Labor Day

I looked at my blog the other day and realized I hadn’t written a new one since my trip to North Carolina in the middle of August. It’s not that I haven’t wanted too; I just haven’t had the time. So, now I’m making the time. I have three different things I want to write about, so I’m going to write them and publish them separately within a few days of each other. Just a couple weeks after my trip to NC, the family headed down for our yearly Labor Day weekend trip to Panama City Beach, FL. My family, my sister’s family and my Mom and Dad all rented a beach house just down from the strip for the weekend of the week after Labor Day. We got down there late Friday night. Saturday was both, nephew Logan’s and Heather’s birthday. So, after spending some time on the beach, and doing some shopping in the three local dive shops, we all went out to eat at Capt. Anderson’s. (awesome food!!)
The next day, all 4 of my sister’s family and I had a 2 tank dive scheduled with DownTime Dive Charters. We had used them the year before and had a good time with them. Their Divemaster/Mate Jessie, is a hoot and we just liked diving with them. We met at the dive shop and did a check on the weather with other boats that were out there. Hurricane Gustav was making it’s way through the Gulf, so the waters were a bit choppy, but they said we’d be ok. We got out to the dive site and the water’s were getting kind of rough. We all decided to go ahead and dive. We dove the Coast Guard Cutter “Strength.” It was an OK dive, but viz wasn’t all that great. But there were tons of fish. At times, the fish were so thick, I had to put my hand out in front of me so I didn’t run into anything solid. At the end of the dive we surfaced and the weather had turned for the worse. Surface chop was awful and getting back on the boat was a serious chore. We all made it back on the boat, but we were pretty beat up afterwards. With the problems we had and the weather not expected to get any better, Capt Pat called off the next dive and we headed back in. What we didn’t know was after we went in, Capt Pat had the dive shop refund 100% of our money to us. That was awesome and we will definitely be using them a third, 4th and 5th times. We also decided that Diver’s Den has some of the best customer service we have run across and will be using them again also. For the next two days, Gustav had the beaches closed. We didn’t get a whole bunch of weather/rain, but we got a bit.
Everyone except my family left on Monday. We stayed until Thursday. Heather had some friends in the area, so we met up with them and did a Dolphin Spotting Cruise and went out to eat a couple times with them. We also took Ansley to Gulf World Marine Park and she had a ball. She loved the Sea Lions, which after she heard them, are now called “Ow-Outs.” So, now whenever she sees anything that looks like a sea lion (seal, manatee, etc) they are all called “Ow-outs.” On Wednesday, Gustav was far enough away and the rip tides settled down enough for the beaches to open back up. So, we spent the day on the beach and just relaxed. On Thursday, we packed up and headed into a very uneventful trip home. It may be called the “Redneck Riviera” but we have come to love Panama City Beach.