When booking our condo, it was very obvious that both the economy and the recent oil leak had hit the resort areas pretty hard. We stayed 5 nights for less than we stayed 4 nights last year.
We stopped at the USS Alabama Battle ship on our way there. The boys enjoyed it. Me, not so much. The experience gave me a glimpse of appreciation for what those soldiers sacrificed. By a glimpse, I mean...I don't think the appreciation I have is enough based on my own little tour of the battleship. All I know is that I don't know how they lived in such conditions: hot, cramped quarters at sea. Not for me! I am too claustrophobic to be going up and down those ladder steps.
The first 3 days were beautiful! The water was actually the clearest I have ever seen it. 2 of those days were red flags but the water was still beautiful with big waves. We enjoyed all the seafood we could stand...The Hangout, Original Oyster House, Live Bait to name our favorites. We played Putt Putt one night. Congratulations to me...I was the winner.
The 2nd day, 2 sharks came to the shore. They were about 4 feet long. We were actually in the condo and not on the beach at the time. I was reading on the balcony when I heard some commotion on the beach. As you can imagine, what few people were there were screaming to get out of the water. When I looked down, I could see the fins sticking up out of the water. I rushed to get my camera and took the best pics I could get from 8 stories high. They 2 sharks left as quick as they came. Not sure what brought them so close but we suspect it was a man's crab traps full of bait. He removed his traps and we never saw them again.
We also lots of sting rays and crabs. Not the little sand crabs but big crabs. JB had to scurry a few away from the boys.
As always, I hate to for our vacations to come to an end. I always look forward to this time. It allows our family of 4 to be together without any interruptions and creates so many memories.
Growing up, my parents always tried to take us on a vacation of some sort. We hope to continue to do the same for our boys.
To view pics, look at the side bar of the blog under pages. Click Orange Beach 2010. Posting pics this way will keep from the blog taking up so much space.
