Mike & Missy Plus Six! A 9/11/11 Dream Pre-TR! Update 09/19-TR now started!!

[UGAFan0829]

When I last left off, we had just made it to the room and were settling in.

Since it was so late, we decided that instead of going out for lunch, that we'd just have an early dinner instead. So, we freshened up and headed out to one of my favorite places on the beach-Pineapple Willy's!!

I love getting the rib buckets that they are famous for, but I was a little disappointed this time around. They just weren't as good as I remembered! It was okay though, cause I did enjoy the scenery!

After dinner, we decided to head to Publix to pick up breakfast and lunch for the rest of our stay. For us, it's always worked out best for us to eat those two meals in and then have dinner out somewhere.

Once we'd made our stop at Publix and were stocked up on plenty of grub, we headed back to the room to put everything away before heading out for a stroll on the beach. It was so nice to finally put our feet in the sand and see the waves crashing on the shore! It was a beautiful night, and we enjoyed a short walk before we decided to head back to the room to call it a night!

The next day's plans called for some fun in the sun and a little relaxation on the beach!!

 

[iloverags2]

Cute pic of you and Mike! Yeah, I hear you on doing the Publix shopping for breakfast and lunch. We're guilty of that even when staying at Disney! (I'm a pro at getting to the Publix near AKL/All Stars).

 

[mousetravel]

Along the way, I snapped a few pictures of the Chick-fil-A billboards and signs. I love the cows, and I know that Mouse Travel is a big fan as well, so these are for you and Marisa, Kristi:

I love all the cow signs! I noticed a ton of them as you get into Atlanta, but didn't get to see them real good. You gotta watch out for that ATL traffic!! My nerves are shot everytime I drive through there!!

Love the newest pics!!!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Cute pic of you and Mike! Yeah, I hear you on doing the Publix shopping for breakfast and lunch. We're guilty of that even when staying at Disney! (I'm a pro at getting to the Publix near AKL/All Stars).

Thank you!! Eating in really makes a difference!!

I love all the cow signs! I noticed a ton of them as you get into Atlanta, but didn't get to see them real good. You gotta watch out for that ATL traffic!! My nerves are shot everytime I drive through there!!

Love the newest pics!!!

I'm glad you liked them! I thought of you when I saw them!!
Yes, you do have to watch out for ATL traffic, for sure!! This time Mike was driving, so I was able to snap the pics safely!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Today was our first real day on the beach, and we were all really excited about it. We started the morning with a quick breakfast in the room before we slathered up with sunscreen and headed down to the sand. I snapped this quick picture from the balcony before we left. You can see how pretty the water was, with the exception of the areas closest to the shore. There was a lot of seaweed that had washed up there, but once you got out past that, it was nice!

Unfortunately, there aren't many pictures to include in this update. We were playing in the water most of the day, so I didn't get much of a chance to take any!

After spending the morning and most of the afternoon on the beach, we decided it was time to get out of the sun for a while, so we headed back to the room. We ended up napping and resting for a little while before heading out to dinner.

After a little debating, we finally decided to head to a place on the beach called Sharky's.

I took my camera with us, but left it in the car, so the only pics I got were with my phone.

Mike and Cody were dying to have some of their favorite beach food-raw oysters!

I'm not a fan of those, so I went for a big ol' pound of yummy crab legs which happens to be my favorite beach food!

Ashley had never tried oysters before, so I was able to capture the moment. I think you'll be able to tell what she thought about them from the picture...

Our waitress was nice enough to snap a quick pic of all of us before we headed out...

It turned out to be a great meal that we all enjoyed, well except for Ashley and her oysters!!

After dinner, we decided to head over to Pier Park to stroll around and peek in some of the shops before we headed back to the resort for our nightly stroll on the beach!

Up next-Snorkeling at Shell Island--I finally get to put my new waterproof camera to the test!

 

[iloverags2]

Can't wait to see the pics from the waterproof camera!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Can't wait to see the pics from the waterproof camera!

Thanks, I can't wait to share them!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Today was one of the days I was most excited about--we were heading to Shell Island to do a little snorkeling...and I couldn't wait to try out my new camera!

Since the shuttles out to the island didn't start running until 9, we were able to sleep in a little. Once we were finally up and about, we filled up on some breakfast and got ready for the day.

It sprinkled on us as we drove over, but nothing too bad. The good part was that it was cloudy, so it wasn't too hot!! We finally made it out to the island and were ready to snorkle around 10. I ended up taking a ton of pictures, but figured I'd only share a couple as a lot of them looked the same:

We saw a lot of fish that were really cool, especially around the rocks that we were near. We got a couple scares when we came close to a few jellyfish, but then found out that they were the harmless kind. Who knew? I always thought all jellyfish were bad!!

