A Week on the Gulf Coast

     Youngest and oldest child, Annamarie & Gordon

            The first eight days of June were spent either driving to/from or in Pensacola Beach for a family gathering that hadn’t happened since 2011. That was when the Florida granddaughter graduated from high school. This trip was the choice of another granddaughter who’d graduated earlier this May. Her family of three, my daughter’s family of four (including a boyfriend), and me, with the Florida family and a surprise visit from the celebrant’s brother, made a group of 12, which, in restaurants, usually meant two tables—one for the parents/grandparent, and one for the young adults.

       
          Our place was a Regency Cabana unit with two floors. Turns out my bedroom was on the main floor and the others’ were upstairs. I lucked out for sure. 

Main floor, deck behind us, kitchen in front

           The first place we ate was Flounders--us and a zillion others! A 30-minute wait was softened by a glass of Riesling, watching others come in, register, then find waiting spots—like we had done. Soon, we were ushered to a place on the beach/ Sound side where we could be entertained (as if we needed entertainment) by volleyball players, children throwing sand, loud music, and loud talking.      Three of us split a piled-high plate of nachos, and even then, we only ate half the food. My eldest grandson picked up the tab.

          All but two of our party spent Monday morning on the Gulf beach under a Tennessee-orange tent in lawn chairs.  Several of the young folks enjoyed the water, jumping the larger, pounding waves. The beach was littered with tents of various sizes and shapes, and families, also various sized and shaped.

          That evening, we re-dressed in our white-shirt-khaki-pants uniform for a family photo shoot. The venue changed, which meant a long slog through four-inch white sand to the next boardwalk. I’d worn white canvas “tennis shoes” (the old, old kind) and had bought my clothes at Walmart several weeks earlier. Other white shirts were lace, crop tops, button ups, polos—and pants were short shorts, long shorts, capris.

         The shoot included every possible configuration of family imaginable. Granddaughter had brought her cap and gown, and many poses of her were shot—in the sand, with the Gulf background, etc.

Granddaughter, the graduate. So proud.

               c 2019, PL dba lovepat press, Benton AR USA