28 Years in Gulf Shores, AL

 

Our traditional Sea 'n Suds family picture

People always ask me to repeat myself when I tell them where I'm headed for vacation. ALABAMA? Yep. For 28 years (once a year, almost every year) I have called Gulf Shores, AL my traditional family vacation. My parents started going there when my oldest brother was a baby, about 36 years ago. Only a few miles from the Florida border, it was always a lesser known vacation spot with white sand beaches and (fairly) warm ocean (Gulf of Mexico) water. For many years now we have stayed in the Phoenix condominiums on the beach and have many memories there. Swimming in the pools, jumping in and over ocean waves, getting up early to watch the sunrise on the beach, taking walks on the beach at night, and eating at Sea 'n Suds (a little shack of a restaurant that used to have a pier all the way out over the ocean- now still on stilts on the beach) have been some of our traditions there. It's always been one of my favorite places in the world. The sound of ocean waves from our balcony is one of my favorite sounds. Better yet when they are accompanied by a great thunderstorm! We usually go in the spring and have celebrated many an Easter there, waking up early for sunrise service on the beach.

When I started dating Dan, he too got to experience Gulf Shores, and we had our first kiss on a late night beach walk :) When we were engaged the following year, it was here that he played and sang for me the first song he wrote for me, in the racquetball courts where I would come and sing as a little girl (great acoustics!). We came the 2nd year we were married, and now this year with our 4 month old son. Maybe it will become our family's traditional vacation spot as well. Our family used to drive 18 hours from Chicago, but it's a bit far from Minnesota for that. We'll see...

It was a lot of fun to introduce Charlie to the ocean, to the beach, to swimming, to the sun!, and to a place I came myself when I was only a few months old. Charlie took it all in very seriously, and the waves scared him a bit, I think! But he enjoyed playing in his pack 'n play by the pool and on the beach.

"Walking" on our balcony

Off the dock at Sea 'n Suds