Enjoying the Emerald Coast Kinda Life

It's weird, but we settled into beach life almost instantaneously upon arriving in Pensacola/Navarre.

The change from living in San Diego to living in Navarre is pretty extreme. First of all, San Diego has a population of over a million people. Navarre has just under 30,000. In San Diego, we lived in a very densely populated neighborhood where privacy was nonexistent. We could look out the back of our house and see I-15. And hear it for that matter. Where we're located now, you have to drive out on a state route for a ways, then turn off onto a county road before you turn again into our neighborhood which consists of three streets. Heheh. There's a dirt road that runs parallel to the main road in our development. A red dirt road at that. We live near NOTHING. It isn't convenient to bring home takeout for dinner. The nearest Target is something like 20 miles away. The nearest mall is an hour away. And I LOVE IT!!

We go to the beach at least once a week. The beach is only a few miles away. Have you ever been to the Gulf Coast of Florida? I've been to beaches at the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in America and the beaches here are the prettiest out of them all in my opinion. Pure white sand and water that's so clear that you can look down and see your feet and fish and stuff even in water so deep that you can't touch bottom. It's also a pretty blue/green color. Sometimes it's so calm that there are barely any waves at all. And I mean no waves as in, no white caps. The water is also bath water warm. In San Diego, the water is cold even in July and August. Tingly, prickly cold. In all the years I lived there and for all the many, many things I love about San Diego, I was never a fan of the beaches. They're too cold and there is never anywhere to park.

Navarre's motto is "Florida's Best Kept Secret". We definitely have tourists, but there's only a few resort-type hotels on the beach so it's never wall to wall people. If you drive a few miles down the road to Pensacola Beach, you'll find a typical, coastal tourist town with hotels everywhere, a boardwalk, and swarms of people. They can keep it. I love the laid back atmosphere of Navarre.

I know it's early and I'll probably be changing my tune come Christmas shopping time, but I don't even miss the amenities of living in a big city. Here, I get outside all the time to walk the dog, chat with the neighbors (Yes. You read that right. I actually talk with my neighbors and they're super sweet and even invited us to a neighborhood 4th of July party.), poke at the flowers and plants in my yard, or go to the beach. Everywhere else we've lived, getting out of the house always meant going shopping.

Tonight, we drove to the beach after the Mister got home from work. It was after six and most everyone had gone home for the day. We sat in our chairs in the sand while the sun set, gathered everything up and went home for dinner about an hour later. What'd you do tonight??