Bama Here We Come!

We went on another trip.  Instead of doing a week long vacation we decided to take a couple short road trips.  I'm so happy we did.  We headed to Alabama a couple weekends ago.  Why Alabama?  I've been hearing that it has the best beaches within road tripping distance...if you call 8 hours short. :) 

It was long, but totally worth the hours in the car.  Audrey was a champ and surprisingly we had so much fun on the way there and on the way home.  We crossed three states, watched movies, played trivia, searched for ABC's, read books, and talked about life.  It was a much needed break after begin through so much together in the last couple months.

When we got there we were all blown away by view out our balcony door. We were all so excited to head to the beach in the morning.  Instead we welcomed a lot of rain. We were a little bummed, but it was fun to visit the local Ron Jon and other random surf shops.  In the afternoon we got a short break in the rain and spent an hour at the beach before we got poured on.  I had to take a mental picture of the moment in my mind because it was kind of hilarious.  Everyone around us were huddled under their big umbrellas looking at us like we were crazy. We didn't have much, so we were scrambling to get everything picked up while we were getting slammed with water. We were dripping by the time we got back to the hotel.

That evening I had reserved a sunset dolphin cruise.  It wasn't exactly what I had imagined but it was worth every penny.  I guess in my mind I pictured a Sea World Dolphin show in the wild...kind of sounds stupid now. :)  We got to see so many dolphins.  Their fins would poke out of the water every now and then and toward the end of our trip we got to see a few baby dolphins play with each other, which was exactly what I was hoping for.  The captain of the boat was so nice to Audrey and let her drive the boat.  Audrey felt like she was sailing the never seas with her crew and she was Jake.  The whole experience was priceless and the bay was beautiful! 

The next day I was determined to have a beach day.  I bought a really big beach umbrella and we spent almost the entire day at the beach.  It rain a little bit, but over all, was a really nice day.  Audrey gathered a bucket of sea shells, she made a sand castle, we had lunch on the beach, we swam in the ocean, and had a good time on the boogie board.  It was the kind of fun that makes you never want to leave a place. 

 Audrey learned what salt water tastes like and that sand starts to hurt your unmentionables when you've been sitting in it all day. 

We went out to eat, we had late night ice cream runs, we bought cheesecake from the iconic cheesecake bakery, we watched a couple hallmark movies, and saw the hotel's pet alligator.

It was sad to say goodbye to the ocean.  I know I live close to it, but our beach isn't as nice.  

Someday we'll go back, and next time I'll stay a couple more days.