Tag Archives: Orange Beach

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 – Orange Beach Sky

Orange Beach Sky - Impressions Okeefe

This week for Skywatch Friday I’m going back to our summer vacation in Orange Beach, Alabama.  I can sit and look at the Gulf of Mexico for hours, and have especially when there is a little color in the sky. Our Fall here in Oklahoma has been way too dang warm. I know the cold and ice is coming. I’m hoping we get back to the Gulf next summer.

Go check out Skywatch Friday

Skywatch – Back at the Beach

Orange Beach - Topaz Impressions

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

Orange Beach Sky - Topaz Impressions - oil painting by Jim LaSala 51pct

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

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

Vacation 2016 – First Report

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We started our vacation, kind of late. Tulsa and surrounding area had a huge storm come through on Thursday about noon. It was kind of scary. I was at a luncheon and the venue evacuated us to a stairwell because there was reports of a tornado on the ground close by. Good thing they lifted the alert because the stairwell had external doors with crash bars and it was so crowded the doors kept opening. Stupid design if you ask me. Anyway, our power was out and so we couldn’t run a lot of the errands we wanted to until the next morning and so instead of leaving first thing Friday morning, we left in the afternoon. Oh well.

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So we drove and drove

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And then we got to Mobile and we encountered the big jam before the tunnel.

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And we made it eventually!!

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So we have been taking it easy and hanging out on the beach.

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And staying well clear of the turtle eggs.

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The only excitement so far is outrunning a thunderstorm. You know it is slow moving when I outrun it.

Anyway, that is the first, and might be the only, vacation report.