Trap at the Okaloosa Boardwalk complex. The service was sort of slow, and they got the order wrong, and the food was overpriced (but about par for the Destin area), but it tasted pretty good. I ordered a cup of gumbo and a grouper sandwich with cole slaw, Lorie had an amberjack sandwich with fries, the younger girls had "kids meals", and Katie had she-crab soup and crab cakes. Katie LOVES crab, but I really didn't feel like I could afford to let her order a $25 plate of legs. She seemed happy with the crab cakes (although, they had too much in the way of bread crumbs for my taste). The she-crab soup was AWESOME. Lorie's sandwich was better than mine, but I still think they switched them - her fish was white and flaky, and mine was sort of brown and dense and flat. I've never had amberjack before, so I'm not sure what it's supposed to look/taste like, but Lorie's sandwich tasted more like good grouper than the one I got.
A great commotion emanated from the bar. A bachelorette party was in full swing, with much lubrication and high-pitched shouting. On the TV, a football game was in progress, which elicited lower-pitched shouting from the male patrons. I noticed on a trip to the restroom that the game was a college game (which makes sense: it was Saturday night...) and that the teams were Florida and LSU. Ah-ha! That's why all the LSU dudes were roaming around Destin West.
So, it was getting pretty late, and we still needed to lay in supplies for the next day, so we headed back across the bridge to the Publix grocery store in Fort Walton. We got there at 10:01pm, and the store closes at 10:00. So we decided I would come back in the morning for cereal and lunch meat and so forth. We headed back to our condo, empty-handed.
We unwound on the lanai, watching the lazy river and the pool area (which is lighted with colored lights at night). Every once in a while, 100 college students would come out to their respective balconies all at once and shout, presumably in response to events occurring in the football game. Around 11:00, after what I understand was an exciting turn of events, LSU overcame a scoring deficit at the last minute and won the game. All of the college kids came out onto the balconies at this time and started chanting "Ell-Ess-You! Ell-Ess-You!".
I guess they all left to go pub hopping after that, because things quieted down quite a bit after that. We weren't thrilled with the spring break atmosphere, but we figured they would all be packing up the next day (Sunday) since they had to be in class by Monday, so we could easily overlook a little rambunctiousness for one night. The kids finally settled down to bed, and Lorie and I crashed hard after a long, tough day. We were pretty happy with the prospect of not having to drive all day the next day.
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