Quickly, I can tell you about my trip.
Saturday
Basically the day consisted of swimming. Colin, Christina, and Cole (my cousins) and Brooke (my step cousin) went swimming in the ocean for awhile. Colin and I were throwing Christina around into the rolling waves. Finally we convinced Cole to let us throw him in the pool. We threw Cole so hard he rolled sideways into the Ocean, swallowed some salt water, and puked some pink bile into the ocean.
The day just continued relatively the same way.
Sunday
After waking up and doing the whole swimming thing everyone ate dinner and chilled out. Earlier in the day we were given some Ben & Jerry's ice cream by a family who were checking out from their condo. That day at lunch Christina, Brooke, and I, in a moment of weakness, almost ate some of the ice cream. However, after I decided it would be unfair, we all agreed to leave the ice cream until after dinner. At some point while Colin and I were in the other condo, everyone else ate the ice cream. Well, Colin and I felt that this injustice had to be rectified - especially after I showed such moral fortitude during lunch. So, we demanded (or rather nicely asked) for money to go buy ice cream at the late night ice cream parlour. My Uncle David, and Colin's dad, gave us the money. My parents lent the vehicle, and my Uncle Derek tried to get a free pint of ice cream (as if he hadn't had enough already). Well, we got money from him and some from Brooke to pick up some more ice cream for everyone.
Colin and I finally set out on our adventure. We headed up one road and then the other. Driving for what felt too long on the second road Colin decided to call the shop. The only response he got was "you've gone the wrong way" from, as Colin describes, a deep, raspy, thick, southern drawl. So, I decided to turn around and stop at a gas station. Once again, we faced adversity to receiving good directions. Quickly encountering a stoner attendant, who could only respond "....shit" to our questions, Colin and I knew we were doomed. Finally another patron of the gas bar told us to keep going down the road the way we were coming before we turned around for another 3 miles. So, we turned the car around and kept driving. Soon after I noticed zero increases in the number of stores, and felt a baron road meant we had been dooped again. So, I decided to call the ice cream parlour, but disguise my voice to sound like I was a local. I hoped that doing so would gain me some sentiments of camaraderie and thus would result in proper directions.
Lo and behold it did! Colin and I found the parlour, ordered a tone of ice cream, and returned home champions.
We felt so good from our triumph we decided to go on a late night beach walk. The mission we gave ourselves was to scout out the pool facilities of other condos along the beach. The entire strip is lined with awesome looking condos, and we wanted to see how our little Romar Towers compared. Well, based on the first condo we visited our pool was dismal. You see, we have a small, peanut shaped pool. This place had a huge infinity pool outside. Inside, there was an even bigger pool, a jacuzzi, a steam room, sauna, and work out centre. We continued up the beach and saw many other places. Nothing, however, quite compared to the first condo. Also, there were people hanging out on the beach and Colin and I later decided to shine a light on them from the balcony at our condo.
Monday
So, after visiting the condo with the infinity pool the night before, Colin and I decided to return to the pool. With Christina in tow, we decided to fully utilize all the facilities available to us at someone else's condo. So, we go into the pool, then the jacuzzi, and finally the steam room. The steam room freaked all of us out for a few reasons. When we got in there the place looked like a gas chamber. The steam dispenser made a horrible booming sound that scarred me when it went off every 5 minutes. The other things that was scary was how you couldn't see the other people in the room. Colin would go on the other side of the room and then jump out and scare me.
Finally we went back to the infinity pool and tried to get rid of the crabs that had crawled into the pool. After awhile a security guard came out and told us we couldn't be swimming after 10. Then he dropped the "wristband" bomb. He told us we were supposed to have wristbands. After throwing him a cock-and-bull story, which included him asking us what room we were in and who's name it was under, Colin got us out of there by asking for "help" to bring up "the chairs we left at the beach".
Tuesday
I woke up early on Tuesday for what felt like the longest day at the condo. Colin and I were staying up late every night, so getting up at 7:30 am for a golf game was difficult. I headed out to the Pensicola Navy Base with my dad, my grandfather, and my uncle. The first 9 holes were really rough, but after some sound advice from my grandfather, the back 9 went much better.
Afterwards we made plans to meet everyone in a famous Florida eatery called MacGuire's. The entire place has $1 bills stapled to the roof and walls. Each bill is signed, and some are in plaques because famous people like John McCain and Nascar drivers have signed them. The entire place has over $750,000 hanging on their walls!
After the early dinner my Aunt Karen and her children, Conner, Ashyln, Cole, and Ava, all headed back home to Mobile, AL. The rest of us all went to the local dive-bar, The Flora-Bama for some drinks and music. Brooke, Christina, Colin and I were getting restless so we wanted to go see a movie. However, before departing my Aunts, Uncles, Parents, and Grandparents I had to chat it up with my Aunt Joanne and have a dance with my Aunt Denise.
Wednesday
Wednesday I woke up to a beach and ocean filled with seaweed due to the storm the night before. I would have loved to swim in the giant waves with Colin, however the seaweed was too much for us. Instead, we just went to the pool, read books, and tanned. I actually got really dark from the sun.
The day was pretty uneventful after my Aunt Joanne, Uncle David left. That night we had a quiet dinner and I watched Step Up with Christina, Colin, Pat, my Mom, Brooke, and my aunt Denise. The only really funny part of the movie was when Colin snuck a piece of fudge and ate it in front of everyone without anyone noticing. I had to look away or my laughing would have given him up.
Thursday
Thursday was the last day at the condo and I decided to make the most of it. I got up early and decided not to go golfing with my Grandparents and father. Instead I hung out with Colin and Christina by the pool and tried to tan. The sun wasn't that great and Colin was reluctant to go swimming in the ocean. Eventually Christina and I convinced him to come out and swim in the big waves. Colin and I made a stipulation that Christina could not complain about jellyfish or sharks. Interestingly, while I was diving into the waves a jellyfish stung me both in the eye, and up inside my bathing suit. I flipped Colin over the waves like a high-jumper at the olympics and we threw Christina into a few. We spent hours playing in the waves and it was loads of fun.
After the day of swimming everyone went to dinner at this famous crab restaurant. The place was packed and seemed like the place to be. Inside there were two fish tanks, one with a Nemo and Dore fish (from Finding Nemo) and the other had two eels.
The dinner was great and all the parents and Grandparents drank a decent amount. My Aunt Denise and Mom got pretty toasted, which was sweet. The nice thing about my mom getting a little tipsy was that we didn't need to convince her at all to take the cousins out for ice cream. Upon returning home I watched Coach Carter with Brooke and Pat. The next morning I woke up really early to say goodbye to Colin, Christina, my Aunt-Denise and Uncle-David.
The entire trip was amazing and I will miss all my family. It was hard saying goodbye and I took every second of the two day drive to reminisce about what a great family I have.
