Dog Island 2009

The Hansen family enjoyed a heavenly week on Dog Island! Below, our travels detailed and some photos to capture some of the beauty!

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Saturday 6.20

Alarms set for 4:00 am. Well ... supposed to be set for 4:00 am. However, I guess the day setting (M-F versus weekend) is important ... causing the alarm NOT to go off and us not getting up until 4:30am! Considering we didn't go to bed until 12:30am, we were pretty tired and slept pretty hard for those few hours!

Amazingly, the Hansen's were out the door just after 5am and on our way to Joplin to meet up with Uncle Dick & Aunt Marilyn & Cousin Zoe! We arrived in Joplin around 7:30, finished loading the Ruestman truck ... transferred Kylie and Dayne to their truck ... and started our 18 hour journey to Dog Island, Florida. The Ruestman Crew stopped for breakfast and the Hansen Crew kept driving so we got separated early on in the trip, but we met up in Montgomery, AL about 9:00 Saturday night. It wasn't the nicest of hotels, but it was a place to sleep ... so we didn't do much more than shower and sleep!

Sunday 6.21

We hit the road Sunday morning about 8:00 and drove until about 1:30 ... when we stopped for lunch at Boss Oyster. We ate lunch on the deck and watched the fishin' and shrimpin' boats whiz by! It was cool that we were eating lunch right next to the very boats that caught our lunch!

Lunch took longer than we had wanted it to, we still had a bit of driving til we were in Carrabelle, FL (our pick up point for the ferry) AND we still had to get all our groceries for the week. As it turned out, our timing was just about perfect! We stopped at the local grocery store and bought all our food and water for the week (once you get to the island you don't want to leave! The ferry fare is $70 each way!). While the girls went to the grocery store, the boys went to the bait shop and to buy *fresh!* shrimp! We finished shopping and headed to the dock about 4:30 and waited for our Captain to arrive!

Graden and Zoe (his cousin's daughter)
Graden - looking relaxed and adorable

TJ, Nana, Tiffany and Kylie

We finally arrived at the island at 5:37! Heaven had arrived! Sunday proved to be a very busy day ... lots of driving, then meal planning, then shopping, then loading food for 11 for 7 days in the trucks, then loading all that food and our other stuff on the ferry, then unloading all that stuff from the ferry and hauling it to the house (luckily, our house came with a 4 Runner!). We really got to relax about 7:00 Sunday night! Vacation had finally begun!

The view from the deck. The entire back side of the house was sliding (glass) doors with a panoramic view of the beach and ocean (well, gulf technically).

Monday 6.22

The morning started with a little bit of sleeping in ... then headed to the beach after breakfast! We sat on the beach, read books, played in the water, played in the sand ... and served AS LUNCH for the flies! There wasn't enough buy spray to keep the darned things away! That was very discouraging ... so we just hoped for them to go away!

Monday night we had Shrimp Scampi, mushrooms and salad -- yummmmy! The Ruestman family joined us for dinner ... and made it a great night! All the kids settled in for a movie while the adults chit-chatted!

Everyone getting ready to enjoy dinner!

Tuesday 6.23

Graden and Hunter headed out early Tuesday morning for a day out with a fishing guide for some off shore fishing. They fished until about 1:00 that afternoon. They caught: red fish, blue fish, Spanish mackerel, lady fish, flounder ... and maybe some more that I can't recall the names of! They also saw a 7 foot bull shark swimming right next to their boat!

While the boys fished, I spent the morning on the beach ... reading and playing in the water. I headed in for lunch, and a break from the sun, about 12:30. After lunch, I went on the deck to read and enjoy the sounds of the beach! So relaxing! Gretchen and I played Rummy 500 for a while, too!

That night we had Shrimp and veggies and rice and salad for dinner ... and again enjoyed the company of the Ruestman Crew! Sad to see another heavenly day go by, but thankful we had 3 full days left!

Wednesday 6.24

As with many days on the Island, the boys started the day some early morning fishing from kayaks Graden had rented for a few days! I got up to watch the sun rise and watch the boys reel in some fish ... with hopes of adding their catch to the menu that evening!

I headed out to the beach about 8:30 and stayed until 12:30 ... then headed in for lunch. Luckily, the evening before had brought storms and had washed away all the flesh eating flies!

As with most afternoons, I spent the next few hours on the deck reading Twilight, and catching a cat nap every now and then! Life was good on the island, I tell ya!

That evening we joined the Ruestman's at their cottage for a variety of seafood: Shrimp (of course!) and the fish the boys had caught that morning and during Tuesday's fishing expedition

Thursday 6.25

Thursday morning started off the same as most others: boys went fishing from the kayaks … then from the shore, I headed to the beach after breakfast ... read and swam until about 12:30 then headed in for lunch, reading and cat naps!

Gretchen took the kids for a walk on the beach Thursday late afternoon ... it was nice for them to explore and wear off some of their energy!

Thursday evening we hosted dinner at our place ... with the Ruestman's brining over a wonderful pot roast and veggies! We added some left over shrimp and pasta, salad and other misc. veggies and had another great dinner!

After dinner, Donna and I went for a short walk on the beach. It had been 30 years since she had been to Dog Island, so she really enjoyed seeing how much had stayed the same ... yet, how much had changed, too!

Friday 6.26

Friday morning started the same as the others: early morning fishing for the boys! … and one last morning on the beach for me!

Later in the afternoon, the big boys took TJ out for some fishing and he caught a baby shark!
The day was spent just lounging around … hanging out at the beach and absorbing every last minute of it! Dinner consisted of leftovers from the week – and what a variety we had! It was so delicious, too! After dinner, we headed to the bay side of the island to look for shells and to watch the sunset. As beautiful as the pictures are, they don’t come close to capturing how perfect the evening was!

We replicated a photo of Graden and Gretchen (taken in 1979-ish) with Hunter and Dayne.

Kids at the sunset at the bay.

Sunset at the Bay

Saturday 6.27

Saturday was a bitter sweet day … the day to pack it all up and start the journey home! It’s good to get away, and it’s good to go home!

Graden and Hunter got in one last morning of fishing while I started the process of organizing cleaning the house, washing the bedding, doing laundry, etc. It was a lot of work, but so worth it! We all worked together to get the house cleaned and back in order and headed to the dock to load back on the ferry at 3:00! Dayne and Kylie joined the Ruestman Crew earlier that morning.

Graden and I on the deck of the cottage.

Hunter on the ferry boat back to the main land. Good bye, Dog Island!

We got back to the mainland (Carrabelle, FL) and made a quick stop at a gift shop and to visit the smallest police station (which consists solely of a phone booth!) … then hit the road for some serious driving time!

We drove until about 11:30 Saturday night, stopping in Jasper, AL. It had been a very long day!

Sunday 6.28
Sunday morning we slept in just a little … waiting to hit the road until 8:30, after enjoying a continental breakfast at the hotel. We drove and drove and drove … finally stopping for a small break – and an ice cream treat! – in Hardy, AR. Dick and Marilyn stop at this ice cream parlor when they pass through, so we had to stop to see what all the fuss was about! … and it was refreshingly delicious!

We finally arrived in Joplin, MO around 6:15 Sunday evening to get Dayne and Kylie; they arrived a few hours earlier. Dick was kind enough to have grilled some hot dogs, so we joined them for one last meal before hitting the road and arriving back home about 9:30.

Long drives, lots of people in small spaces, but overall a great vacation! I’d be very happy if we had the opportunity to visit Dog Island again!