Debby Downer

Debby ruined our vacation.  Well, Tropical Storm Debby and bad luck worked together.  I'm going to skim past the bad parts and focus on our one, nice, sunny day.

The week before our trip a stomach bug slowly hit everyone in our house.  Ben was the last to take the fall...right before we left.  The poor kid could write a book on the best and worst gas station restrooms between Illinois and Florida.  We had been tracking a storm, that would soon become Tropical Storm Debby, our whole way down.  Our chances of avoiding the storm became more and more dismal the further south we got.  In Birmingham, Alabama we left Mom and Dad at the ER of some random hospital.  Mom had a kidney stone.  We packed Jenn & Grandma into the van (it was cramped!!) and kept driving.  We arrived to St. George Island about the same time as Debby.  The winds howled and the rain poured the entire first night (Mom and Dad showed up later that night).  About 8 a.m. the next morning we lost power.  Trying to make the best of it and hope the storm away, we hit the pool...in the middle of the tropical storm.

 

Then, we were evacuated.  20 inches of rain a day, 50 mph winds, and no electricity looked like it would be sticking around for at least 4 days and they were getting ready to close down the 7 mile bridge - the only way to/from the island.  Debby had parked herself just 20 miles south of St. George Island.  We began throwing everything we brought back into the cars (most of it in the back of my brother's truck which all got ruined) and took off for...well, that we didn't know.  But we ended up in Tallahassee for the night.  The direction of the storm was not yet known; it was moving too slowly to predict.  Some models projected it going toward Texas, others thought it would make its way across Florida.  The next day we decided to go to Jacksonville, at least we'd get to spend time with Matt.  I guess Debby thought she was invited because she followed us there.  We spent the next 4 days waiting out the rain.  We logged in some good hours at the indoor hotel pool.  And, we took full advantage of the breakfast every morning.

I'm fast-forwarding past A LOT of stress to finally... OUR DAY OF SUNSHINE!!!  The storm wrapped up in Jacksonville Wednesday evening.  That night Drew and I took the kids out for pizza at this cool, hippie, pizza place called The Mellow Mushroom.  We sat in an old school bus.  The kids got to "drive" us around as we waited for our meal.

After dinner we walked the boardwalk that went along our hotel.  There was a bar a few doors down that had an awesome band.  We listened to them for a while.  Ben danced, and danced.  It is so unlike him to come out of his shell like that.  As we walked back to our hotel that night people stopped and commented on Ben's great dancing.  I could have watched him dance forever.

The next day the sun was shining and we were beach bound!  The surf was still pretty rough, but it didn't stop us!  We were making up for lost time.

 Drew and I took the kids in for lunch.  About 5 minutes after we left a wave came up and got all of our stuff.  Everyone lost their cell phones, camera, Matt's metal detector...ours were saved by only minutes.  It was just par for the course this vacation, but it was a sunny day and we weren't going to be stopped!  We took over the hotel pool for the afternoon...St. George Island style!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For dinner that night we went out for fresh seafood.

 We had hired a photographer to take family pictures while we were at St. George Island.  Obviously, that didn't work out.  Since I had clothes for the kids with us, I decided to try to get a few pictures of them on the beach after dinner.  I'm happy with what I got!

 

 

 

 

Then we walked the board walk again, hoping for another band like the night before.  No luck this time, so we walked out on the pier.  It was dark by then, but people were still out fishing.  We watched a woman catch a baby Great White Shark.  The kids got to "pet" it.  We also saw them catch a sting ray, and stood around as they tried to figure out what they were going to do with it!  It was a fun way to wrap up our crazy, stressful vacation (I have a hard time calling it a vacation, really).  Drew and I are headed back to Jacksonville in about a week for a long weekend.  Just the two of us!  I'm really needing a vacation after this vacation!  I'm hoping Jacksonville treats us a little better next time around.