The trip to Anna Maria Island

We said good-bye to our former-Kansan friends in Destin and headed for Anna Maria Island.  To make the most time, we drove up to Highway 10.  I would have LOVED to have followed the coastline, but that would have taken an extra day, I'm sure!  We veered off 10 onto highway 19 that took us into Tampa.  On the way, we once more listened to our audio-book.  Would Bob turn out to be the villain or would he be innocent?  Would his wife and kids be safe from the evil guys?

We were following Jill, Adam, Hannah and Claire on Flight Tracker.  They were arriving at Tampa about the same time we were.  That was not expected.

But it made it possible to meet for dinner!!

Claire and Sophia traded places.  Claire wanted to see where we would be staying.

We were staying at an AirB&B in this town, just 15 minutes from where Adam and Jill were staying.  The places on the island were so much more pricey!  

This was the house we stayed at.  

It had its own area for us.  

After unloading, we set out for the place where Jill's family was staying.

This is a 4 apartment unit that is just for pastors and missionaries to come and relax.  The price is very reasonable as they do this as a ministry to them.

There is also a pool in the back that Claire swam in every day!!  A beach and pool!  Who can beat that?

The beach is about a block away.

Of course, we HAD to dip our feet in the water!  Claire came prepared to get all in!

We were looking forward to getting refreshed this week!  I try to get at least one ocean trip in a year!  

Breakfast on the beach; Destin

Brad and Julie were the best host and hostess!  You've probably heard the phrase "the hosts with the most."  This was true!!  

Their cat that fellow friend, Bonnie, gave them back in Kansas.

She is so pretty!

We had a good night's rest!

Julie had a pot of coffee all ready for us.

Such a beautiful home!  

Good morning, Sophia!

Look at this bouquet.

Lego flowers!

This is something my daughter-in-law, 

who is allergic to flowers, could enjoy!

Brad and Julie took us to the beach for breakfast.  We met Julie's mom, who is also a friend, Darlene, who had just recently moved from our town to be close to Julie.

Julie had fixed a couple of quiches, some muffins, mixed fruit and more!  A huge spread!!

Darlene invited us to her apartment and told us how God had provided it for her.

Such a beautiful place for her!

May the Lord bless you all, Brad, Julie and Darlene, in Destin!  May He use you for His honour and glory.

Yesterday, my devotions in Our Daily Bread had the title "Traveling Mercies" which I thought was "appropro", but today's title was "Unwanted Guests"!!  Well, I hope they didn't feel like we were THAT!!  

 

Driving to Destin

We left our son's home in Arkansas early in the morning; 5:45.  The only one to be up and wish us good-bye was Emeri, who promptly went back to bed.

We got some coffee and had the cinnamon rolls that Sophia and Emeri had made the day before.

The title of the devotions from Our Daily Bread was rather appropriate!

We passed some bison.  

Arkansas has bison??

We saw lots of deer run across the road.  No photo.

We passed many, many, many areas that had caught fire.

Probably cigarette buts flicked out windows caused them?

The cars in the "old" days used to have ash trays, but cars these days don't.  

You can buy some now, but I suppose most people are used to tossing them out the window.  If they only knew that they might cause a fire!  Order one of these, or better yet, quit smoking?  

Pretty nasty habit.  I grew up riding trains filled with smoke in Japan.  I think almost every man smoked in those days.  Even Andy Griffith!

Sophia got caught up on her sleep.

We had driven 49 S out of Fayetteville, got onto 40 and drove to Little Rock, 530 to Pine Bluff, and 65 to Lake Village where there is an Arkansas Welcome center. We like to stop at this place.

We crossed the Mississippi into the state of Mississippi.  (Do you remember as a kid learning to spell the name of this state?  It is a vivid memory in my head learning it from kids at our dormitory in Japan.)

It was Sunday morning and we saw several small churches gathering for worship.  We listened to our pastor on-line.  Sophia helped us figure out how to listen on the car speaker.  We hadn't figured that out yet.  Kids these days know how to do tech!

We also listened to an audio murder mystery.  "Wait?  Bob gets murdered??  He's a bad guy??" It's kind of fun and makes time go fast to listen to an audio book.

Crossing the Sunflower River.  

Seems like that should be the name of a river in Kansas, since the sunflower is our state flower.  

There is a Sunflower Pond!  And Sunflower Motel.  Sunflower Trail.  Sunflower Maze (several of those, actually).

There were lots of rice fields and beans too.  All looked really good from Al's "farm eyes".

We entered Yazoo City.  I get a chuckle out of the name of that town.  It is named after the Yazoo River, which, in turn was named by the French explorer Robert La Salle in 1682 in reference to the Yazoo tribe living near the river's mouth.  Population is around 10,000 now.

  

Sophia spotted a Popeye's to stop for lunch.  Their chicken sandwiches are pretty good!  We had never been to a Popeye's before.

We continued southwest on 49 through Jackson, MS.

Through Hattiesburg down to Mobile, Alabama.

Swampy areas

Crossing Mobile Bay.  

In years past, we don't go this far east as we turn south on the west side of Mobile to head south to Dauphin Island.   We were going to a different location this year!

This tunnel goes under the water.

The gulf!!

We found a spot to park the car and walk out to the gulf.

We arrived in Destin!

We found a spot on the water to eat dinner.

We then drove to our friends' home and they took us out to walk on the beach and see the sunset!  Julie and Brad left our home town and moved here.  They are 6 minutes from the beach!!  Drool!!

It was a long day!  A 12 hour drive!  After a short visit, we went to bed.