I've lost the brain cells that stored these memories!

I know the date of this post says 10/9/07, but I'm actually writing it 10 months later. I started blogging this trip reasonably soon after we returned, but then stopped, and didn't pick it back up until my wife and I decided to plan another trip to Florida. I've been using her pictures to refresh my memory.

Well, Lorie took NO pictures on this day. I have a couple of shots, which I will post here, but I try to shoot "artsy" pictures - they aren't entirely helpful for remembering the daily activities of a trip. So, I'll just guess, or make up some stuff. What the hell do you care?

I'm pretty sure we hit the beach in the morning. The red flags were down, so we allowed the girls to swim. They went further and further out into the gulf, making me nervous, but honestly the water was only three or four feet deep even 100 yards out. We had our beach umbrellas from Publix, so we were able to fend off the sun and enjoy our time at the beach. The family next to us had kids with them, and Julianna made friends with them and joined them in their sand-digging activities. I spent a lot of time laying in the sun and working in my NYT Crosswords for the Beach book that Lorie had bought for me.

We probably went up to the condo for lunch.

Later in the afternoon, I went down to the barbecue pits and grilled some Destin Pork Chops. (They didn't have Pork Steaks at the Publix.) There were several other Dads down there, grilling various things - mostly burgers. These Dads were all from Tennessee, as I recall. One came down to the barbecue area with a plate of crab cakes, and he offered one to me, but he didn't look like he had enough to go around so I declined. They looked good, though. We had a nice conversation as I grilled my chops, which had been marinated in a combination of Italian salad dressing and Corona. They turned out pretty good.

We visited the gulfside pool after we finished dinner, and ran into the Tennessee Dads there along with their families. There was an elevator just outside our front door that delivered us to the entrance of this pool. The pool was really big, and featured a hot tub and a small "baby pool". As you can see from this picture (taken from our lanai), the pool was not anywhere NEAR as crowded as the bayside complex had been the prior weekend.

Lorie and I spent the evening on the lanai, enjoying a stunning sunset. The kids probably were inside listening to the iPod that their Pa-pa loaned them, or watching some dreck on Disney Channel (Hanna Montana marathon, perhaps?).

In this day and age, is there any reason I couldn't telecommute from a condo at the beach, writing code on the lanai by candlelight while I enjoy the sunset and the salt air? I can't think of one good reason why I shouldn't.