Rexes head East!

 

This year, we were presented with the choice of going west for the annual Rex reunion, or joining Dale's Kearl cousins in Florida...after some deliberation, we chose Florida! Here's how our trip went:



Saturday 7/21 the girls get strep. We get them on antibiotics and pack the car.

Sunday 7/22 we load up and start driving east. We stopped in Shreveport, LA to visit the Waterworks Museum.

We also stopped at Barksdale Global Power Museum. The boys looked at all the planes outside while the girls recovered from the smothering heat inside. (That's a blackbird behind us)

We drove to Monroe, LA for the night. While Dale filled up on gas he dropped us off at a random park, in a random neighborhood (but we all survived).

We got hardly any sleep that night...

Monday 7/23 we got up, ate breakfast, and drove to Vicksburg, MS to see Vicksburg National Military Park. We were astounded at the sheer number of memorials and monuments there! Thankfully we could drive to all of them, and even that took us hours.

We learned about William Thomas Rex who served in the Civil War on Dale's side of the family, and Israel Chuster Lambert on Judy's side, who actually served in Vicksburg. He served in the Union with E Company, 2nd Regiment, New Jersey Calvary.

After we saw the USS Cairo, someone pointed out our tire was low, so we rushed to the tire store and they got our tire fixed in 1/2 an hour! We finished the last little bit of the park and headed to our hotel in Mobile, AL. We got to swim in the hotel pool and eventually got to bed.

Tuesday 7/24 we ate breakfast and left for the USS Alabama. Judy's grandpa Lt Edward Bundy served on the Alabama, so it was exciting to finally go see where he ate, slept, worked, etc, and to show our kids. We had no idea that touring the Alabama, the military pavilion and the submarine USS Hull would take so long! We were exhausted by the end after having climbed up and down several decks.

Lt Edward Bundy's room!

Once we were done with the Alabama, we loaded up and headed to Navarre Beach, FL. We missed the turn and those extra minutes it took us were torture! Once we got to the beach house, we unloaded our swim bag and headed to the beach, which was right behind the house. We hunted for sea shells, and it was fun watching our kids enjoy the ocean...except Becca. She hated the waves the entire time we were there!

Dale's cousins and aunt/uncle all arrived and we got settled in.

Wednesday 7/25-Friday 7/27 were spent almost entirely at the beach. When we weren't at the beach, we were eating or resting in the house. Judy and Kimball went souvenir shopping, we played card games, and slept. Each family took turns cooking/cleaning up meals, and it was so incredibly low-key. We collected dozens of amazing sea shells, made lots of castles, chased sand crabs, the kids all ran around and played, boogie-boarded, and soaked it all in.

Saturday 7/28 we had to get up and pack. Lily woke up saying her feet hurt, and we thought they were asleep, but they kept hurting. Once everyone was out, we drove down the road to another beach where we had one last fling with the ocean. Some of our group swam out to an artificial reef. Then we showered off, changed, and loaded up the van.

Traffic through Fl and Al was terrible. Lily cried practically the entire way home. It was a long, hard drive, and we got home around 1:30 am. But, we were home! What an incredible trip-we loved spending that time with the Kearl family, and it was hard to leave the beautiful ocean. Thanks for inviting us!