The Okie College Girl

Roomie & I laid out constantly while we were in Florida.  I was either at the pool or the beach the entire time we were down there.  I hardly used sunscreen and didn’t burn a single time.  It was marvelous.  Roomie on the other hand, burnt.  Not to worry, she was darker when we finally arrived back in Oklahoma.  The redness had subsided.

Poor Roomie.  I’m sure her back must’ve seriously hurt.  Oh the other hand check out how dark I got.  Marvelous isn’t it?  I still have some great tan lines left over from Florida now.  Hopefully they’ll stick around awhile longer, I love my new darker skin.  The pool and beach jumping really did some good in the week I layed out.  I might have to do that more often to achieve this effect again.  Now, my dark hair is au naturel not dyed.

I braved my hatred for shrimp and dined on Coconut Shrimp for dinner one night.  It was amazing…and so were the drinks I had to go with it.  We had an amazing view looking out at the beach for dinner & even saw an airplane show….you know…the ones that were in Pearl Harbor…yes those planes…oh it was fun watching them fly across the water.

Pompano Joes has the best seafood hands down.  This little restaurant sets right on the beach.  The wait wasn’t too long to eat.  We mostly people watched and washed the waves crash into the beach.  It was a peaceful setting waiting on dinner that evening.

People watching.  Just look at all that white sand.  I love walking on the beach with my shoes off and only with my shoes off.  I did try walking in the sand in shoes, but it didn’t work.  It was awful having sand fly up my calf and then into my shoes all while I was continuing to walk, walk, walk.  I tried flip flops too, but even they didn’t work.  It was horrible, which leaves me to say I love the sand between my toes and not in my shoes.

My very yummy Strawberry Margarita.  It was definitely different getting a drink in a plastic cup.  I mean I’m a College Girl, I’m used to drinking Trash Can punch out of a Solo cup and things like that, but never from a restaurant.  That was definitely a different experience and an enjoyable one at that!

Our view for dinner.  We were able to continue our people watching skills.  Oh how I thoroughly enjoyed dinner that night and the view from dinner.  We even were able to watch a few planes do loops and plane acrobatics.  Not just any planes though, ones from the 1950s, just like the one in Pearl Harbor; the one towards the end where Ben Affleck and the little boy are flying.

Sisterly love.  We do love each other, despite our knock down drag out fights.  Roomie and I were civil for photos which only lasted a hour or so.  We both walked away with some exceptional photos from the beach and we’re thankful we found someone in our condos to take our pictures of us together.

She’s red, I’m tan.  Nothing beats one of the best sun tans of all time.  I believe this tan out does all the ones I had in the past, including those I acquired at Camp Cavett so many years ago.

Starring off into the wild blue yonder.  The ocean is truly an amazing experience and  watching those wave crash in, it’s just breath taking.  I do hope to one day stand in that same spot and watch those waves crash in one at a time.

So I live with a copy cat.  I know how to have fun and evidentially Roomie knows how to copy off me.  I really do love how this photo turned out.  It wasn’t anything we planned to turn out this way, it just did.  Don’t you just love candid non-planned moments like these?

Weeee!  I can’t help it if I get a little excited on the beach with my amazing Roomie.  I’m sure Roomie thought I was crazy for acting the way I did and I’m sure the girl we had taking our pictures thought we were both crazy.

Would you check out how dark my feet got during vacation.  Comparing my feet to Roomie’s white feet I really had no idea I got so dark until I saw the photos of exactly how dark I did get while hanging out on the beach every day.

After the Arkansas clan left the condo, Roomie & I had our own down time fun.  We went parasailing, rented wave runners, and even did some more shopping.  800+ feet up in the air is breath taking.  It wasn’t windy and it was super quiet.  Roomie & I talked and looked at the marine life from up in the air.  We saw lots of fish, sting rays, and lots of other marine life.

800 feet above the ocean water.  It did cross my mind about what would happen if the rope snapped.  I didn’t want to experience that, but I’m the risk taker so I welcomed the big risk Roomie & I took on our Parasailing adventure.  I’m very thankful she chose to tag along and took the big risk, despite her play it safe attitude.  Now do you see why I’m the wild child?

We weren’t flying too long before our guides started pulling us back in.  I wanted to keep going.  The views were amazing from where we were.  You could see for miles.  I didn’t want to be pulled in, I wanted to keep going.  Still chatting away.  It was extremely peaceful while we were up there.  Roomie & I talked about our next game play and what we needed to do for the remainder of the week.  We did spot a few massive stingrays while we were up there and I must say I’m happy I wasn’t in the water down there with those huge aquatic animals.

If you’ll notice the helicopter behind Roomie & I, it was out hunting for sharks.  No, I’m not kidding.  Just before we going to get dunked in the water a helicopter is hunting sharks just behind us.  Roomie & I had no idea this was happening until we got back to the condo and saw this photo as proof.  Then it was a little unnerving.

Today was a day for almost solid driving.  It was fine when we left Baton Rouge, but no more than 20 minutes later we were stuck in rain.  We even called mom for updates to see when the rain would quit – lucky us it wasn’t for another couple hundred of miles.  We stopped and ate at Copelands once more, but the power went out – so instead of spending a hour eating, we spent two.  We weren’t happy.

This cake was all kinds of goodness.  Roomie & I actually split it on our way to good ole’ Florida.  I’m sure we did because I know I wouldn’t be able to eat the entire thing.

Finally, when we got back on the road Nicole had already begun her trip to the beach so we played phone tag for awhile.  That is…until we blew past them around Mobile, AL.  They had to stop and take a pee break & we held it and pressed on to the beach.

