Pensacola Beach, or, The Ward Family's Happy Place

In early fall of 2014, we took Jones on his first trip to the beach.  We always go to Pensacola Beach, Florida (I have been going there since I was a child), which, in my opinion, has the prettiest beaches in the world, and is such a perfect place to relax.  There was some trepidation about taking a 3-year old:  how would he do on the 10 hour drive?  What if he didn't like the sand?  How would we keep him entertained if he wasn't really into the beach?  What if it rained the whole time we were there?   Thankfully, as with most worries of that nature, none of that came to pass.  We had a FABULOUS time - perfect weather, perfect beach time, Jones did great on the ride down (and home), and he LOVED the beach.  In fact, we only went to the swimming pool once - he didn't have any interest in it, his main interest was in the beach and the ocean.  We had such a good time, that we went back in 2015.  We didn't get as lucky on the weather that time around - it's always a roll of the dice, going in the early fall like we do.  2015 was pretty chilly, and there was only one really good beach day - it was cloudy and cool the rest of the time, and the ocean was more like a lake - no waves or anything.  But, it's still one of our most favorite places to be, so even disappointing weather couldn't steal the fun.

"Crashing" in the ways with Nana - his favorite thing!  He loved having someone hold his hands and then kind of dip him down into the waves when they broke on the shore.  He referred to this as "crashing" and our entire trip, that was his constant refrain:  "I want to go crash!"

Running back to tell me about crashing!

Me and my best buddy at the beach!

Crashing with Nana and Pepaw

Sandcastles!

Flying a kite with Pepaw

Flying a kite with Dad

 

Sometimes a fella needs to rest and warm up after a busy morning of crashing

Better than sandcastles, build a ranch on the beach!

I heart this picture, so much.

Way out in the ocean - Jones loved it!

We made time for the naval museum (Alan's absolute favorite and, lucky for him, Jones loves it too).

 

Jones has said, frequently, that he wants to be a Blue Angel when he grows up!

We prefer buying food and cooking at our condo when Jones is with us, but we did make it out to a few of our favorite restaurants.

at Peg Leg Pete's

at Flounder's

Besides the naval museum, we always stop at the battleship in Mobile on the way down (the USS Alabama).  Again, this is one of Alan's favorite things to do and, again, lucky for him, Jones loves it as well.

I hear this picture, so much, as well

Love this - if it had sound, you would hear Jones giggling with absolute delight and Alan making pretend machine gun noises

I told him to act sad, since he was in the brig!

Inside the submarine

Like I said, even though 2015's weather was not ideal, the trip was still fun.  Jones is definitely a beach bum, like his parents and grandparents!

Still all about crashing in the waves!

Crash!

When it's chilly and not the greatest weather for traditional beach bum activities, it's fun to take a walk with Dad to see the seagulls and look for shells.

Or learn how to skip rocks (that's how calm the ocean was this year - like a lake!)

 

It's so exciting to think about all of the future beach trips we have ahead of us, especially since the first two family beach trips were so successful.  It was wonderful to find out that Jones is a great beach vacationer, and I'm really looking forward to all of the fun we'll have with Jones and, now, with Tiger!