Tag Archives: Vacation

Skywatch Friday – Morning Sky

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Some beach trips I get early every morning and go running or walking on the beach. This trip I mainly slept in and got up in time for the first dolphin run of the day. It was pretty amazing watching them cruising along parallel to the beach anywhere from maybe 50 yards to the show to maybe 300 yards. Just cruising along in a widely dispersed pod, some of them had a smaller dolphin with them. They come and they go on down the shore. A few hours later they come back the opposite direction and generally a lot further out. So we got to see them twice a day generally.

But being a dedicated skywatcher I got up one morning and got a good shot from the balcony. Most days were cloudless, but this one day they formed and went marching along the shore. I love the morning light on the cloud above.

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We had a really good time. We ate well, we went kayaking and stand up paddleboarding, lots of walks on the beach, read a lot of books, played some board games and didn’t turn the television on once!! So we are back at work now and son is getting ready to go away to college and we are very excited about that.

I hope things are going well for you.

Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Alabama Edition

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We are back from our vacation to the gulf coast of Alabama (aka the “Redneck Riviera”). We had a great time as a family and will have lots of memories.

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Son always has a good time. He also carries a book with him wherever he goes. That’s a good habit to have.

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We cooked a couple shrimp dinners while we were there using fresh caught shrimp. We dined out on our balcony.

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For the first time we explored Gulf State Park on bike. It is a sprawling park with beaches, lakes ponds, miles of trails, and multiple access points from the surrounding community.

We had a lot of fun and got to do some active relaxing.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Vacation 2018 Update

We are towards the end of our vacation this year on the Alabama gulf coast. The highlight so far was Heather riding a paddleboard in the open water. She teaches a pool based paddleboard class but had never ridden a paddleboard before this trip. Logan and I went kayaking during this outing.

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I have been taking lots of photos. The water and surrounding area are always a rich source of images for me.

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Here is a shot of Heather just starting out on the paddleboard. I am in my kayak so I guess this is a “kayakcam.”

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We have been out on the beach a lot. Both sitting on it, in the water, and walking the beach.

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I have fair skin so stay covered up but my feet really got burned on this trip.

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We went on our first ever family bike ride. Logan has never learned to ride a bike so we rented him a three wheeled version. He did quite well. Heather and I tried it and agreed that it was a lot harder to ride than the two wheeled variety. Steering in particular was hard. The bike had a mind of its own.

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We passed this sign. Lots of alligator habitat in Gulf State Park where we were. It inhibited by geocaching quite a bit.

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We cooked a shrimp dinner one night. We have our shrimp place, so we boil them, and Heather prepares the sides.

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And the skies. The skies have been magnificent.

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I am linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Lifeguard Tower

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Orange Beach, Alabama

Why are lifeguard towers so darn cool? Most places I have been I have hardly ever see lifeguards in them. They are very beachy though like this example from our recent vacation to the Gulf Coast of Alabama. We had pretty good weather and great skies while we are there and a pretty good time.

Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Road Trip Photos

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Friday, we ended our vacation by making the 13 hour drive from Alabama coast to Tulsa. I am always amazed by the drive.

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Everybody loves the Transylvania, Louisiana water tower.

I am amazed about how big our country is and how empty of people it is in many sections. As we travel through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas one can see how the countryside has become depopulated. I am not sure that is good or bad, it just kind of is.

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I am also amazed by how beautiful the country is.

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And the wealth it generates. And I wonder how come it doesn’t translate to the people live and work on the land. Especially in the south. You can see a deep rooted poverty. How come we don’t see that so much in the northern midwest? Both areas are primarily agriculture based.

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Anywho, I just love the drive.

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Especially when we get to Oklahoma and are greeted by red skies.

Linking with Skywatch Friday

Life’s a Beach – In the Air, on the Ground, and in the Water

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Heather and Logan went on their parasailing adventure the other day. I didn’t go, the pics were taken by a boat hand.

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Up

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And then way up there!

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Before coming down for a little shark dip, and then the credit card went though and they went up again.

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While they were up there, I went to the beautiful Gulf State Park’s Backwoods Trail.

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And found some geocaches. No snakes, no bug bites (thanks DEET), but a few thorn scratches.

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Heather and I have taken several long beach walks along the Gulf underneath everchanging skies.

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And I have been crushing beers in the surf. That is what us guys do, we crush our beers. We have found some decent beer here finally. Alabama is a bigger beer wasteland than Oklahoma.

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And I found me a friend at the fishing pier at Gulf Shores. I’m not much of birdwatcher except for the big ones like this Brown Pelican.

Today, we are going on a Segway nature tour of the Gulf State Park. I’ll give you a report later.

Y’all Namaste’ – Life is a Beach – Redneck Riviera Edition

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Our first full day on the beach. Yoga!!! we didn’t join, we didn’t have the tops for it.

