We have been at the house we are renting while Trying a New Spot on Florida's Emerald Coast for a couple of days now. Gretchen and I hit the beach early Sunday morning and I am glad we did as the rain quickly followed as predicted. We had a relaxed day at the beach house goofing off as a family playing GameCube and trying out a new game I got for Father's Day; Tiny Epic Galaxies. The rain broke in time to watch the sunset from the third floor balcony.
We awoke today to a BEA-U-TIFUL day! An EPIC day!! Blue skies with just a few clouds. I was thrilled to find the green water the "Emerald Coast" is famous for when we crossed the street heading to the beach.
Beautiful girls, too!!
Zoe and I swam for two hours and both got pretty good sunburns on our shoulders and upper backs. Ahh... summer... 
We then drove down to Seacrest as Connor was gracious enough to let us take some photos of him.
As you can see, Zoe could not stand being out of the photos!! Hehe!! I took some of the two of them together as well.
Gretchen and I are so blessed to have these two as our children!! We finished up the day chillin' at the beach house together and enjoyed another nice sunset.
We have been fortunate enough to vacation on the Emerald Coast a number of times now, but this year we picked a new spot along this beautiful run of white sand and green water. We decided on Seacrest about half-way between Destin and Panama City Beach with a house named Beach Haven. We encountered a LOT of rain on the drive down from Atlanta, but with my interest in Covered Bridges I was thrilled for the brief break in the weather when we drove past the Pioneer Museum of Alabama and this sweet bridge.
A couple of hours later (and at the southern edge of the rain storms we drove through) we arrived at our vacation home for the week.
It was pretty comfy inside as well.
This place is a row back from the beach, but we could see the gulf from the third floor deck.
We wanted to get our feet wet, so we strolled across 30A and headed down to the beach (36 steps down to the sand).
The girls were surely glad to finally be on the beach, too!
The red and purple beach condition flags were flying today and we found our first "dangerous marine life" on the edge of the surf.
We found out later these are called Blue Buttoned Jellyfish and we saw a bunch of them. Pretty interesting looking indeed.
That (and who knows what else) accounted for the purple flag and the rough waves accounted for the red.
There was a sandbar about 20 feet into the water and Zoe and I wandered out on it.
After a while we started seeing a bunch of sea cucumbers being washed towards shore.
I have to give Zoe credit as she was braver than me by being willing to pick one of these up (after a couple of attempts!). Sorry for the fuzzy photos below of Zoe holding it and then Gretchen. It is stretched out as it was "violently contracting its muscles preparing to jettison some of its internal organs out of its anus" (yes, NatGeo is always so direct).
And just when I thought there could be no more excitement, four US Army Apache attack helicopters flew down the beach. Go Army, Beat Navy! << BTW, we FINALLY did last year after a loooooooong losing streak.
After all of that excitement, we spent some time back on the sand just relaxing and listening to the sounds of the waves rolling in.
The beach can make even a grumpy old man like me enjoy himself!!
The girls and I headed back to the house and rounded up Connor to all get into the nice pool we have in the backyard of Beach Haven.
After grilling up some chicken for dinner we wound down the day playing some old-school Mario Party on our trusty-rusty GameCube system. I played as Yoshi and you can probably tell I was not doing all that well.
Maybe we will not be so lucky the rest of the week with such good weather, but no matter what we will make it a great vacation and enjoy our time together. Again, we're so fortunate to be able have this opportunity and we are going to try to make the very best of it.
I'm in the DC Metro area this week teaching a class at the U.S. Census Bureau and on Gretchen's suggestion, I signed up for a night tour of the monuments to make sure I did take a break and have some fun while out in our nation's capital. I signed up for the Washington DC After Dark Wonder Tour and Tunde was our tour guide for our small group of 11. I have been to DC many times before, but despite Gretchen telling me that we saw the Iwo Jima Memorial (formally known at the Marine Corps War Memorial) together years ago, I simply cannot remember seeing it and it was the deciding factor for me to plop down some money for this outing.
We started last night's tour by visiting the Capital. Yes, it is summer so our "night tour" actually started before the sun went down. 
We drove by the Washington Monument instead of stopping, but you can see this 555-foot marble obelisk from just about everywhere in DC. It makes it relatively easy to "right yourself" whenever you are a bit spatially confused.
Our next stop was to my favorite monument; the Jefferson Memorial. A solid American for sure and a BEAUTIFUL monument.
Here is the big guy himself. If you cannot read the quote behind him, check out quote.JPG (a man after my own "progressive" heart & mind).
We then visited the MLK, Jr Memorial which was a treat for me as it was my first time to see this monument. An inspiring sight for a man who inspired so many then, and now.
The detail and craftsmanship are very impressive.
When then walked among the soldiers at the Korean War Veterans Memorial and yes, the sun was finally starting to give out on us.
The natural next stop was the Lincoln Memorial which was very cool to visit at night. Here's a shout-out to Georgia; my adopted home.
For those that know their way around the National Mall, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is up next.
So many names... If you have not been there, you will be amazed how long this wall is and how small the names are. Never forget!!
Speaking of humongous loss of life, the WWII Memorial was long overdue and I for one am grateful it was constructed. It is another great reminder to Never Forget.
We then meandered over to the White House; or Casablanca as Tunde referred to it. You might have thought I would be reflecting at that time on the state of America and the recent polarizing presidential election, but I was missing my son. The young boys in our tour group forced memories of the "boys trip" Connor and I took years ago to the front of my mind. I am even getting sappy thinking about that right now as I type this. I love my young man and am glad we have so many solid memories. I hope as he gets older he reflects on all the good times we have had and knows in his heart how much I love him. I am a blessed father to have TWO awesome children who I would be privileged to do ANYTHING for.
The only real bummer of the night was that because we took so long at all the other stops, we did not have enough time to make it over to the USMC Memorial. Again, this was the real driver for me coming on the trip. It was such a bummer that I decided at the end of today's work day to drive back out and see it.
The detail on these gigantic Marines is sharp indeed. Speaking of sharp, how about that cool silhouette photo I took!?!? 
All in all, I'm glad I took some time out on this work trip to be a tourist. These attractions are just the start of what DC has to offer and you could spend a week in our national capital taking it all in. If you have not been, I highly encourage you to do so – you'll be glad you did!