Three days of Thrill - Part 2 (of 2) - The Sunshine State

Tired, yet refreshed after two days on the wheels and hotel beds, we were ready for the Sunshine State.

The Plan:
Plan was simple. To enjoy Pensacola Beach during the day and return back to Alpharetta by dinner time and enjoy chinese cuisines before reaching home. 5 hours drive  back would leave us with little time to get home and order food from outside or cook at home.

The Execution:

We, as we have been habituated by now, started dot on time in the morning. Woke up, got refreshed and went straight to the dining area of the hotel, to have breakfast. Complementary or paid separately, we always eat light during travel. It makes us stay on roads for longer periods of time comfortably.

After having breakfast, we hit the roads immediately. We were eager to visit the sunshine state and the famous Pensacola Beach as soon as we can.

The destination was just a little more than an hour away. As they say, enjoy the journey than the destination. It happened to us as well. 

I-10 has a long stretch besides the gulf of Mexico. The drive was pretty. But the nature was extra kind to us and to make the journey more memorable, it showered the drizzles in between, to make it more exciting.

We reached the Pensacola beach dot on time before 10 AM. There was a ticket to enter the beach town. Ticket price was amazing, 1 dollar. We got in. There was a huge parking, like really huge and an ocean of vehicles and sea of human heads ..... Yet plenty of open spaces. Even 1 dollar would per vehicle earn them enough per day.

The Wrong Side:

We entered to the wrong side of the beach, which was not a beach, but the water body between the Oriole beach, an island between the mainland, Pensacola town and Pensacola beach and the island, Pensacola beach. We were comfortable, but we're searching for real beach. 

The Right Side:

We came out of the wrong side and drove some more meters and entered a grand parking lot. We felt tiny. There were long towers, light towers, hoardings, billboards, giant billboard baloons, every thing huge. 

Distant music, chattering sounds, moving people made it look like some festival. It indeed is a festival, when you are at such a place. We went to the beach, the huge, clean and greenish water, clear as crystal. We saw the huge boardwalk, not like regular boardwalks in the beach towns. 

The boardwalk:

It was ticketed, 10 bucks probably, I don't remember exactly, but it was worthy. Mostly the fishing enthusiasts pay for the boardwalk, which penetrates itself meters inside the sea.

The water:

We have decided not to get into the water, as we have to drive back. But, we can have a walk alongside the beach, we agreed. We were walking along the beach, wearing shoes, and suddenly decided to just get some rest to our feet in the water. We threw the shoes, dumped the camera bag near by and jumped into water.... 30 minutes we thought we will be, 1.5 hours we were there, reluctant to get out.

The temperature, the atmosphere, the people around, the clean beaches and the clear water, a perfect day and even more perfect place to spend your entire day and shred your tiredness.

1:30 PM it was and we reminded ourselves to head back to Alpharetta. It was going to be a five and a half hour drive.

The Habit:

Off late, we have rectified our habit, but those days, we were used to leaving our stuffs in hotel. Several times, we have to ask hotel and get our stuffs shipped to our place.

So as per our customary misses, we discovered as we jumped in our car, that we have missed something important in the hotel in Mobile, Alabama. Now we have two choices, asked the hotel to send it to home or take a detour, which will cost a little extra than one hour and reach home in peace.

The scenic drive of I-10, along with the gulf of Mexico, made our decision easier. We decided to take the detour.

Back Home & Bonus:

The drive from Alabama to Alpharetta is pretty monotonous. A long straight roads, where miles are on display uncut. Monotonous, less crowded and high speed. We eventually started from mobile at 3:00 PM, after collecting our stuffs and reached our town by 8:30 PM. In good 4.5 hours. My maths are perfect here. With the change of time zone, our source time was still 7:30 PM.

We headed to the Chinese place, ordered our food. We returned home before 10 PM, tired but rejuvenated.