Civil Rights Tour & More 2019 - Day 4

Day 4: Guess what - we actually slept in a bit. We didn't have as much on our agenda today as we did the past 2 days. We were still up and out the door by 8, but it felt nice to sleep in an extra hour!

I was so excited to show this hotel to the kids! I booked it early on in the trip planning - I loved the fact that there was a beach and bay right outside our door! I loved the outside swimming pool! We paid more for this hotel due to it's location (but I knew it would be worth it once we got to sit on the beach and watch the sunset and let the kids play in the pool all night.

Well, if you remember from my Day 3 post, we missed the sunset by minutes. By the time that we got dinner and checked in to our room, it was close to 8:30. We could hear the water lapping up to the beach, but we couldn't see it. Matt & Kaitee took off to find a few letterboxes in the area. Maddie couldn't swim because of her cast, Alex didn't really want to that night and Will was indifferent ("I'll go down if Alex goes down"). Sadly, they took showers, had the TV on and played on their tablets...all the while I was fuming because we spent all this extra money and weren't able to enjoy it.

We took some pictures the next morning as we were heading out. It sure looks beautiful, doesn't it!

We decided that if we left early enough, we would drive along the Pensacola Peninsula for a bit before heading to the Naval Aviation Museum.

Our first stop of the day - Gulf Island National Seashore. We opted to use one of the public beach access points just before going out to Fort Pickens. It was early in the morning and the wind made it a bit chilly.

We purchased a waterproof bag for Maddie to keep her cast dry for the trip. It really worked well! As you will see in these pictures, she got completely wet (whether by accident or not remains to be seen!) yet her cast was dry!

Just beyond the this little wave is a much bigger one! If you scroll through the next few pictures, you will see how quickly things escalated!

AND...Maddie's down and all of their stuff is wet!

Kaitee & I walked down the beach a ways - enjoying the solitude of the morning and looking for shells/sand dollars.

More waves coming in! There were a few times where Will ran in the water to grab Maddie's crutch. She would lose it as she hopped backwards, away from the wave...or went down all together!

The kids commented on how nice the water felt, even with the cooler temps to start the day. In the past, we've stopped at beaches in New England and the water is really cold...even if the day itself is hot! I think they enjoyed the warmer temps!

We started the clean up process, the twins changed clothes (yeah, they were both soaked through!) and then hit the road to the Naval Museum.

It took quite a while to drive across town to the Naval Base. Once we arrived, we were surprised at the long line of cars waiting to get on to the base. I guess Matt & I never thought that the museum would actually be on the base - adding time for security checks and long lines.

We found the museum soon after and then waited in line for another security/bag check. As Kaitee & I went in with our purses, the two young naval men chatted with us as they inspected our bags. They put a tag on the bags and then marked our hand to show that we had been through security. I noticed that Kaitee's guy was very talkative with her and they were laughing and chatting. We thanked the men and then went to meet with the rest of the family. Kaitee showed me her hand (at least it wasn't a phone number, lol)...then said something along the lines of, "I think I could live in Florida...well, I could, I don't think my hair could though" HaHa. I told her that there is something about a man in uniform that makes him a little more irresistible! She agreed!

After exploring the museum for a bit, we drove to the Pensacola Lighthouse (one of the oldest along the Gulf Shore) and walked around there a bit. Matt was able to locate a few letterboxes too.

We left the naval base in search of lunch. We were able to find one of Matt's favorites - Whataburger! We ate lunch then hit the road for Monroeville, AL, "The Literary Capital of the Alabama".

Harper Lee based her book, "To Kill a Mockingbird" on her hometown, Monroeville.

The movie was filmed in California. Gregory Peck and the director/producers of the film came to Monroeville to meet with Harper Lee and see the town. They sketched the courthouse so they could replicate it in a Hollywood studio. Judging from the movie and pictures, I'd say they did a pretty job of it!

We were disappointed to see the quilt sale/display going on - it really took away from the overall experience of seeing the courtroom.

We had one last stop on our trip, but as luck would have it, The National Memorial for Peace and Justice is closed on Tuesdays! We were in Montgomery last March, but it wasn't open to the public until April! Scratch that stop from our list. Only thing left to do was to get to our hotel in Huntsville and then drive home the next day.

Without going to Montgomery for the museum, the GPS had us leaving Monroeville heading north (instead of east towards I-65)

Heading north out of town took us down two lane county roads & highways. While we enjoy the twists and turns of the back road, they tend to add time to trips.

After 4 VERY LONG days on the road, we didn't need the slower back country roads. By the time the actual road atlas was pulled out (does anyone else still use one? I could sit and look at the Atlas for hours and never get bored!) and a decision was made to cut east to I-65, we had added about 45 minutes to our drive.

Things were really quiet in the back. I turned around and took some pictures of a very, VERY rare occasion. All 4 kids were sleeping (Will hardly ever naps while on trips...and Kaitee NEVER does!). I was a bit frustrated with Matt & his GPS (aka "Nellie," lol). When I saw that all 4 kids were asleep, I showed him the pictures and said, "Congratulations, you officially broke the kids". Remember to add the sarcasm...it was laid on pretty thick when I said that to him.

We spent the night in Athens, AL and then started home early the next morning. After a lot of together time in the van (2300 miles in 5 days), Matt wrapped up the trip well when he said this...

"If time was no factor, if we didn't cut off the last two or three days of this trip, we would have done things differently. We did what we could, in the time that we had to do it.

I hope that when we look back on this trip, we remember Emmett Till & the rights of every person, the laughs we shared in Yazoo City, the rolling green hills of Vicksburg, eating beignets in New Orleans, the wind blowing in their hair on the air boat with the gators and the sand between their toes on Pensacola Beach."

I'd say those are some pretty good memories to walk away with!