Dauphin Island 2012

The beach vacation we took last month was such a treat for our land-locked family! I hope I don't bore you to tears with all of our photos!

We chose Dauphin Island because it's where John's brother and his family vacation every summer. They told us that it was very small and there wasn't lots to do there--mainly just the beach and the condo pool--and that sounded great to us because all we really wanted to do was sit in the sun and read a book and stare at the ocean! It was also great that Dauphin Island is on the western side of the Alabama coast because we drove from Colorado and that made our destination just a wee bit shorter. :)

I absolutely loved how uncrowded Dauphin Island was. We took the ferry across Mobile Bay one day and drove into Gulf Shores. The difference between our beach and Gulf Shores was drastic. It made our beach feel almost like a private one! It was really really nice!

John and I didn't watch any weather news before we headed south so we were a little surprised to hear about Tropical Storm Debby. I feel like we really dodged a bullet when she trekked toward Florida. The first day we were there we had tropical storm warnings and the riptide was very strong, but the warnings were lifted by the next day and we had beautiful sunshine and not one drop of rain the entire week! 

This photo was taken on the afternoon of our arrival when we were unsure of the path the tropical storm would take. See how choppy those waves are? And how brown that water looks? That was Debby's doing. 

 This is not a great picture but it was the only one I took of the kids catching sand crabs...hilarious!

We had snow cones every single day...I love snow cones!

 Sarah is holding one of the many hermit crabs she found in this picture. We also found lots of sand dollars--it was crazy--one day they just kept washing up on the beach. One afternoon there were some guys next to us on the beach who had waded into the water chest deep and were fishing. They kept catching catfish (weird) but one of them caught a baby shark and called us over to see it. COOL. Except not. Especially when they were fishing right next to where we were playing in the water! Of course that was the day I opted to leave my phone (and the only camera I took) in the condo so as not to be distracted by all the wildfire news back home, so sadly I have no picture of that baby shark.

 We vacationed with John's family--his brother's family and his parents. I think Papa had as much fun in the water as the kids did!

 I got up and walked almost every morning by myself on the beach. I sure don't have views like this at home! I missed my walking partners though!

 We did NOT get a picture of the five of us on the night we dressed for photos because the sun was setting too quickly. We did get a good one of all the grandkids with their grandparents though! I just don't have it on my phone to share.

 We went to LuLu's for lunch on the day we went to Gulf Shores--FUN place! These are the only pics I took that day. I was a wee bit distracted by the fire situation at home as this was the day we got the pre-evacuation notice for our neighborhood.

 Abbey and John made this sand sculpture one day...

 And John's brother (the artist) made this one. Yeah, he won.

 Breakfast at The Light House Bakery--oh my word--that was some good stuff!

 By the way, I bought a Land's End swimsuit at Sears and I L-O-V-E it!

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention all the seafood we ate while there--oysters, shrimp, all-you-can-eat crablegs, gumbo (oh my word!), crab bisque (a-mazing!), scallops, mahi mahi, etc, etc. One night we got NINE pounds of fresh shrimp and steamed it. The guy we bought it from said it had been caught only two hours prior. We ate until we could eat no more. It was delicious. I think I could eat seafood every single day.

Totally stole my brother-in-law's photo of the aftermath of his crab-leg fest. 

We had a wonderful, relaxing week and I am soooooo thankful for the time spent with our family! It was a beautiful, beautiful week!