Sister's Beach Trip

I hope you already read my previous post "Amazing Race - New Orleans Wedding Edition" for the travel summary of our Sister's Beach Trip weekend.  It was a whirlwind of adventure!  Here is the rest of our beach trip!

We arrived (without incident or delay) to Gulf Shores on Sunday afternoon and it was pretty windy and overcast, but oh the absolute joy of seeing and hearing the ocean!   Medicine for my soul!

Beth's condo was gorgeous and we unpacked and got settled while we waited on my sister, The Nice One to arrive!  She rolled in about an hour later.  Happy, happy, joy, joy! 

We couldn't wait to get our feet in the sand and headed down to the beach to take a stroll. 

We ended up strolling about three miles down to the state pier.  Rut Roh!  Now we have to go back! 

Guess who had to pee on the way back?  Yep, it was me. There was NO WHERE to go because we were down by the desolate state park area so I had no choice but to climb into the protected sand dunes and go out in the wilderness.  My sister was kind enough to make sure I went far enough to not been seen from the beach (never mind, I was probably seen from the road!) and she acted really preoccupied with searching for shells while I took care of business!  I told you she was The Nice One!  

We solved all the worlds problems and caught up on every single thing we could think of!  It was a long six mile walk on the sand, but we could not have been happier!  

The sun set on this gorgeous beach as we made it back to the condo!  We all shared a big spread of bread, cheese, crackers, salami, fruit and yogurt!  It was a light, delicious and perfect dinner!  No dishes and barely any clean-up.  Heck yea! 

Then we got into some beauty products and had a little spa evening.  Look at these masks!  

Have you ever seen anything like this?  We laughed so much that we could hardly keep them on our face!  Mine was a detox max!  I am about 99.5% sure it was unsuccessful!  

We hit the bed about 9:30 p.m.  My kinda night! 

The next morning dawned and with the early bedtime and time change, we were all on the balcony for the sunrise.  Please note, there are no longer any waves in the ocean.  It was more like a lake for the rest of our stay.  So calm and peaceful and extraordinary for dolphin watching! 

Let's capture this sunrise! 

Woah.

Thanks God.  We see you!  You are pretty spectacular!

It looked beautiful, but still a bit chilly and a lot windy!  Winds were whipping at 20 mph...at the beach that seems like a hurricane!   Good thing I had my big, blue fleece robe and trusty slippers to cozy up in on the balcony! 

If you stepped around the corner of the building, the wind would knock you down!  We had to run to the car to get something and ran into a couple in the elevator coming from the beach.  We asked them if it was calmer down on the beach and they laughed and said they had just taken a blast of sand to the face and called it quits.  Yikes!  That sounds painful.  We decided to do some inland activities instead and wait for the wind to die down later in the afternoon.  

This picture does not demonstrate how hard we laughed at the hand washing station we used.  The wind was blowing so hard that you could hardly rinse your hands.  It was coming out and blowing sideways.  Hilarious! 

We visited this cute little brewery that Beth and Karen had been to before. 

We shared a sample of all nine of their beers!  I bolded the word "shared" for a reason so you would not think I drank all of these myself, but also for events to come!  I was not surprised that I liked the darker ones best!  My very favorite was the one in the middle!

We grabbed lunch at Fish River Grill!  We all tried their swamp soup which was this amazing concoction of collards and beans and deliciousness!  We split some Shrimp Po'boys that had a crawfish remoulade sauce on them.  Yummy!  And they bring you a little slice of cake after your meal, just because! 

I was feeling so tired when we got back to the condo that I immediately laid down to take a nap!  

Later in the afternoon, we all four went on a stroll down on the beach. 

The wind had died down and it was lovely.   

Beaches are the best.  

We had another quiet night with a light dinner and I talked the girls into playing a couple games of Yahtzee!  You know I loved that!  

The next morning, I woke up with a scathing sore throat and a painful right ear.  I knew without much doubt that I had strep throat, which would explain my extreme tiredness from the day before.  Also, remember the beers we shared.  Everyone was so happy to know I was sick!  Whoops! 

The Nice One loaded me up and we headed to The Doc in the Box to get me diagnosed and medicated.  If you have been reading this blog for any number of years, you know my family rarely takes a vacation without someone visiting an urgent care.  This year I guess it was my turn! 

Diagnosis confirmed...strep throat along with an ear infection.  Doctor gave me a shot of antibiotics and a prescription for a ZPack.  It took most of the morning to get in with the doctor and pick up meds, but we made the most of it. 

While we were at the doctor, Beth and Karen made a trip over to Sassy Donuts and picked up some donuts!  They were awesome good!  Bacon on a donut should be a regular thing!   

This was our last full day and getting down to the beach was a must!  We took some chairs and sat close enough that occasionally a wave would wash up to our feet. The best!  You remember Ellie, my new best friend?  Almost every single picture on her Facebook page she throws her arms up in the air in celebration!  That's what we decided to do!  Be more like Ellie! 

We went to an early dinner where I finally got hold of the steamed seafood I was craving!  I really wanted blue crabs, but there were just none to be had this time of the year.  These royal reds were a lovely second choice!  So good! 

One final night watching the sun go down on this little piece of paradise!

It was a great trip with awesome people and I would go back in a red hot second!