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We went on a family walk. We are going to celebrate his 19th while on this trip.  He is a regular beach bum. We used to go to South Padre Island for our vacations. Lots of Hispanic people would be there with their music on boom boxes. He’d really shake his diapered booty to rhythm, the young girls really loved dancing with him. He doesn’t really like reminiscing about stuff like that.

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Here’s Heather busting some moves.

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He’ll aways be our baby boy, even though he towers over both of us.

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Heather needed another bathing suit so we first we tried a beach place, and then this high end place with this fish fountain.

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And some nice condos right on the water.

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Later we went back to the condo, and with the kid walked down to our favorite beach bar, Florabama, right on the Alabama-Florida line. Quite a place this is, several different bars, inside and outside, we ate lunch and had a bushwhacker and headed back to the condo. Too many people.

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We got back and I took my little waterproof camera out in water. A wave happened by and knocked my prescription sunglasses off my face and into the water. I felt them hit my leg but I couldn’t find them. The way the current was going, they are probably washed up in Cuba by now. Oh well.

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We grilled burgers, and had dinner al fresco on the balcony.

A good time is being had by all. Today, the kid and his mom are going parasailing. I’m going to get some clip on sunglasses from Walgreens, geocaching, and have a beer at the marina where the parasailing is, and read some.

Namaste’ Yall

Skywatch Friday – Vacation Skies

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We are on vacation right now. We left early on Thursday and made a long drive to Mobile, Alabama. It was a gut buster but worth it. Our plan was to leave early from Mobile and get through the tunnel going to the east side of the bay. Sometimes, if you wait until the afternoon, the traffic backs up for hours. The plan worked. We got to Mobile, we got up and zipped through the tunnel with no wait. It was like getting a bonus day of vacation.

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What did we do with our bonus day. We made a side trip to Fairhope, a little town on the east side of Mobile, Bay. I had never heard of it but Heather said lets go, so we went. What a great side trip that was. It has a very nice old town with lots and lots of interesting cafes, shops, and galleries. We checked out an independent bookstore, Page & Pallette. What a great, not so little store, and the people who work there are READERS!! They have a huge “Staff Recommends” section and they know about those books and most of the other books in the store also. They have lots of books by regional authors. So we spent a lot of money on books, and ever dime was well spent.

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We took the scenic route cross country from Fairhope to Gulf Shores to our traditional first meal spot, Lulu’s. Lulu’s sits right on the intercoastal canal. I love watching the boats of all kinds, and barges and kayaks and everything else going up and down the waterway but we had something special.

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A seaplane landed right in front of us. They pulled up to Lulu’s dock and went and had lunch. What a Jimmy Buffett thing to do (no, it wasn’t him). By the way Lulu is Jimmy Buffett’s sister.

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So we got to our condo, got unpacked and ran out to the beach. Logan loves the beach. He is a regular beach bum. Shoot, we all are. Sorry about the tilted shot. I’m writing this post out on the balcony and I am not doing much editing.

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To balance things out, here is a pic off the back side of the condo last night. It is tilted the other way, so on average, it all balances out.

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And here is the view this morning. More to come!

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch – Back at the Beach

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Back at the beach in Alabama from last month. That’s my wife Heather up there heading back to the condo after a family walk on the beach. She’s okay with me stopping to take photos, or stopping to look for geocaches, but she isn’t stopping. So for me its shoot and trot, shoot and trot. I don’t mind though.

We love the beach. We know we should be taking vacations that are good for us like going to New York City, or Washington D.C. but you know, there is nothing like the beach.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.

We’re Back

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We are back from vacation. We had a fun packed week sandwiched in between two gust busting drives. It was all worth it though to get sand in between our toes in Orange Beach, Alabama. Home of very friendly people, crappy beer, never ending country rock music, smoking, great uncrowded beautiful beaches, and horrendous traffic jams.

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We found some Pokemon also. I amused at all the butthurt people who have such firm opinions on a subject they know nothing about. It’s fun. Well, its fun for a while and then it gets tough. Which will eventually be fun.

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We paddled up and down a beautiful slow moving river. I have to tell you that the GOP Convention, Munich, and who picked for the GOP ticket was pretty far from our mind. It has been years since we have looked at a newspaper, or watched television while on vacation and this was another trip where none of that happened. Plus after years of facebook, I just now learned about “hiding” posts. All the this GOP and Democratic crapola has just disappeared from my feed (both sides are equally guilty in my opinion). I have unliked the pages of Oklahoma’s congressional idiots and the anti-Idiot pages both. I’m watching lots of cat videos on fb now. DON’T YOU DARE JUDGE ME!!

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Heather and the kid went parasailing. I found a geocache, and cozied up at the marina’s tiki bar with a couple beers and my book. 

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Tell you what I realized on our trip. We have a big, beautiful, country and most of it is empty!! Miles and miles of tall trees, geometric crops, and beautiful pastures and prairie. There are more cows than people out there. I love it.

How are you doing?