I was really happy with the way the pictures turned out, but my only complaint was that it was nearly impossible to see what you were taking a picture of. If the sun was shining the least bit, there was no way to see what was on the LCD screen!

We ended up staying in the water for a little over 2 hours! We had a lot of fun out there! But eventually, we'd all had enough of the sun and salt and were getting pretty hungry, so we decided to pack it all in and head back to the room.

Today was also Cody & Ashley's 3rd anniversary, so once we made it back to the room, they decided to get all cleaned up and head out for a nice lunch while Mike and I relaxed a little.

Eventually we decided it was time to get cleaned up and head out ourselves. And since Cody & Ashley were having dinner together for their anniversary, we decided to head to another of our favorite places...The Back Porch! We ate here for the first time on our last trip back in 2008, and were really excited to try it again, hoping that it was as good as we remembered!!

Thankfully, we didn't have to wait for a table and were seated right away up on the top deck which had a nice view of the beach across the street! I think we ended up ordering the same thing that we had last time, and it was indeed as good as we remembered! I took a few picture of our food so that I could write a review on TripAdvisor. We started with the Crab and Spinach Dip that was absolutely divine. We both agreed that we could have made a meal off this alone!

Mike had the Pier Park Grouper which he also loved:

And I had the Shrimp and Crab Linguine, which was oh so yummy:

I'm not sure how, but we managed to find room for the perfect ending to our meal with a piece of Key Lime Pie:

By this point, we were stuffed and happy!!

 

[UGAFan0829]

After dinner, Mike and I decided to walk off some of our dinner by strolling around Pier Park and browsing in some of the shops.

As we walked along, we saw a guy doing caricatures. We'd seen him earlier in the week when we drove through and decided that we wanted to come back to have ours done. So, we decided that now was the perfect time. There were several people in front of us, but thankfully the artist was pretty quick, so we didn't have to wait very long.

It turns out that this was one of the most enjoyable experiences of the trip. The artist, Justin Galloway, is actually from GA and goes down to PC Beach during the summers to work. He was really interesting to talk to, which made the time fly right by. Of course you don't see what he's drawing until the end, so I got quite a laugh when he turned ours around and showed us what he'd captured:

I loved it!!! I was so glad that we had taken the time to have it done! It's definitely my favorite souvenir of all!!

After we were done there, we browsed around a few more shops before heading back to the room.

Cody & Ashley made it back shortly after we did, and we ended up playing several rounds of Scattergories! In fact, we had so much fun that we were up until 2:30 AM playing!! Thankfully, there was no need to be up early the next morning!!

 

[iloverags2]

Wow! Now that sounds like the perfect day! I hear you on those underwater LCD screens...I never have a clue what I am taking a picture of and just hope for the best. And I love Scattergories...great way to end such a wonderful day.

 

[Toria]

That food looks delicious! Have you ever made it over to Destin for a visit or stay?

 

[UGAFan0829]

Wow! Now that sounds like the perfect day! I hear you on those underwater LCD screens...I never have a clue what I am taking a picture of and just hope for the best. And I love Scattergories...great way to end such a wonderful day.

Yes, it was definitely a wonderful day!
That was the first time that Cody & Ashley had ever played Scattergories--they ended up loving it which is why we stayed up so late playing...they didn't want to quit! lol

That food looks delicious! Have you ever made it over to Destin for a visit or stay?

Thank you...it was VERY good!!
We actually took a day and rode over to Destin on our last trip to PCB back in 2008. I did some shopping at Silver Sands, and we had lunch at Fuddpuckers, which was good. I'd like to go back and actually stay there sometime. It seemed to be just as beautiful there as in PC!

 

[UGAFan0829]

I have to take a timeout from my beach report to tell y'all about some exciting news! My friend Kristi (Mouse Travel) and I have been trying to meet up for a little while now. She and her daughter come to Atlanta every so often, and we've never been able to make it work for us to meet while they're here. So, they actually came back down yesterday, and we were finally able to meet up!! I was so excited to finally meet her and Marisa in person! It was really cool because after reading all her reports here on the DIS and chatting on Facebook, I felt like I already knew her! I really enjoyed talking to them about their cruise on the Dream, and we shared a few laughs! Of course, we both took a few pictures to document our meeting!
Kristi and I:

The whole gang...Marisa, Kristi, myself and Mike:

This is one of the things I love most about the boards...not only are the people here so awesome to offer info in helping to plan every single detail of a Disney trip...but there are so many friendships that are made outside of the boards! And since I don't have that many friends that really understand our love for Disney, it's really cool to have those friends who do!


Now...on to more exciting news...
As we were pulling out of the driveway to go meet up with Kristi and Marisa, I remembered that we hadn't yet checked the mail. So, I quicjkly jumped out and dashed to the mailbox. Mike couldn't figure out why I was hopping and skipping back across the road...but then he saw this and knew why:

I was doin' the Doc Dance for sure!! It always makes the trip seem so much more real once we get those docs in hand!! The days are really getting close!

