The Rain
Pensacola Beach averages 343 days of sunshine every year – or so we have been told. Unfortunately, the second day of our stay here was punctuated by rain.
We woke up and got ready for another day in paradise, but we weren’t sure what to wear. Amy and I kept looking at the weather on 3 different weather apps and 20 different webpages that all said the rain would stop but had completely different times listed… AND they would all change every couple of minutes.
What did not change was the weather conditions in Destin. It was clear there, and it would change every few minutes to rainy, but then flip back almost immediately after. With this in mind, we decided to do some shopping at Alvin’s Island – a beach tourist junk store. I guess I’m a little biased here because I like Ron Jon’s a lot having already dropped a Benjamin there the night before (Don’t tell Amy).
Alvin’s Island was PACKED with merchandise. The entrance was crammed with racks of clothing they usually wheeled outside but with the rain continuing outside, there was nowhere to go with it. We made our purchases and continued the discussion about what to do. Destin was still showing either sprinkling or dry. We finally decided to try Destin, and if it was raining there maybe we would see something else to do along the way.
The route to Destin took us through Navarre Beach, where it wasn’t too bad, but the rain was still there off and on. The road took us back to the mainland and passed through an airbase and then back out to the islands at Fort Walton. At this time, it had stopped raining and we decided to just try our luck here.
Thank goodness we did, and we had a beautiful time. The waves were bigger, but that meant better boogie boarding for the girls. The seaweed being washed in was a bit thick because of the storm, but this beach was perfect because it was uncrowded and there was no rain.
We spent a few hours enjoying the clouded sun, the sand and the surf. Once the girls wore out, we made the trip back to Pensacola where we ate at Crabs, We Got ‘Em! – which, compared to the night before, was a wonderful experience. The girls had Crab and Shrimp Linguine Alfredo, Amy got Firey Crab Balls, and I got Beer-Battered Shrimp, which came with fries, and hushpuppies. My beer was a rough-to-drink IPA called Napoleon, and Amy had a Crab Trap – basically a fruity flavored Long Island Iced Tea.
After dinner we returned to the super-condo and checked out the private beach and the public beach across the street. The rain had finally cleared off by this time and allowed us to do a bit of beach walking. On the public beach, there was a group of between 20 and 30 people having a party. Currently they were playing a can-slam type of game, but they had a volleyball net set up and eventually started launching fireworks.
Once we completed our walk, we came back to the condo and prepared for bed – all of us were worn out from the travelling and the beach.