Beach Trip to St. George Island

As I mentioned, the week after Mark and I got married, we headed to the beach with his family. They are a large clan and around 25 people were there that week, including both of his sisters and most of their families and all 4 daughters and their families and significant others.  We had a wonderful time hanging out on the beach and just enjoying the sun and sand.

They all have tents that are set up each day to ward off the intense sun of Florida, a necessary thing down there. I cannot take the sun like I used to and sitting in the shade is what I prefer now.  I hardly stayed out in the sun at all this trip and still got a little bit of sun, but stayed protected and out of the hot heat of the day.  Luckily, most days we had a nice swift breeze blowing causing some fun waves that the kids enjoyed and it helped cool us off too.  I took more naps this trip than I’ve had on the beach in a long time. Nothing better than a beach nap with a breeze blowing.

With so many people there were 5 beach houses in all with everyone scattered around the island and this was the view from our beach house.

It was called PrimaVilla and it sits right on the beach.  There are lots of beach rentals to choose from on St. George Island and Mark’s family have been going there for years.

Looking down the beach the other direction.  Every day we walked out that little beach path below to the beach.

Mark was usually the first one to put up a tent each morning and then the rest of the crew would join later until there were 4 tents in all.  You can see that most everyone huddled under the tents, moving during the day looking for shade as the sun crept across the sky.

Mark’s 2 grandsons had a fun time playing at the beach. They are 3 and 5 and Mark showed his oldest grandson how to fly a kite. With the brisk wind we had, it was no problem.

Several of the girls had beach umbrellas they set up and enjoyed reading and staying in the shade. There were lots of books being read on the beach.

Mark’s cousin had his 3 dogs on the beach and they had a great time. This one loved chasing balls in the water.

We ate our fill our seafood starting with the first night and eating at the Blue Parrot, a staple restaurant on St. George Island.  It’s probably the best known restaurant and sits right beside the lighthouse on the beach. I had grilled shrimp and grits.

Mark had the fried shrimp plate.  Seafood is better on the Gulf with the abundance of good shrimp, which we both love.

Many of the beach houses are older and not decorated to perfection, just comfortable and casual.  Our place was very dated and could stand an overhaul in the decor, but it was fine for a beach house.  One of the houses Mark’s sister was staying in had this pretty sleeping porch in the back which I thought was really cute.

Beach day and beach hair. Mark doesn’t have to worry about his. 🙂

I took snapshots along the way of the scenery of the beach. Sea gulls and crashing waves were the backdrop and sound at the beach. Nothing better than those sounds!

Mark played in the sand with his youngest grandson.

Those boys had a grand time at the beach, getting browner by the day.

Random shots during sunset, such a pretty bay shot.

Another day on the beach, napping and reading. We have 2 of those gravity chairs and they are so comfortable for a day at the beach.

More random shots of the scenery.

We only had rain half of the last day and then the sun came out again, so a really good beach week.  It’s not enjoyable when it rains at the beach.

The lighthouse on St. George Island is one of the first things you see driving in.

Out to dinner one night in Apalachicola.

Apalachicola is a really cute town with many shops and restaurants.  We only walked around one time when we were heading to dinner there, but went in a few shops.

Flamingos in the window.

The sponge company was interesting and yes, they did have lots of sea sponges.

We’ve tried to get in the Grady Market in the old Consulate building last year and this year and can never catch them open.

We discovered the Owl Cafe last year and loved our meal, so went back again for a special night out.

I had triple tail fish and shrimp and it was SO good!

Mark had a steak fish and now I can’t remember the name of it, but he loved his too.

We topped it off sharing pecan pie with ice cream and chocolate sauce and it was perfection.

Driving in the downtown streets of Apalachicola, you’ll see so many pretty homes, which I’ve shared before.

Last day on the beach and then we headed home the next day.

Another neat place we found this time was The Red Pirate and they are behind a putt-putt golf course on Hwy. 98 right across the bridge from St. George Island.  We happened to stumble on it one night when we were hungry and looking for food and they had the best peel and eat shrimp.  We got that, potato skins, and fried mushrooms topped off with Key Lime pie and wow, was it delish. Try them out if you’re in the area!

A beautiful sunset topped off our week at the beach and last night and then it was time to head home.  We had a great time at the beach with Mark’s family.  There are so many of them that we didn’t all try to go out to eat together, we mainly did our own thing, but hung out during the day under the beach tents.  I’ll share more of Mark’s family along the way if they are comfortable with me doing that. I don’t want to invade anyone’s privacy, so will only share pics of them if they are OK with that.

It was a beautiful week and now we are back getting caught up on the house stuff.  Moving day for me is next week, so I’ve been moving lots of stuff over myself that is fragile stuff and I’ll save the furniture and some packed boxes for the movers.  We’re making lots of progress so I’ll be sharing it all!  I’ll be back to normal again with fashion posts, but for now, this is all I can manage with moving, so thanks for hanging in there with me!

Dad Update:

Let me give you all another update on dad.  This situation has been so frustrating.  He was doing SO well after getting home from rehab a few weeks ago.  He went through the second round of antibiotics again when the c diff symptoms started up in the rehab facility.  When the diarrhea starts up again, that’s a sign that the c diff is raging again.  He had done so well for a couple of weeks after coming home and then about a week after the end of the last round of antibiotics, it started up again.  Mom called the doctor and finally heard back from them over a day later, but they wouldn’t prescribe the antibiotics again for the c diff until a culture was taken and it came back positive. She went through that process dropping off the culture last Friday, which meant that the whole weekend would go by with no answers. The doctor doesn’t seem that concerned. My mom has finally decided that they need to get a new primary care doctor.  We do not think this doctor is caring  for our dad well at all.  We finally decided to take him back to the ER last Saturday so that they could do the test there and clarify so we could get him back on the antibiotics again for the 3rd round!  It was positive for c diff once again and now he’s back on Round 3 of treatment.  This is getting SO old, but we knew there was a possibility of this happening yet again since we heard from so many of you and others who have fought this terrible bacteria over and over.  We are going to inquire about the fecal transplant when we take him to a gastro doctor soon and see if that’s a possibility.  We’ve heard about it and my dad’s case might be one that needs to happen, so I’ll keep you posted on that. It’s not over yet, we are still fighting this stuff.  Thank you as always for continued prayers for my dad!

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