New Year's Getaway to Fort Walton Beach - Saturday, December 31, 2022 - January 2, 2023

Last minute, we decided to spend New Year's at the beach, so Saturday morning we left about 7:15 a.m. and headed to Fort Walton Beach.  We were able to check in early to our hotel, the Fairfield Inn & Suites Fort Walton Beach - West Destin which is right on the beach.  We splurged (a whole $20 for two nights) to book their Executive Suite which gave us a nice sectional couch and more space.  You can see the gulf from the window of our room.

The view from our window

Art in the room - notice anything interesting about the left one?

After checking in, we headed to the beach and walked over three miles (round-trip) down to the fishing pier and back.

Laughing Gull

Sanderling

Laughing Gull (I never noticed the tip of their beak has a touch of bright orange)

Sanderling

Immature Ring-billed Gull

Rock Pigeon

Flock of Laughing Gulls in the haze that covered parts of the beach

Laughing Gull

Immature Ring-billed Gull with a snack

Osprey

View from the fishing pier looking back towards our hotel

Ruddy Turnstone

Great Blue Heron - Where there are fishermen and women, there often is a Great Blue Heron looking for an easy meal!

We went back to the hotel to re-group and then headed back out again just before sunset to catch the last sunset of the year.  It was quite cloudy so the colors were not all that spectacular themselves but nothing beats a sunset with the sound of crashing waves in the background.

We headed back to the beach at about 7:30 p.m. to get set up for the fireworks scheduled for 8:00 p.m.  It was quite a bit foggy so I was a bit worried as to what we would see but it turned out we had a great view.  They were very short but beautiful.

Trying to capture the constellation Orion as well as a couple walking the beach

I won't lie and tell you we went to some great New Year's party.  We are morning people not night people and I wanted to catch the first sunrise of the year.  So as we have done just about every other year, we were in bed well before midnight.  The New Year always is still there the next day so I figure we really don't miss anything.

The next morning we were up well before sunrise to find the our world clothed in heavy fog.  Even with the fog, we still decided to drive over Ross Marler Park where there is a fishing pier and east facing beach.  There was a small pond that we passed on our way to the fishing pier where a chorus of what I assume are frogs were singing in the new year.  Once we arrived at the pier, the fog was so dense you could see far but every so often gulls would fly past.  Various birds started to wake and sing.  A loon in winter plumage appeared a little ways off the dock.  At one point a fisherman in a paddle boat emerged from the fog.

Loon

Great Blue Heron

We never saw the sun rise although the sky continued to brighten so we eventually headed back to the hotel for breakfast where I discovered they had oat milk for my coffee!  This is the second Fairfield in the last two months that has offered a dairy free milk at breakfast!  

The fog looked like it might be starting to lift a bit around 11:00 a.m. so we headed out again with plans to have lunch at The Gulf on Okaloosa Island and check out the Ross Marler Park and fishing pier when the fog wasn't so thick.  It was a little over a mile walk and as we walked, more blue appeared in the sky as the fog continued to lift.

The Gulf is a restaurant where you order at a counter and then find a table and they bring the food to you.  It is quite a large place.  The food is good and the views of the water are great.

After we ate, we moved to some seats right on the water while I enjoyed a drink.  From their we watched the loons and even saw a couple dolphins.

Common Loon

Immature Laughing Gulls - they were hanging around because people were feeding the fish.

Right as a large group of jet skis went by, we saw at least two different dolphins.

Brown Pelicans

We then walked over to Ross Marler Park, right next to The Gulf but didn't see a lot of wildlife with the exception of these two Great Blue Herons and an Osprey.

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

Osprey

We then started the walk back to the hotel and as we did the fog started to build again.  We relaxed in the hotel a bit and then headed out to walk the beach once more just before sunset which occur in a cloak of fog just as sunrise did.  Ironically, it started to clear shortly after sunset.

By this point, the bottom 6 inches of my dress was pretty wet and it was a bit cool so we headed back to the room to shower, change, and relax for the evening.  Our beach trip was quickly coming to an end.  The sound of the waves, the fresh air, the birds, the dolphins, even the fog all made the weekend a bit magical and rejuvenated my soul.  Here is a short video of some of the highlights of the weekend.

Monday morning, I took one last moment to breathe in the salty air and listen to the waves crashing on the sand before we headed home.

On the way home, we made a stop at Hank Williams, Sr. boyhood home in Georgiana, Alabama.  Harim "Hank" Williams Sr was born in 1923 in Mount Olive, AL which is about 15 miles north of Birmingham.  We visited the Hank Williams boyhood home in Georgiana, AL where Hank lived from about the ages of 7 - 11.  Georgiana is about 45 minutes South of Montgomery and almost exactly the halfway point from Fort Walton Beach on the way home, so a museum Paul's been wanting to go to since moving to AL was an easy stop!  Hank is widely regarded as one of the the most significant American singers/song-writers of the 20th century with songs like "Move It on Over," "Hey Good Lookin'," and "Your Cheatin' Heart."  As with many superstars, his story is a complex one with a life that ended way too early, on New Year's Day, 1953 (not making it to age 30).  He was thought to have had spina bifida occulta which caused a life of pain which led to likely heart failure because of his treatment for the pain.  

The plaque reads:  Standing on this bench in about the year 1927, Hanks Williams performed for the first time.  Accompanied on the organ by his mother in the Mount Olive West Baptist Church, Butler County, Alabama.

Now that's a porch!  It was a really peaceful little town.  

After the visit to the museum, we made a quick stop at Priester's Pecans which is quite the stop!  Up the stairs, they even have viewing windows to watch them make candies but unfortunately, they were not operating today, probably due to the New Year's holiday.  We continued on and made it home by 2:00 p.m.