Ft. Walton Beach, FL

Feb 21-23

My Mom wanted to see my Great Uncle Jack because he was down in Florida, right in our way!  I did too, because I hadn’t seen him in at least 5 years.  When we pulled into his driveway, he let us plug in.  We talked for a while, and he showed us around.  He was an interesting guy, he was even in the Air Force!  We went out for dinner at a family restaurant because the Italian one we were going to go to had a really long line.  The food was fine, I mean, nothing to what my Dad makes, but it was fine.  The next day, we hung out, and then went to the beach.  We ate some sea food at the Crab Trap, and when Ty and I were full, we took the buckets down to the beach and waited for the rest of them to finish lunch.  It took a while but they came out.  Tyler and I attached our buckets and shovels to our shorts and started dancing around.  It made a lot of noise and made some people smile.  Kitty, Uncle Jack’s wife, and Jane, Kitty’s daughter, went back home.  Uncle Jack and my family stayed back to have ice cream.  We got some frozen yogurt and it was good, but we should’ve gotten ice cream instead.  The next day they wanted us over for breakfast.  We ate it up, said goodbye and left.

~Jack

We could not pass thru Ft. Walton Beach without seeing my Mom's brother, and favorite Uncle Jack!  We parked in his driveway for a couple of nights.

After sending out our Christmas cards, this is a portion of the correspondence that I received from him:

"Imagine my surprise to receive a Christmas card from Santa Barbara, California on 23 December not knowing anyone there.  I hastened to open it to find your lovely, annual pictorial Christmas card and, even more exciting, that Scout was taking you on a National Tour IHO his Golden Hour.  What a sport!  Kitty and I and family would love to host Scout and his assistants at Mt. Rural, Fort Walton Beach, FL.  It would make us very happy to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime adventure."

Driving up his street on Friday afternoon, we had a warm welcome as he was waiting on the driveway for us! We got settled in and Jack & Tyler begun telling their tales of our travels and showing him & Kitty our photos.  Uncle Jack started telling us his stories too.  He is a retired Lt. Col in the USAF and flew dozens of planes and went on a couple Tours of Duty.  He has been to 40 countries, spanning 6 continents! He is still tack sharp with an unbelievable memory!

We went out for a bite to eat along with Kitty's daughter, Jane who we just met for the first time.  The three of them sure do have a lot of laughs together which was so nice to see. 

On Saturday, Jane's son, Ed came by.  He was a lot of fun too and we enjoyed chatting with him before we went over to the beach for a late lunch.

Here is a selfie I took of me and Scott...I can't believe I am saying this but, I love his goatee and long hair!  

The sun was starting to set so I was able to coerce the guys to stick around for a few more minutes while Kitty and Jane headed home.  We took a walk out onto the pier and grabbed a couple more pics.

I promised the boys some ice-cream so we made a quick pit stop on the way home.  Not a fan of the frozen yogurt...next time I am getting the real thing!

Another thunder and lightening storm passed thru...Scout was all nervous again, trying to crawl into spaces that would barely fit a 10 lb baby let alone a 100lb golden retriever! Poor guy.

We had a really nice visit and so glad we stopped thru!  Off to see more friends and family...stay tuned!

~Linda