It took right around 5 hours to get from Baton Rouge to Destin, FL all with Roomie driving.  I never drove while I was in Florida, not once and that was fine by me.

Let’s see, we crossed a bridge.  I’m not sure which one it was exactly.  I just know that once we started crossing the bridge the accelerator stuck to the ground and we quickly made a way across the bridge.  Fascinating how that happens when Roomie drives, mysteriously the car will speed up when crossing a bridge.  Did I mention she hates bridges?

Telling Roomie a tug boat was crossing under the bridge only made matters worse.  Maybe because a tug boat took out the bridge that crosses the Arkansas River a few years ago.  There were quite a few deaths that day because there was no way of knowing the bridge was out until it was too late.  It was a sad day in Oklahoma.

It’s Bass Pro.  A definite must for any Okie.  I love Bass Pro.  Actually, I love Cabelas more, but this is the only mega sporting goods store I saw on our way to Florida.  Maybe those Louisianans aren’t big into fishing or hunting?

Love those Alabama tunnels.  Look for a post on them later.  We both had never been through a tunnel so long.  It seemed to drag on for forever and we were both glad just as soon as we came out on the other side.  It was almost like a sigh of relief that we didn’t have a wreck on the inside of the tunnel.  That would’ve been treacherous.

We made it to Florida.  In one piece no doubt.  It was a long drive, but we were almost to our destination.  I was expecting beaches just as soon as we got into Florida, instead there were trees.  Talk about shock!

Now here comes the ocean.  This was just before crossing over into Destin.  We were nearly a hour ahead of Nicole and I was thankful I had decided to hold it instead of pit stopping with the rest of the clan.  I was thankful until we got to the condo and then I really had to go!  Luckily I called Nicole and she shared the code to get into the room, because I was about to pee my pants just as soon as we pulled into the condos.

It’s a Blue Angel.  I saw them perform in Oklahoma a few years ago.  The guy I was on a date with at the time got a kick out of seeing my face when they flew over.  I had a strong fascination with planes, mostly because I had never been on one before.  That’s right, I didn’t fly on an actual plane until I was past the ripe ole’ age of 21.  Surprising huh?

Almost to the beach where we parked our butts for the week.  It wasn’t too far away from where Navarre was.  Roomie & I did contemplate stopping and looking at the beach, but instead we pressed on and went to our condo and our private beach.

Check out that white sand!  It was breath taking.  Dad told us it would be pretty, but I never imagined it would be like this.  It made me all giddy just looking at that sand.  I wanted out of that car just as fast as humanly possible.  I wanted to see the ocean, feel the sand between my toes, and read the books I had packed under that Florida sun.

Roomie & I took our first real vacation that was actually a vacation.  We split the cost with our dear cousin Nicole & her Family for a condo across the beach in August.  It was an amazing vacation & I’d love to go back again.

Packing for a week for Florida the night before is never a good idea.  No matter how appealing it is, don’t do it.  I packed through the night & wound up staying up 22 hours.  I finally crashed around Louisiana, after I got Roomie on the straight & narrow of where to go to Baton Rouge.

This was our very first parentless trip, so we put on our big girl panties, used Tommy Boy (Tom Tom) and successfully made it to our destination for the first leg of the trip.

Roomie & I ran into a duck in Gainesville, Texas at the outlet mall.  We thought he looked familiar.  Neither one of us wanted to get close to this duck because of the fateful event that happened to Baby Bro so long ago.  I’m sure this duck is still hanging out at the Outlet Mall just like how we left him.

We hit up our favorite eatery while on our trek to Destin.  Any guesses where we could’ve gone?  I spent a majority of my time playing this good ole’ country store game and won a few games while playing, just waiting on our food to arrive.  Chicken & Dumplings all the way baby!

Barely on the road, only 7:29 hours until we arrived in Louisiana.  I think we shaved almost a hour off our drive, although I’m not sure how we did.  I know for sure it wasn’t because the speed limit calculator at the bottom right hand of the screen was constantly lit up in red.  I wasn’t the driver, so don’t blame me for that red warning sign.

Driving in Louisiana you see lots of new things you’ve never seen before.  The scenery changes so much between Oklahoma to Texas and then to Louisiana.  I enjoyed watching the changes between the landscape and of course the various stores on the side of the road that we didn’t have time to stop for.

Roomie & I found one amazing place to eat while trekking to the beach.  Actually Pops suggested it and at first we thought he was crazy, I mean who goes to a restaurant and orders Crawdad Tails or Fish?  Ahhhhh I do!  Actually I’m a huge fan of Crawdad Tails….huge!  Dad usually knows the best places to eat and Roomie & I have no idea where he comes up with some of these places to eat sometimes, but we usually follow suit and eat where he suggests us eating.  Let’s just say Pop scored some major points this time around.  Roomie & I fell in love with Copeland’s of New Orleans.  Mostly we fell in love with their Crawdad Tails.

A glimpse of the menu.  I had to tweet this and no one knew where I was eating.  It was funny getting to see my followers try and figure out where I was eating at.  Since we don’t have these types of restaurants in Oklahoma.  It was a nice change in pace to eat Parmesan Crusted Fish & then Pecan Crusted Fish the next day.  Yes, you read that right.  Roomie & I ate at Copeland’s for two straight days.

Crawdad Tails!  Oh these things are delicious.  The sauce they came with was great.  It’s called Tiger Sauce.  Roomie & I had no idea what to expect when we ordered Crawdad Tails, I think she was more hesistant of my ordering skills over hers.  For the record, she really did like eating Crawdad Tails.  As for the next day, on our second leg of the journey to the beach; we stopped at Copeland’s again.  The cake was amazing and I even split it with Roomie.  I’m already ready to go back and eat some more Crawdad Tails.