 

[Timon]

Can't wait to read about your Dream trip, Missy!

 

[Jennifer48]

You didn't tell me you started a PTR Missy!!

First I have to extend my sincerest condolences on the loss of your friend. I can't imagine. I read your posts on fb during this time but I didn't understand the extent of it.

This cruise is a family affair! Sounds like it should be a great time! What a nice aunt you are for treating your nephew like that. What a great gift!

Your beach vacation sounded wonderful!

for the cruise docs!

 

[JOANNEL]

Next time try Laketown Wharf. It's new and across the street from Pineapple willy's.

 

[mousetravel]

Hey, We finally made it back home! After a few unplanned stops (Chateau Elan) and shopping till we dropped, we are very tired! I got caught up on your TR, and I've got to update mine in the next few days. We had fun meeting up with ya'll!

This is one of the things I love most about the boards...not only are the people here so awesome to offer info in helping to plan every single detail of a Disney trip...but there are so many friendships that are made outside of the boards! And since I don't have that many friends that really understand our love for Disney, it's really cool to have those friends who do!

I totally agree with this!!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Can't wait to read about your Dream trip, Missy!

Hi, Cass!!! It's great to see you here!! Thanks for joining in!! I hope you, Rob and Kira are doing well!!

You didn't tell me you started a PTR Missy!!

First I have to extend my sincerest condolences on the loss of your friend. I can't imagine. I read your posts on fb during this time but I didn't understand the extent of it.

This cruise is a family affair! Sounds like it should be a great time! What a nice aunt you are for treating your nephew like that. What a great gift!

Your beach vacation sounded wonderful!

for the cruise docs!

Thank you, Jennifer! Your kind words really mean a lot. I'm so glad you're here!!

Next time try Laketown Wharf. It's new and across the street from Pineapple willy's.

I remember seeing Laketown--that place is huge. I remember commenting to Mike about how convenient it would be to just walk right over to Pineapple Willy's!! It really looks like a nice place!

Hey, We finally made it back home! After a few unplanned stops (Chateau Elan) and shopping till we dropped, we are very tired! I got caught up on your TR, and I've got to update mine in the next few days. We had fun meeting up with ya'll!


I totally agree with this!!

I'm glad that y'all made it home safely!! Chateau Elan is a beautiful place--I'm sorry that I didn't even think about telling you to stop there!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Today was our last full day at the beach, so we planned to spend it in the water again! Since we'd been up so late the night before, we slept in until around 9. We did the normal routine of eating breakfast and then getting ready before we headed down to the beach for the day.

The water was a little rougher than it had been all week, and there were some good size waves out there, which we love to play in! Unfortunately, since the water was rough, the seaweed was everywhere!

Again, because we were so busy playing like kids in the water, I didn't take a single pic while we were out there. It was so much fun though, but we were covered in seaweed!!

Since we had gotten such a late start, we had to keep track of the time, as we were scheduled to have our pics done on the beach that evening. So, around 4, we decided to head up to the room so that we'd all have plenty of time to primp for our pictures!

We were all cleaned up and ready to go when we noticed that the weather had turned gloomy! Just my luck! I hoped that it would hold off long enough for us to get a few shots on the beach, but only time would tell. So, we headed to the car and were on our way to meet the photographer at St. Andrews Park when she called. She said that the weather was showing that the storm was just west of where we were planning to take pictures, so we could try and get as many in as possible. As we sat and waited for her to arrive, you could see the storm clouds getting closer and closer! Once the photog finally made it there, we hurried out on to the beach and she started snapping away. We hadn't been out there 10 minutes when the bottom fell out. It was POURING!! The closest place for shelter was a little pavilion that was a good walk away. I tried walking as fast as I could, then ran, but it's really hard to run in the sand when you're soaking wet!! By the time we made it to cover, we were all soaked to the bone!! I was so disppionted! But, there's nothing you can do about the weather! I wish I'd scheduled the shoot for earlier in the week, but that was all she had available. She offered to re-shoot first thing in the morning, but the weather forecast was already calling for rain!

I'm still waiting for her to post the pics that she did get, and hopefully some of them will be decent!

After leaving the park, the first place we all headed was straight back to the room to find some dry clothes! My hair was so wet that I ended up having to use the hair dryer again!

Of course once we'd made it back in and got changed, the rain had stopped, and the sunset was peeking through the clouds. Again--just my luck! I was pretty sad about the pictures since that was one of the things I had been looking forward to the most!

 

[Jennifer48]

I'm sorry to hear your photo shoot didn't go well! I hope she was able to get some decent ones in the short period of time!