Joe and I just returned from a week-long vacation to Orange Beach, AL, made possible by Nita, who generously covered costs. A Fall trip to the Gulf Coast has long been a tradition for her, although, for various reasons, she'd pretty much written the trip off this year...
until, that is, she saw the Jimmy Buffet concert several weeks ago...the scenes of the sand and the water, the setting sun...well, it all made her realize that she REALLY DID want to spend a few autumn days there after all...
And so, she made it happen. Joe, Pat and I accompanied her, and we had a great time! Absolutely perfect weather, no crowds anywhere, and plenty to see and do to keep us busy. The days were clear, sunny, mostly breezy, and not too hot. The nights were mild, and a slightly open balcony door afforded us the sounds of the gentle waves to fall asleep to.
We stayed in a lovely condo in this building (white one, on the left), thanks to the generosity of the owners, good friends of Pat's. Right on the beach, the condo's balcony provides a marvelous view to all sorts of interesting happenings. We saw dolphins swimming close to shore most days, and pelicans feeding on schools of fish and flying in groups so close to the water that their wingtips would occasionally dip in. During our stay there were a whole lot of large dragonflies swooping about in their mating rituals, interesting to watch as a sky-full zipped and buzzed back and forth. At dusk they were joined in their swooping by bats, quite a few of them, most not much larger than the dragonflies, but without any of the buzzing. If I hadn't been watching the dragonflies, I'm not sure I would have noticed the bats.
The people watching was endless as well, there were always at least a few people swimming, strolling along water's edge or engaged in some pursuit or other in the sand.
We spent an afternoon on the beach, and the the four of us had a nice, relaxing time
We ate out at a nice variety of local spots, but also enjoyed a few simple meals at the condo, which turned out to be great fun and tasty as well. We had fresh begnets one morning that were simply delicious, pizza, sourdough toast, and a couple of finger food meals, all very tasty.
We did quite a bit of just driving around the area, seeing what there was to see.
We also spent the better part of a day at a couple of the outlet stores in nearby Foley, getting Joe some new shoes and most amazingly, giving me an incredible clothing make-over courtesy of Pat. She filled the fitting room with so many choices I was almost overwhelmed, but not quite, as I managed to leave the store with several bags stuffed with outfits. Can't say I've ever done anything like that, maybe an elementary-school era trip for back-to-school...It was total fun, and somehow I managed to get it all packed and home safely :)
Here is a view from the condo balcony:
Such a beautiful beach.
Unfortunate location of the slide in the condo next door's pool, audio dynamics project the noise generated (read: screaming!) as kids go down the slide right into the balconies next door. On the beach side the screams are barely audible. Big, big problem for those affected.
This picture show the size of the condo next door (the one with the slide). Size-wise, it totally dwarfs the condo we stayed in!
And as to the spill?? We did find tarballs when we walked along the shoreline, the largest we saw were about the size of a silver dollar. There were squirt bottles of diluted Dawn for removing any oily residue, prominently available on the condo's beach access boardwalk. And these signs stuck in the sand at the beach end of those walks:
We also saw what we assume to be the BP clean-up crews (sans the white haz-mat suits I always see them wearing on news show appearances) on a couple of days, working right in front of the condo. This picture was taken the morning after we spent the afternoon on the beach--in those chairs behind the crew trailer!
Didn't do too well with my photography this trip, meant to get a picture of the bright red Charger we rented and document some of the restaurants and other places we visited...so my apologies for missing a few of the highlights. It was a fabulous vacation, a great trip to the beach!!
"Toes in the water, ass in the sand!"
