All Good Things Must Come to an End

Sadly, time marches on despite our wishes.

Thus the day arrived when we must say goodbye to Panama City Beach.

Finding myself too keyed up and not wanting to miss one more minute of our vacation, I decided to venture up onto the Sunrise Deck of the Condo building.

After all, the last family non-Masonic Lodge related vacation occurred 13 years ago and who knows when we will be able to experience something like this again?

Ironically, our last 'true' vacation found us on another seashore, that time in Nags Head, North Carolina, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

The Foodie Daughter and I bravely ventured up to the 15th floor Sunrise Deck of the condo building.

Did I mention that it was windy and chilly?

The West Bay can be seen in the distance to the north.

I'm going to miss this view.

Say goodbye to our view from the balcony of our unit.

We headed east to Panama City before finding our way north.

I love these palm trees.

Ooh, looky!

Cypress trees!

Yeah, I know, I'm a rube Yankee.

I just love seeing all the Spanish moss hanging from the trees.

Spanish moss is not a moss at all, but is rather a member of the pineapple family.

Of course you knew that pineapples are bromeliads, right?

Spanish moss is an epiphyte, meaning that it just uses the tree as a support and does not harm the tree in any way.

It is a separate living organism that does not attack the tree.

Looks like we found our fall color again.

Water wheel below a dam near I-65.

Since it's daylight, I would assume this is Alabama.

Of the 14 hour trip home, nearly half that time was spent in Alabama.

Birmingham, Alabama skyline.

Nashville, Tennessee in the evening.

Have I mentioned how difficult it is to get a good night picture from a moving vehicle?

Finally, after all day on the road, we arrived home, safe, sound and tired.

Unfortunately, it started raining while I was driving in northern Alabama.

We drove through rain for the rest of the trip.

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In the end, we had traveled 1,592.3 miles on this trip.

The trip home was 770 miles.

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Still, I would gladly make this trip again.