Day at the Beach

 

Groan. The weekend is really over?!? Trying not to let it get me down! Monday’s seem extra hard after a kick butt weekend! Here is what you missed since Friday:

Friday Favorites: Weddings!

Spiders and Ticks and Wild Hogs…Oh My!!

That covers my weekend up through Friday night. I knew Saturday was going to be a beautiful day, so I made a plan for us to do a longish (for these days!) run on the Ocean Springs bridge and on the beach. I packed us a picnic lunch so we could enjoy the outdoors and the beach after our run. I love when I have a good idea! We had not yet run by the beach yet or the bridge, so I was excited!

We parked and headed towards the bridge first.

The bridge is around 3.5 miles long, and is a GIANT hill, but I was ready to tackle it! I had a hat on, and we got going and WOW the wind was CRAZY strong and I had to take my hat off because it kept trying to fly away! It was beautiful, sunny, and not too hot! The wind made it really bearable. The hill was a KILLER! It’s a .5 mile climb, and then there is a smaller one at the end. We made it to the other side by one of the casinos and saw there was some kind of car show going on.

 

I am NOT a car person. There were all just sitting there with their hoods popped. I guess I can’t judge though, people think I am crazy for running distance races!

We climbed the crazy hill again and made it to the top. There was a little place that went out over the water and had a bench, so we stopped and took some pictures of the ocean.

There were these cool mile markers along the way to help runners/walkers. Oh, and in case you were worried about our safety, there was a separate walkway for runners and bikers on the side of the bridge.

Here is a shot of a mile markers, and just to show you how crazy the wind was…check out my hair!

Oh, and just in case you were wondering about the ugly color of the water and lack of giant waves, the ocean on the MS coast is not as nice or pretty as the Alabama/Florida beaches. We are way close to the MS river here, and there are lots of islands, so it’s blocked/protected so there aren’t these massive waves, but there are some.

We made a quick stop back at the car to get more water, and then we headed back out, this time along the beach.

Heading out the wind was pushing SO HARD against us I was having to fight really hard just to keep a decent pace and I was getting frustrated! So we decided to take it slow with walk breaks and just enjoy being at the beach.

We made it to the end of this particular part of the beach and turned around to go back to the car. I didn’t realize Bobby was taking the picture yet. What’s new.

See the bridge in the background with the huge hill on it? Ya. That’s what we ran!

Running this way the wind wasn’t a factor so it was much more pleasant to actually run in. We ended up doing right at 6 miles in a couple minutes over an hour. I used to have to work really hard for 6 miles in an hour, so considering the massive hills, wind, and the fact that we took it slow and took walk breaks, I was proud of myself.

We drove about a quarter mile to a park right on the beach we had just run on. I had spotted some picnic tables on a hill facing the beach at the park while we were running, so that is where we planned to go.

Here is the cool park across the street from the beach!

one of my favorite beach houses!

the cool playground and water spouts the kids were playing in!

 

We ate our lunch at a table looking out at the beach. It was so relaxing and fun. I packed us turkey sandwiches, water, Gatorade, apple slices, and sun chips.

the huge bridge we ran again!

After we ate we headed home and did some yard work, then later decided to head back to the beach to eat dinner at a new casino buffet that had just opened. They had so many choices and it was so yummy! I don’t have pictures from inside. Casinos are so weird about you taking pictures inside! I did get a shot when we were walking out of the OLD Ocean springs bridge.

Katrina completely destroyed the old bridge, so they built the new bridge that we ran on that morning. Here is a shot of the old one destroyed by Katrina with the new one next to it.

crazy right? That hurricane was a beast I tell you!

So, that was our super fun Saturday! Yesterday, we went to church and played volleyball and threw the Frisbee in the park in front of our house. Bobby also worked on his golf swing, nearly killing Bella with a golf ball in the process! It was an overall relaxing and wonderful weekend! I hope yours was great too!

QOTD: Do you have somewhere scenic you like to run?