Thanksgiving Week at Sandestin, FL

11/24/2018

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and got your fill of turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes and gravy! Here's an update on our Thanksgiving this last week~
Griff arrived Sunday afternoon in Sandestin at the Baytowne Marina to spend Thanksgiving week with us on the boat. It has been three months since we had seen him last and it was WONDERFUL to see him. We arrived at the marina from Pensacola on Saturday afternoon and couldn't wait for him to fly in Sunday!
It was a little cooler in Sandestin over the week, but warmer than both Colorado and Minnesota. We did the beach, fished, spent time at the Bay Towne Wharf, biked and walked everywhere, shopped, hit the fitness center, and ate a lot of good food! It was a great week with the blue eyed boy!

A day at the beach!

The beaches in Sandestin were beautiful! I never expected them to have white sand and they were pristine. There were a few folks around spending Thanksgiving week, like us, enjoying the resort and beach even though it was a bit chilly!

We were inspired by all the sport fishing boats in the marina, so decided to head out with a guide fishing one afternoon. We had a blast but didn't catch anything big enough to keep.

This was the boat that inspired us to go fishing. It was an 85 ft. Viking. It was absolutely gorgeous! Our fishing boat wasn't quite this spectacular.....

Tom got the first fish....

I got second fish.....

Tom got the third fish.....

And then finally, Griff got the fourth fish!

Sandestin Resort went crazy with Christmas decorating! We all loved it! There wasn't any snow but there was a lot of spirit! They even had an ice rink! It was tiny but they had one!

The ice rink at The Wharf in Sandestin

One of many decorated areas at the Wharf.

The Wharf near the marina was a fun place for both kids and adults. We wandered over most every night to check out the entertainment, shop, get coffee and oysters!

On their way to have more oysters on the half shell :) Looks more like Minnesota then Florida! Brrr!

Here are a few other shots from around the property.....

These two parrots were at the Marina Bar & Grill. Our slip was a fair ways away from them, but you could hear them screeching constantly! Griff was not a fan of the birds!

It was wonderful to have Griff here with us for the holiday. Of course we missed Sam and we missed our traditional Thanksgiving back in Minnesota (we all missed Grampa's gravy!). It was fun to change it up this year on the Loop and spend Thanksgiving in a warmer climate, but we look forward to coming home for Christmas and spending time with family and friends. We miss you all so much!
More later~

8 Comments

Willie & Dorothy

11/26/2018 06:20:11 am

Love the Wharf; it's so peaceful and beautiful. Have visited it every year for the past 6 years...wish you would be there in about 30 days. Check out the Sunset Bay Café if you have time. Wishing you safety and a wonderful holiday season on your 'trip of a lifetime'.

Sue

11/27/2018 05:39:12 pm

Hi Willie & Dorthy! Great to hear from you! Yes, the Wharf was a great place to be over the holiday. So much to do. We really enjoyed our time with Griff. We hope you and your family are all doing well. Have a wonderful holiday!

Wanda Barber

11/27/2018 01:32:22 pm

Such fun pictures! I'm so glad you had one of the boys with you for Thanksgiving! Can't wait to see you next month!

Tom--you're right, Kevin can fix anything!!

Sue

11/27/2018 05:42:28 pm

It was great seeing Griff! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Loved the picture from the BA of you and the Amos'. Thanks for sending it. We really missed seeing family and friends over Thanksgiving. We are looking forward to seeing you and your family over Christmas! Hi to Summer and Amber!

Pamela Lund

11/29/2018 08:04:43 am

Great photos of Thanksgiving time, so glad you got to see Grif, love the photo of him & Tom together.

Sue

11/30/2018 03:07:48 am

Thanks Pam! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving! Hopefully we'll see you over Christmas when you are at the ranch.

Gerald and Betty

12/1/2018 08:50:14 am

Tom and Sue how a

We have so much enjoyed following you on your wonderful Great Loop trip. And is so interesting to hear about all the new sights scenes and Adventures . You make the trip sounds so interesting. We are very jealous of you as we had hoped to the loop at one time ourselves.

A lot has happened here since the last time we talked. I've sold all of My Horses and have now sold my land. It was a bittersweet experience. I miss my land and my horses but I do feel positive about not having any of those responsibilities again. We have also put our boat out for sale. A very difficult thing to do. But Betty situation has not improved and she just felt like we wouldn't be able to do the kind of boating that we want to do unless things improved.. she continues to pursue different medical options. But as of now she has not really found any thing that has any kind of lasting Improvement. We did have a good Thanksgiving we went to see Betty stepfather in Chicago. He is 94 now and very poor hearing and very poor eyesight but is so lonely since Betty's mother passed away. So he really enjoyed sharing Thanksgiving with us. Tomorrow we are leaving to go to Buffalo New York to spend some time with Betty's sister and family and we are also hooking up with the foreign exchange student that lived with us for a semester several years ago. They still live in Germany but are doing some traveling with her son in the states. Then on the 13th oh December we are going to Salt lake cityy to spend some time with Tammy and her family.

When do you plan to come home? If you happen to have any day or early evening available to get together we would love to hear from you in person about all of your adventures. We think about you often and wonder where you are today and what new adventures are coming your way Bon Voyage

Thank you for keeping us up-to-date with your blocks and we will continue to follow you on this great adventure. Of your life.

Sue & Tom

12/2/2018 03:32:37 pm

Gerald, thanks so much for reaching out and the update. Sounds like you two are as busy as ever. So happy you were able to sell the ranch and land and move on. You'll probably always miss your horses though. It's been years since our family had our horses and I still miss them.
Enjoy all your travel and family events. We will reach out when we get home in December so we can meet up for some 'foam and fellowship"!

Tom & Sue Slightam

Read along as we circumnavigate the eastern half of the United States and southern Canada on the Great Loop on our boat BELLA, a Cruiser 460 Express.

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