Labor Day, Florida Panhandle, Visiting Eric and Tropical Storm Lee!

Navarre Beach - a few people braved the waves when it wasn't raining

We took a road trip Labor Day weekend to visit Eric in Navarre Fl. This in on the Florida Panhandle, near Eglin AFB where he is stationed. It is about 5 hours away. We left on Friday after work and spent the night in Montgmery AL. That evening we drove through Auburn AL and saw lots of people headed to a weekend of college football. And drove in to Navarre the next day.
All week news of the coming Tropical Storm Lee made us wonder what the weather would be like. As we drove on Saturday morning the weather was sunny and warm. We didn't see much rain on the trip until we crossed in the state of Florida at Dixonville AL. Then it started to sprinkle, rain off and on. By Saturday evening, the rains picked up and Sunday it hit us full force. During Mass we had lots of thunder, lightening and rain.  (Funny cuz last time we were there for Christmas there was a tornado warning during Mass.)
We stayed in a hotel next to Eric's apartment and we were on the ground floor. I think that made us feel safer than the upper floors but I was worried something might crash through the window. We faced away from the Gulf so that helped too.

The view from our hotel room

We did get a reprieve during the day to go check out the Navarre Pier. It was windy with lots of high waves but not raining at the time.

Navarre Pier

On the pier, the wind us blowing straight back

We walked to the end of the pier, some people we actually fishing. As soon as we got back to the beach it started to rain. We had to stay dry in a near by "Hurricaine Shelter"

And thankfully - they served beverages.

Most of the weekend we hung out at the hotel, watching football and tornado warnings. Sunday nite we went to Helen Backs - good place for pizza if you every visit.

Helen Backs or another "Hurricaine Shelter"

Monday we drove back to Atlanta, followed the entire trip by Tropical Storm Lee. As we arrived home, tornado warnings were in effect for parts of the city. There was some damage to the area but not close to our house. And as you know Lee continued up the coast causing a lot of damage.
We felt thankful to be able to make the trip, spend time with Eric and be back home safe and sound.