October On The Beach

October is my favorite month of all, but it is specially nice on the beach here in Pensacola Beach during  October. The kiddos are back in school, the crowds disappear and it cools off a little bit. October is perfect!

October also has a little of everything as far as sports go. There's plenty of football, baseball and even hockey to watch at our favorite sports bar. This makes the Murph happy!

I like it too! This is my Sangria to sip on while I watch.

October is also the perfect time for a beach wedding, unless a tropical storm or hurricane comes through. That didn't happen this past weekend though and we had three different sunset weddings right here on the beach, one on Friday, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. The lucky brides and grooms had absolutely gorgeous weather for their weddings. 

I got pictures of the beach setup for the Sunday wedding. Pretty!

Last Tuesday we drove back down to St. Petersburg, Florida, the Murph, Phantom and I, to look for a place to rent when we move down at the end of the month. Wednesday and Thursday were non-stop, 9am till 6pm, searching and looking at houses and condos in the area from Palm Harbor down to St. Pete Beach and all places in between. 

We narrowed it down to three places, but still haven't decided. Then a new rental came on the market when we got back home that I really like so it will be up to our realtor to take a look at it for us since we aren't there. I'm a little nervous that we didn't lock down anything and decent rentals go fast around there. I've also just discovered the abundance of sinkholes around the area of Pinellas county. I thought sink holes were further inland. I didn't realize there could be some so close to the ocean. 

Another thing we discovered is Treasure Island beach. Treasure Island is the beach just north of St. Pete Beach and south of Clearwater Beach. We found a rental a couple of blocks from the beach and told our realtor about it. She asked us if we had actually seen the beach at Treasure Island. We said we hadn't but assumed it was similar to St. Pete Beach since it was so close. Our realtor told us we needed to walk out on the beach and check it out. It wasn't exactly like the other beaches. She said the water was a LONG, LONG way away from the parking lot. She said she hated that beach because you had to walk forever in the hot sun and the hot sand just to get to the water.

The Murph and I both assumed that she just didn't exercise or like to walk far.  Many people don't. We knew the beaches down there were huge compared to what we were use to in Pensacola Beach. We smugly thought she was just being a complainer who didn't want to have to walk anywhere. We decided to check it out for ourselves after we left her. I mean how far could the water be? How much bigger could a beach be than what we had seen in St. Pete Beach in front of the Tradewinds Resort?

Well let's just say we owe the realtor a huge apology! We walked through the entry to the beach and all we could see was sand. And sand dunes. And way, way, way, WAY down toward the horizon, a little sliver of water. I'm pretty sure that was the ocean, but after we walked what seemed like half a mile, we turned around and headed back to the car. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of it. I wish I did because it was amazing. Here's a picture I found online. See the wide sandy area? It looks much bigger in person!

All I could think was, "Honey, we're not in Pensacola Beach anymore!"

This is Pensacola Beach
See the water
See how close

One more thing...

We learned that tourist season in Clearwater Beach/St. Pete Beach is November through April. This is opposite what we are use to in Pensacola Beach. Tourist season here is during the summer months - Memorial Day through Labor Day. It's actually pretty chilly in Pensacola during January, just like Birmingham. But windier!