Spring Break at the Beach

I really wish I was back here right now!

We spent nearly all last week spring breaking down on the Alabama Gulf Coast last week.  Neither of us is a teacher or works at a school, but given the time of year and the people we were with, I'll call it spring breaking just for the fun of it.  My Chicago relatives told us that they were going to be down on the Gulf for Spring Break when we were all together for Thanksgiving, so Eric and I have had this little getaway planned for quite some time now (shocker I know when dealing with the king of can't-make-plans-more-than-a-week-ahead-of-time).  It just happened to fall on the same week that out SIL was out for Spring Break as well, so we made a fun trip of it!  The weather did not exactly cooperate the way we were hoping, but we still managed to have a blast and ended up doing a lot more than we would have otherwise if we had laid on the beach for 5 days straight.

We got there Saturday night (because Eric HAD to go fishing in his new boat on Saturday morning).  It was kind of nice not to be rushing out of town on Friday afternoon and being able to take my time packing and getting the house ready. Since we pulled in late, we opted for a late dinner, which was a great idea considering all of the spring breakers in town.  We ended up at an Italian restaurant called Cafe Grazie and had the most amazing dinner.  The bread/olive oil mixture was the best I have ever had, and my pizza was delicious!  We'd gotten in touch with my Chicago family earlier in the day and had planned to meet up with them after dinner since they were getting into town a little after we were, so we headed to the place they were staying to say hello and hang out for a little bit.

Row 1: Eric and I on the balcony. Tera and I at Bellingrath Gardens. Eric and Faith. Lily and I (You know we had fun when those are the only pics we have in 4 days with my Chicago family!).  Row 2: Bobby, Tera, me, and Eric on the dock on Bon Secour Bay.

The next day my SIL and I were DETERMINED to get in some beach time. It was warm and windy, although we did not realize exactly how windy it was until we got out to the beach.  Let's just say we felt like we were in the middle of a dust storm in the middle of a desert.  It was not pretty, but we were going to lay dangit! After a couple of hours of being beaten by the sand and having our towels buried in it we gave up and went home to lay out on their deck.  It was just as warm with 100% less wind.  I have never had as much sand on me as I did when we got back.  It took FOREVER to get it out of our hair.   When the boys got back from fishing we got cleaned up and headed back to my aunt and uncle's place for dinner.  We spent the evening hanging out and playing the most hilarious card game I have ever played.  I am pretty sure I have not laughed that hard in a long time.

Clockwise from top left: Pizza from Cafe Grazie. Fried Shrimp and beer from Sea and Suds in Gulf Shores.  Chocolate pie and homemade whipped cream (made by my SIL). Chicken Salad and Pimento Cheese with pita chips....YUM! 

Monday the wind was still hanging around and our warm weather decided to go away making the beach impossible, so we did what any level-headed women would do....we shopped!  We took on the Tanger Outlet Mall in Foley, and scored some GREAT deals!  40% off everything at Old Navy and 60% everything at Ann Taylor...don't mind if I do! That night we went to visit one of the guys Eric coaches with and his family and check out their new camper. They just happened to be staying at and park right across the street from my aunt and uncle, so after we hung out there for a couple of hours we headed back across the street for some more cards and good times!

Tuesday was a little less windy but just as cold. The boys set to work painting the house (one of the reasons we went down there in the first place), so my SIL and I decided to find something else fun to do. We ended up at Bellingrath Gardens right outside of Mobile, AL.  We were hoping to catch the azaleas blooming, but were about and week late to see them at full force.  Don't worry, we still got to see lots of beautiful flowers! That night we drove over to Pensacola to have dinner with Eric's aunt and uncle. We had not seen them since last summer so it was great to spend an evening with them.  His aunt is an amazing cook and we left there with full bellies!

And now we interrupt our regularly scheduled SB recap post for some beautiful garden pics....post resumes below =)

Clockwise from top:  Mirror Lake.  Orchids in the green house. Hydrangeas, hydrangeas, hydrangeas (and a baby pineapple)!

Clockwise from top left: Decorative cabbage...who knew!? One of the surviving azaleas.  The backside of the garden entrance.

Clockwise from top left: Cow koi! Not sure what these pink flowers are but they were so pretty! I thought this tree trunk looked like an elephant foot...so cool!

Clockwise from top left: Me by the lake.  Pretty waterfall pod. Tera and I with the azaleas. 

Clockwise from top left: Bamboo trees. A really cool succulent. The azaleas may have been finished blooming, but the tulips were still going full force!  

Ok non-flower lovers are you still with me?! As promised....the rest of the recap:

Since it was still not quite beach weather on Wednesday we opted to just hang out while the boy finished up painting. I think the most productive thing we did was make some homemade pimento cheese (which is one of my new favorite things to eat).  Eric and I were actually supposed to come home on Weds, but they boys had to finish up the painting while we were there, and they were not quite done, so we stayed.  That night we went to Eric's coaching friend's camper again for a crawfish/shrimp boil!  The food was AMAZING and the company was great.  We even got the boys to take some sunset pictures with us on the bay (We bribed them for beach pics, but ran out of time to go to the beach before we had to be there.  We got much better pics on the bay with the sunset anyway!).

Clockwise from top left: My new coozie:  A Little Bit Yankee, A Little Bit Yall...I am pretty sure it was MADE for me!  The Carnival Triumph (aka the poop ship) is STILL docked in Mobile (although it apparently started floating away yesterday after it hit something!).  A horned owl and one of it's babies in their nest in the RV park we went to.  My beach towel after our windy day at the beach...I was LAYING ON IT while this happened.  

Since we like to prolong our beach trips as long as we possibly can, and since we're just 3.5 hours from there, we took full advantage of the only decently warm, non-windy day we had.  My SIL and I headed to the condo where my aunt and uncle were staying to lay out at their pool and get to see them one last time while the boys did some fishing.    We got packed up and headed home around 5pm.  As much as we enjoyed our trip, nothing compared to the 3 wiggly butts that greeted us with happy whines and barks when we got home!

Sunset on the bay.....absolutely beautiful!