Tag Archives: Alabama

Life’s a Beach – Birthday Edition

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Logan started his birthday on the beach, reading.

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It ended up raining and so the planned parasailing got put off for another day. We ended up doing a little shopping and running errands and such.

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He wanted dinner at Shipp’s Harbor, a nice restaurant that we all loved.

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It is in a marina. I love marinas. Looking at the different kinds of boats and seeing if I can tell which ones get used and which ones never get taken out.

We went to see a movie, “The Fate of the Furious”, part of the Fast and Furious franchise. It had some great scenes filmed in Havana with old cars and such. It also had a luscious Charlize Theron as a bad girl trying to steal nuclear launch codes. She commandeers a bunch of cars to go into driverless mode to attack the convoy that has the launch codes. Great scene.

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We also had birthday cake of course.

And so a great day was had by all.

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

Our World Tuesday – Clear Sailing

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Sailboat chilling on Wolf Bay, Alabama

Well we did Christmas. I love Christmas and we had a nice quiet one at the house with our small family including my Mother-in-Law. We exchanged gifts and cards and had a nice meal and texted/facebook messaged our other family in Idaho, Colorado, and western Oklahoma.

Now I am ready to be done with it. Sure, leave the lights and tree up for a few days but it is time to go outside for a little while and get the head screwed on straight. I’m taking a week off and although we have errands and stuff to do I plan to get a few runs and hikes in and take a bunch of photos.

How about you? You done with Christmas also? (I know, I know, it is technically still Christmas while I post this but I am about to come out of my skin.)

I’m linking with Our World Tuesday

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.

Skywatch Friday – Orange Beach Sky

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This week I am going back to our vacation last month in Orange Beach, Alabama. This is a photo from my Android phone with a little Topaz Impressions oil painting filter backed off about 50 percent. Orange Beach has lots and lots of high rise condos on the beach. Even at the height of the summer season it never seems like there is that many people out and about. Which is fine with me.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Ruby Tuesday – Red Sailboat

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On our recent vacation to the Alabama coast, we spent a morning kayaking the Bon Secour River. There are many houses that back up to the river and have private docks with boats, canoes, and other watercraft. I found this pretty sailboat tied up at such a dock. There is something about a sailboat that speaks to me of wind, water, fun, and a lot of hard work taking care of it.

Have you ever had a sailboat?

Linking with Ruby Tuesday Too

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?

Beach Blogging 2016 – Pokemon Go Edition

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We are still at the beach having a great time walking, running, sitting in the sun and reading, going out to eat and drink and all that good stuff.

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This year we have something new, Pokemon Go. The whole family is playing it including Heather. It is kind of fun. I’m getting a hoot on facebook and the news how some are deriding a game that haven’t even played and others talking about the great health benefits. Yadda yadda yadda I say. What matters is if it is fun. Of course some things need to be addressed such as removing the little pokemons from private property and other inappropriate places, but the game is fun.

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Here is one of the little critters just before I captured him. Don’t knock it before you try it folks. One thing that helps is having a youngster to explain things.

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Meanwhile I’m also geocaching. I can do both in my mind. Apparently there are a bunch of pokemon on Turkey Mountain. I have found almost all the full size regular caches up there and am looking forward to Pokemon Going. Make fun of me if you must. I’ll be feeling sorry for you.

Till next time folks