And this time it is literally a walk around the campground! It was a beautiful afternoon, and I could resist! However, if I tried getting each individual photo here, I’d be here well past midnight so (given the internet irregularities!) – here’s a little slide show (in approximate order!)
My favorite is the one in the header of this post. And in this one, if you look real hard you can see our red truck peeking out on the left.
Yep, so far this little R&R is working out just fine!
Quick Update –
It’s been more than two weeks since my last “non-holiday’ post, and I figured it’s about time I get this whole blogging thing back on track! We’ve returned from our lovely time at the beach, and are sifting through all our post-vacation debris and getting ready to hit the road tomorrow for our January SOWER project in Lake Wales, FL. New adventures await!
But first – The Beach!!
Ahhhh……
I’ll be honest with you, Gary & I are not really ‘beach people’. We gravitate more towards mountains and cabins than sandy beaches and condos. But we truly did have a delightful time in our little ‘condo by the sea’.
No alarms, a fair bit of eating out, and even a bit of time on the beach.
We weren’t sure what bird made these footprints
but I am glad I never ran into whatever it was on a dark night! (Probably a Great Blue Heron, though we never actually saw one!)
While we had some beautiful sunshiny days, the temperature never got up high enough to tempt us to pull out those swim suits. In fact, on Christmas day – high of 46.
Brrrrrr…. (If you can zoom in on that picture you might see some crazy folks in the water (with wet suits on)!.
We were on the fourth floor of a 16 floor condo, and were pretty much lined up with the boardwalk out to the beach.
So even when we didn’t feel like heading to the beach, we could still watch the ocean (and all the folks coming and going!). I never tired of the view, and was delighted with both the sunrise
and the sunset
most days.
It was a very different Christmas for us, and we did indeed miss seeing our kids and grands. Zooming is fun, but it’s not really quite the same thing, is it? But for this year, and this season, our little beachy Christmas was just the right thing.  Thank you, Lord, for the beauty of the sea!
As always, thanks for stopping by!
PS – If you’d like to see more pictures of our time at Orange Beach (’cause you I took MORE!), you can check them out HERE!
We have really enjoyed our three day weekends that have become a part of our lives since we’ve been working SOWER projects. We especially enjoy a three day weekend when the first of those days is excessively rainy.
And I mean excessively!
But the second day of the weekend dawned bright and sunny and after taking care of some chores (laundry and such), we finally were able to take off and explore some of the beautiful Gulf Shores area of Alabama! Our primary destination –
Fort Morgan.
Ah, what a beautiful drive….
along the coast and past a wonderfully eclectic assortment of beach houses.
As you can see on the above map, Fort Morgan is right on the tip of the peninsula, and has been active off and on from its original construction in 1814 until it was finally turned over to the state of Alabama in 1947. It is probably most well known, though, for its role in the Civil War and the Battle of Mobile Bay.
So come along on our walking tour of the Fort –
Lots of dark corridors
and arches
and some pretty darn steep steps!
But then there was was a pretty sweet view of the fort….
and the water.
(I don’t think the oil rigs were part of that original view…..)
After we finished up exploring the fort, we walked down to the water.
We had given some serious thought to taking the ferry over to Dauphin Island, but in the end decided that the $35.00 was better spent on some great seafood in Gulf Shores! But we did manage to get in a nice little hike in the Bon Secour Wildlife Refuge – the Pine Beach Hike. We could have gone all the way to the beach, but 4 miles round trip seemed a little much considering my footwear – sandals! So, we opted for the 2 mile RT hike to the head of Little Lagoon.
That’s Little Lagoon on the left and Gator Lake on the right. You were wondering, right?
We were a little disappointed about the lack of visible wildlife, but we did spot an osprey flying from tree top to tree top. I managed to snap a couple of shots of him – though they aren’t very good.
Um, I think he has some dinner there. Cool.
I did find this interesting moss –
Reindeer Moss (lichen actually). Just so you know.
After our walk, that seafood lunch was looking better and better, so off we went to Gulf Shores. This is a true “shore town” with lots going on, especially since this the beginning of Spring Break Season. Â There were lots of restaurant choices, but we settled on Bahama Bobs and we weren’t disappointed.
And after we had our fill of shrimp and pangus (new to us, but very yummy!) I took one last walk to the beach.
Quite a different feel than down at Fort Morgan, but still a beautiful beach.
And quite a beautiful day!
(And if you’d like to see a couple more pictures of the day – check them out HERE! 🙂
