Day 2 Cruising for Dolphins and Wrestling Alligators

We woke this morning to beautiful water and clean beaches. Apparently the tide has more to do with the beaches being clean than the efforts of the cleanup crews. Other than the occasional tar ball the beaches are just like they always have been. I have never seen the ocean so calm. The water is so smooth not even a ripple and you can see for miles. The down side is the heat. You can’t escape the searing humidity which pulls the sweat out of you like ringing out a wet dish towel. We beg for wind to help with the blistering heat.

We ventured out into the water more this morning. The water is so clear. The kids are enjoying the occasional sighting of a stingray and blue crabs. The surf is extremely calm so we can actually stand in knee deep water and not get blasted by a huge wave. This helps us to comply with the health advisories which recommend not swimming in the water. In our book wading is not swimming.

The President buzzed our beach house in the Presidential Helicopter as he took a look at the beaches. I think we all said in unison “should have been here yesterday”.

This afternoon we all set sail in search of dolphins. Thanks to the Southern Rose cruise ship we idled the back water bays to find several porpoises on purpose.

The Southern Rose headed back to port and we experienced that magic hour that seems to occur every afternoon down here. What a great relaxing trip.

Oh and we wrestled a few alligators as well.

Beach 2010 - Day 1

Leaving at 4:30 AM on Saturday morning was a good idea and quite frankly I did not think it would happen considering we were still packing at midnight. Much to my surprise we hit the road at 4:28AM headed to Gulf Shores. After 10 hours of highway and a few quick stops along the way we arrived in Gulf Shores very tired and hoping to not find what we were afraid of.

Pulling off our shoes and doing the funny walk across the hot sand we seen what we feared. After catching our breath one loan beach lover looked up at us and said “it arrived yesterday”.

We are here to stay. We discovered that you can back up a bit from the surf and it is as if it is not there. You can hear the surf, feel the sun and smell the breeze. However you can’t escape the dropped chins of the beach walkers as they go back and forth. Our idle conversations are like this: “Well, I guess we will make the best of It.”, “What else are we going to do”, “Just terrible.”

Shelling peas was an exciting part of our afternoon. I guess the kids are “making the best of it” as well. We may discover that vacations are not about a destination but more about rest (Sabbath).