be AUDacious: 10 on Tuesday: the Gulf Shores vacation edition

I meant to get this posted last week, but time just slipped away from me. We had a great time on vacation, though it's been harder than normal to transition back to the real world, I think. Here's a recap of our time in Gulf Shores:

1. Just about every single thing we encountered on this trip was reason for a photo op, mostly because this was the first time the girls had ever visited the beach. Case in point: the first palm tree the girls had ever seen ("in real life, Mama!" added Cami) -- taken at a random gas station in some south Alabama town. It was mid-afternoon and the gas station was closed, though luckily you could still pay at the pumps. Not good when a bathroom break is part of the reason why you're stopping, though.

2. This sight brought back such incredible memories for me. When I was younger, my Papaw owned a seafood restaurant and my parents both worked there. It was open three nights a week (Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday), and Daddy traveled to the Gulf Coast -- to Mobile, specifically -- every couple of weeks to pick up fresh seafood, from a man named Ralph who owned a company down on the docks. He took a blue and gray Silverado with a camper top on back; the bed had been fitted with a large wooden box that would be loaded down with white buckets of seafood and pounds of ice on each trip. I got to tag along more times than I can count, and I consider those trips to be one of the very best parts of my childhood.

3. This is about the time when all the "Oh cool!"s and the "Oh my goodness!"es and the squealing and clapping started. It made me choke up a time or two, to see just how excited they were about this whole trip. And this was just Mobile Bay -- we hadn't even made it to the actual beach yet!

4. That's not to say it wasn't a long trip, because it was. 9 hours. The girls traded off napping in the backseat and watching movies for the first half of the trip. There were some great radio sing-alongs, but the thing that got us all through was keeping our eyes peeled for that next yellow vehicle: "BINGO!!!"

5. So typical of their personalities: Cass jumps right in, while Cami hangs back and watches for a bit.

6. We stayed in a nice 3br 2ba condo just a block from the beach. It was a little swampy outside our back door, which meant the frogs were crazy loud, but it was so nice to have all that room to spread out in. Definitely beats hotel life!

7. We ate in most of the time (saves on cash!) but we ventured into Gulf Shores proper (since we were actually staying out in the Ft. Morgan area, which is farther west by about 15 miles or so) on Monday night and checked out this really cool place called The Hangout. GREAT family atmosphere, so laidback with a great beachy vibe. Definitely a place I'd recommend.

8. The girls did get a little bit tired of the surf and sand, so they opted for some fun in the pool too. There was lots of jumping from the sides with twists and spins in mid-air, plus races to see who could run backwards the fastest, which made for some amusing pictures (at least, *I* think so! Cass...maybe not so much.)

9. Of course, no trip to the beach would be complete without an hour or more spent wandering through every souvenir shop on the block, right? After all, who doesn't want a tacky seashell chandelier or a pirate snowglobe or sanddollar shotglasses... The girls each bought a couple of bracelets and necklaces, plus a toe ring, and an airbrushed t-shirt, which is pretty much a mandatory purchase.

10. All too soon it was time to begin the 9 hour trip back home. I think the girls had a wonderful time, and I'm so happy to have been able to share a place that played such a big part of my own childhood with them. Cami was ready to head home; "I miss my daddy and my doggie," she said. And while Cass would've been content to stay for a good bit longer, I think she too was glad to be home.