PCB FL 2010

I had the best time at the beach! Thank you so much Mom & Dad for the hotel room. It was amazing. You know you've had a great vacation when you don't have to charge your cell phone because you never used it.

I didn't realize how great of a need I had for some white sandy beaches. As soon as we got in to town I felt like I was reunited with an old friend. I felt like I was home. Buildings and places have changed but it's still the same ole' place I grew up at. Have you ever had that feeling? It is hard to explain but it was tear jerking. Leaving was very hard to do. I made Doug promise me we would come back next year and the year after that and the year after that...

When we got in Saturday our room was not ready yet. So we changed into our suites and headed to the beach. The weather was wonderful. Sunny, in the 80's, with a nice breeze blowing. The water was clear as could be; no oil or seaweed. It was the perfect beach conditions. All we did was hang out on the beach while we were there. We would leave to go eat lunch or go out to dinner but would return as soon as we were done. We did no shopping or site seeing. It was totally relaxing not having to worry about what time it was or having to go somewhere.

The condo room was very nice but we did have a few complaints.
1. Parking - each room got one spot. If you had multiple vehicles you had unmarked spots that you could park it. Unfortunately there were maybe 50 unmarked spots and guests had to share those with non-guest and hotel workers. So let's do the math. 8 rooms per floor X 22 floors = 176 rooms. Some of those rooms had up to 3 bedrooms in them but could sleep an average of 8. So if on average each room had 3 cars... 3x176=528. They only had a 4 story parking garage that was tee-niney. And you know where they told us to park? Across the street in public parking! Doug about came unglued. Add some more floors!
2. Dirty floors and bed - I know it is the beach but there is no reason my feet should be black from walking around in the room. And when you change the sheets on the beds, take off the protective mattress cover and clean it out. Don't you know sand can get in everything, everywhere!
3. Wash cloths - 5 days X 4 guests X 2 face washins a day does not equal 4 wash cloths. I do not want to wash my face with a dirty, sunscreened covered wash cloth. I also do not want to wash a load of towels every night (but I did!). So please provide your guest with more than one wash cloth per person for their entire trip.

Saturday night we went to Wal-Mart to pick up some groceries for the long weekend.

I could not believe my eyes! Why were all these people at Wal-Mart at 9 pm at night? We checked out in the express lane even though we had a buggy full. Every lane they had was open and the lines stretched out into the shelving area. And they never got shorter.

For lunches we ate sandwiches and for dinner we went to Montego Bay, Pier 77, and (for my Dad) Mellow Mushroom. We had crab cakes, mahi mahi, grouper, shrimp, scallops for Doug, hamburger steak for me (I only eat Mahi Mahi and you can't eat that every night), and then pizza. Ha! It was all so good and the zero wait time made it even better!

I was pleasantly surprised to see how much PC has "cleaned up" over there years. It still has it's party spots but overall the town is much more family friendly. We rode down by Pier Park (very nice!) and by all the new luxury hotels. Mom and I have already planned a shopping trip at Pier Park and we are going to stay at the Calypso so we can just walk right on over whenever we feel the urge to spend some money. I was depressed to see the Miracle Strip Amusement Park as a parking lot now. I had such great memories there.

Since we were down for the 4th of July we got to see tons of fireworks. Our condo was a few spots down from LaVela so we had a great view of their firework show on Sunday. Then Monday the whole beach was shooting them. We took our yummy coconut rum and pineapple juice drinks and walked down to the ramp that leads out onto the beach and sat on the railings. I was amazed at the quality and amount of fireworks people had. They would bring huge boxes of them and they were just as good as the ones LaVela shot. It was very nice having people with deep pockets stay at our hotel. We had hours of firework entertainment for free. Pier Park also did fireworks and we were able to see them from the beach without fighting the crowd.

One thing I hate and love about the beach is the way it can make you feel. Look one way and feel like a skinny, hot model. Look the other and feel like a white fat ass cow who needs to put down the bag of chips and pick up a hand weight!

Please tell me when GPS systems started having a "Ghetto Mode"! And please tell me how to turn it off. I swear on the way back home we saw every city's subsidised housing. The GPS routed us through Albany and Macon and from the areas we saw I can reassuringly say we will never be visiting those cities. I wouldn't even let Doug stop to get gas or food.

Doug and I hated to leave and drive back the 7 hours to reality but it was well worth it. Yes we are two hours away from Tybee and 3-4 hours away from Myrtle but it's just not the same. Your not at the beach until your toes are in some white sand! I can't wait for our next trip back. Look for more pictures on Facebook!