According to the local newspapers, the beach towns west of Navarre were seeing oily footprints on their beaches and boardwalks already...
Tar balls were rolling on shore in Pensacola...
The locals were already feeling the harsh reality of an oil spill hundreds of miles off their coast line and more than mile under the water's surface...reservations had been cancelled, restaurants were emptier than normal, and fisherman were pulling in less and less with each passing day.
With the inevitable destruction of the gulf coast looming on the horizon and the possibility that this could be our last visit to Navarre Beach for a long while, we spent 4 glorious days soaking up the sun and enjoying time as a family. We fell into a routine quickly...rise and shine, breakfast, pack a cooler and head to the beach, swim all morning, nap after lunch, and go back down to the beach for more time in the water. Bo got up each morning and claimed our spot on the beach with chairs, a small pool for Drew, and our pop-up tent to provide some shade from the sun. In the past we had always visited in September and the beaches were busy, but not crowded. In June the beaches fill up quickly with vacationers and home owners. And it seemed like everyone was trying to get every bit of time at the beach while they still could. The days couldn't have been more relaxing. The girls played on the beach and in the water...building sand castles, riding waves and looking for sand crabs. Drew had his own, personal baby pool under the tent beside my beach chair and he was as content as could be for the few hours we spent on the beach each morning and afternoon. Since he wasn't walking, the sand proved annoying to him and he had no problem staying out of it. For two of the nights we were there, my family honored my wishes and dressed up for some pictures on the beach. The first night it was just the girls in some new dresses we found on the way down to the beach. I found out that night that we were quite the posers when we wanted to be. The next night, we went down as a family to get a good shot of all of us. And for the first time, everyone cooperated. Kelsey told me as we were walking to the beach that she learned if she smiled for 2 seconds it would be over and we would be done. FINALLY...that makes sense to her!!! And thankfully we did get a great shot of all 5 of us.
At the time of this post, the oil has been spilling since April 20th and they have no means of stopping it anytime soon. Projections right now look to August before it will be stopped. And worst yet, is the destruction that this oil spill will cause to the wildlife, the shoreline, the tourism and the way of life on the Gulf Coast. Keeping that in mind, it was especially hard to leave Navarre this time. We have been coming here since we were a family of four. Drew made his first trip here last year at 3 months old. We've come here with friends, family and by ourselves. We have memories of this place that we will talk about when we are old and think about "the good ole days." It has become part of the kids' childhood and memories they have of spending time at "Ms. Lynn's Tower" as they grow older. And to us, it's sad that because of this oil spill, this might have been the last time we would get to be there for years to come...the end of an era, kind of.
But, we were happy to have just one more time to visit the place we have come to love. We hope to be back again very soon. As always the pictures have been loaded on to the shutterfly site. Here are a few to get you started.
