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The Start of the Beaches

Saturday, February 19th, 2022 – Pensacola, Florida 

We woke up in Big Lagoon State Park and started to pack up right away. We closed up the trailer and left the site to pick up the trailer later. 

We found out that there was a Mardi Gras flotilla that day. We arrived at the pier and made the big mistake to set-up on the beach. It was breezy and cold which was pretty much par for the course so far. The flotilla turned out to be a Mardi Gras parade on water, people in boats decorated as pirate ships and Mardi Gras floats cruised by the piers blasting a wide variety of music. The unfortunate part of the day was that the wind was blowing from shore to sea so the beads, inflatable swords, treats, inflatable who-know-whats and more would be tossed from the boats and land short of the beach and pier. I pulled my pants up and tried to wade into the water to grab as many as possible. The kids went to the pier to have easier access. After the flotilla you could see the variety of floating gifts heading out to the ocean and Park Rangers gathering up the beads they could reach from the dock with nets on long poles. I think the environment lost today (noone seemed particularly concerned about it though) but my children each got a huge stuffie (Charlotte’s was a bear from FAO Schwartz), moon pies, beads, plastic swords and a variety of chocolate. 


 We went back to the site and grabbed the trailer and proceeded to Perdido Key state park (I learned that keys are always sand on top of coral). The beach was gorgeous, windy and cold. The kids gathered shells for some planned crafts and the adults took a walk along the beach. The girls also got to examine a dead jellyfish. The beach was beautiful and with a sand bar 60m out from the beach led to a few fishermen testing their luck. 


 Next was the drive to Fort Pickens National Park. The only reason we went to Fort Pickens was to buy an America the Beautiful pass to save money entering future national parks but what a find. From the land, you drive across a massive bridge to one island and then across another massive bridge to a second island. The commercial part of the island features casinos, beach side restaurants and tiki bars. Apparently, in the summer it gets busier than Disneyland. The GPS said we had 5 miles to go to our campsite but as we left the commercial properties, the islands was only 100m wide. As we drove a winding road with beaches on both side, we reached the Ranger station and purchased our pass. A few miles later we checked in and reached our campsite. 

 The best part of the experience was that National parks offer Junior Ranger programs where the children all got a booklet with activities to complete. As soon as we were set-up, we went on a nature walk where the kids completed a bingo style scavenger hunt to find wildflowers, birds and examine tree leaves. When the kids complete their activities (Aisling needs to complete 7, Charlotte 5 and John 3) they get sworn in as Junior Rangers and get a badge. Each national park provides their own badge so now we are on a mission to visit national parks. Gen received a badge when she visited Cape Cod as a child. Gen was also sworn in as a deputy ranger and had to solemnly swear “That she would only give the kids the badges when they completed the activities”. Aisling was really excited and spent an hour working through a bunch of activities. 


 As we returned from the walk the sun was going down so we jumped in the car and raced to the beach so we could see a sunset. The beach was gorgeous; wide, empty, white squeaky sand, birds swooping within a metre of the water looking for fish and a fantastic view of the sunset. After walking down the beach we returned to the campsite, the kids decorated the trailer using the beads from New Orleans and then got a Mardi Gras movie night.

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