Destin, FL

Hello from the Florida panhandle! After a month in Naples, we headed 10 hours north. We stopped half way for an overnight at the Traveler's Campground before arriving at Topsail Hill State Park near Destin, FL. Wow! What a beautiful place. It's the nicest state park in Florida (according to our neighbor who seems to know). It was a private RV resort at one time. The campground has 3.2 miles of white sand beaches and at this time of the year (off season) we had the beach to ourselves. There are full hook-ups (rare in a state park) and paved roads with concrete pads (the place you park the RV).

The highlight of our stay was having our dear friend Molly Morton and her two girls fly down and spend five glorious days with us. As it turned out, Rich had to fly to Minneapolis for a business meeting so we dropped Rich off at the airport the same day we picked up the Mortons. The kids had a blast building sand castles and letting the waves get them way too wet for 55 degree weather. We hiked through sand dunes and took a 6+mile bike ride along the coast on a path that goes for over 20 miles. And of course, we indoctrinated our friends into the RV lifestyle by watching the Robin Williams movie - RV. If you havn't seen it, think about renting it next time you need a good laugh. It actually has a redeeming message too.

It's been cooler here the last few days - like 40's. You would have thought it was 40 below watching the Florida state park workers go about their chores wearing full face ski masks! Perhaps they had the last laugh, however, when our furnace went out that night and we woke up to 30 degree temperatures - inside! Have no fear, we have plenty of blankets, the weather is warming up - and Target has space heaters on clearance:-)

We spent our last day in Destin enjoying that beautiful beach and then headed out for dinner at Carrabba's Italian Grill where we got to sit at the kitchen counter. It was an opportunity for the kids to witness first hand how hard restaurant cooks work. While we sat enjoying a nice meal, they were working at full speed the entire time. I think we all learned to appreciate what goes on in a busy restaurant kitchen.

Wheatgrass update: Well...it's definitly not as easy to grow wheatgrass as the smoothie guy made it look. Soaking and sprouting went great...but it was downhill from there. After I covered the tray, the sprouts just never really took off. The extra seeds sitting in the colander on the counter, however, did shoot up nice and green...so...back to the drawing board. If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again. Maybe Alabama will be more condusive to wheatgrass growing. Stay tuned...