Destin and the Bobby Hopper Tunnel

Well, they say good things must come to an end and this week has done just that. Spring Break 2006 has come and gone and for the first time in a long time, we've done the "Florida" thing and gone to Destin for a week of sun & sand. However, with all family vacations, there are all kinds of episodes that you remember and some you'd rather forget.

I never thought a tunnel in the side of a mountain would make such an impression on a boy, but it did. My 3 year old Jake was SO impacted by us going through the Bobby Hopper Tunnel between Fayetteville and Ft. Smith, he told everyone about it...and I'm not exaggerating when I say EVERYONE. I bet if I had $1.oo for everytime he menitoned the Bobby Hopper Tunnel, we'd have had our trip financed completely PLUS made $100. The really bad stuff happened later that night.

Starting with our late night arrival at the Hattiesburg MS Hampton Inn, we hoped it wouldn't be a sign of things to come. We got there around 11:45pm on Saturday night (the 18th) after deciding to not pay the entire night's room fee for a late cancellation. We had a non-smoking, 2 double bed room. What we got was a non-smoking single KING BED and with the hotel being overbooked, we had no choice but to all sleep in the same bed.

Remember that scene in Willy Wonka where all four grandparents were laying in that giant bed in Charlie's house? That's exactly how we looked that night. I kept waiting for a little blond boy to come up and offer me a chunk of his Wonka bar.

"No Charlie...it's your birthday. You keep it for yourself."

To make matters worse, Jake got sick...on MY side of the bed...and the hotel manager had no sheets to give me at 5am. Needless to say, once the real help got there after 7am, we got our room charge waived and better reservations made for our return trip home.

The remainder of the trip to and from Destin was incredible! We celebrated my 37th birthday with a tradition my father-in-law Fred Turner taught us. The birthday person gets their nose buttered, to allegedly butter them up for another year. Kaitlyn woke me up with a glob of butter on my nose...so much so, I could've used that butter for a facial mask at the Sandestin Spa. I probably smelled warm & buttery the remainder of the day.

Great food, good times with our friends the Yates and Nicholsons (we actually called the HOGS at Joe's Crab Shack and got a rousing roar of approval as well as a Hog response from across the restaurant!), a decent time on the golf course and plenty of time on the sand...it was definitely a relaxing time away.

A few things I noticed while on vacation:

-My son loves to talk about tunnels, especially the Bobby Hopper Tunnel
-The dialogue on Speed Racer DVD's is so ridiculous, it's hilarious!! No wonder I loved it as a kid. "You're the most dangerous man I've ever met...and you're wacky too!"
-Did you know Charles Bronson is a manager of a gas station/convenience store between Destin and Ft. Walton Beach? It's true...I saw the sign on the bathroom door myself.
-Don't fall for advertisements on billboards that say "Hours of Family Fun" because there's no way possible a 50 year old aquarium will keep a family of four occupied for 3 hours, let alone 1.
-There must be at least 347 small churches on the side of the road between Hattiesburg and Mobile AL. Seriously...there was a small church at least every mile from what I could see.
-Kids under the age of 10 have no thermal body regulatory functions. My kids were impervious to the frigid water temps in the pool where we tried to swim.
-You sometimes DO play golf better on vacation.
-$50.00 lobster does taste pretty good but I'm fine with it only once a year.

It's good to have had a week of downtime but I'm looking forward to getting back into things. We're starting to prepare for "Three Days" at our church. Check out the link to it in my links section and join us if you can. Have a great week!