Vacay Here Today and Gone Tomorrow

Well here it goes. The vacation (vacay) to Gulf Shores, AL with the Lace fam: Greg, Gina, Peyton, and Kayla PLUS the 2/3 Davis fam: me and Blakely.

Day 1: We leave the hub of Eastern Arkansas at 5 a.m. Just in time to drive through the lightning storm of the freakin' century! I mean it was a light show! Around West Memphis the sky lit up a beautiful shade of blue/green as a transformer was blown to bits by a HUGE lightning bolt. Nice. Then right before the Memphis bridge to my IMMEDIATE right another bolt takes out a small forest. I think years were taken off my life at the exact moment. If you are a regular blog reader you already are aware of my lightning issues. If you are new, well I have issues. Lots of them. LOL My husband, the cropduster/weather afficionado swears we will be out of the storms when we reach south Memphis. Note: we were still in the storms in Grenada, MS. GEEZ!

We are on a road trip and actually are having a good time. I mean we survived lightning strikes so we're now good to go. We discover that our driver, Greg Lace, subscribes to the 55 and arrive alive driving mantra. Which means he drives like a grandma! We get lost like 2 times but do manage to arrive in Gulf Shores by 3. I check us in and we got an extra night FREE! Which means our vacay is off to a smashing start! We decide to go drop off our stuff at the condo and go eat. We chose Sea N Suds which is one of my most favorite places! And we head to the souvenir shop for chairs and boogieboards. Then, ofcourse, we stop at a grocery store for a FEW supplies then head to our condo. We hurry up and load the cooler and head to the beach. It was an awesome end to a perfect day but wait...what? I did what?!?!? I managed to drop my brand new iPhone down the freakin' elevator shaft!!!!!!! What the heck?!? I didn't panic right away. This is where it actually becomes amusing. The night guards Paul (who Greg insisted upon calling him Carl) and the young guy that I never got his name. Greg is about 7 feet tall and 2 feet wide (I really, really hope he's reading this! lol) with bleached hair. It was supposed to be blonde but hey, it's bright yellow. He looks like a pro wrestler on the cheap circuit and Paul (who is really old and has a speech impediment) is kind of afraid of him. The one he should've been afraid of is ME. To make a long story short I get tired of dealing with these bozos (not Greg..not yet anyway) and I inform them as I pass the guard shack in a huff that I am headed to the store and would return. Now, I think I can get the phone with a long fishing net. When I return I see the 2 guards scurrying with some rod with duct tape on the end. Greg is nowhere in sight. Apparently they thought I was going to the store for a gun..they were a'movin! We get the doors open and I insist upon them using the net. Which they do and they get my phone on the FIRST try! Hellooooo. A woman knows how to rig stuff! I give a group hug and just because I'm cool like that..I give them 10 bucks each for their trouble. Or hush money. Whatever. I have my phone! I am an instant celebrity at the condo and all is well. Paul even comes to check on me later and to ask me to tell my husband..what? backup there Carl! He's not my husband. This elated Paul because he said he can flirt now. WTH? Actually, I kind of like Paul. He's very committed to his job and I kind of felt bad for him. He really is kind of panicky. Barney Fife comes to my mind. Carl the Mall cop comes to Greg's. Day one officially ends.

Day 2: All day beach day! We are burned and tired. Out to eat at LuLu's which was great fun but OK food! I did have an interesting frozen jamaican rum drink and a honey beer. Not too bad. Bought the obligatory t-shirt. Blakely got her hair wrapped and we bought more crap. We also attempted crab hunting. WhatEVER.

Day 3: We head to the outlet mall in Foley. The sky is overcast and we are burnt from yesterday so it's time to shop. Around 3p we start to get a little cranky. We want to go to Wal-Mart and just get some stuff to eat in tonight. As we are leaving, we hear a cccrrrruuuunnch. Are you freakin' kidding me?!? An old man has just rammed into my Armada. His car looks not great but barely a scuff on old Jezebel. His fault. We part ways and I am in a funk. I mean first the iPhone and now the car. It takes me awhile to get over it but really one can't be in too bad of a mood when you're at the beach. We do go down to spend the evening and that's when Hurrican Merlene hit. We scurried back to the condo in the nick of time and watched mother nature wreak havoc on umbrella stands on the beach. It was very cool! That was really the only bad weather down there and it really didn't affect us.

Day 4: Our last day at the beach. It's a beautiful day and we live on the beach. Boogieboarding, sunning, laughing, staying hydrated, snacking, etc. It can't get better than this. Seriously. We alternate between the beach and the pool but it's alot of fun. This is the night we MUST take family photos on the beach. We get ready and take them in the total heat of the afternoon. Like 5pm. In spite of all the sweating, they turn out really good. We attempt to eat at the Oyster House but it has a 2 hour wait! Uh, I don't think so. So, we take our kids to a bar. The Pink Pony Pub. LOVE it! I ate and drank like a queen. And laughed out loud OFTEN! Our kids loved it as well. To top it off we went to Scoops for ice cream. I think I had like 7000 calories on Wednesday. LOL

Day 5: We get up and head out. Daylight Donuts a must. We have to wait until 9 to leave because I must get shrimp for my man. I mean he paid for the trip so I MUST. We have time to kill sooo what do we do??? Go souvenir shopping! LOL Had a ball! Best shopping we did all week and we ended up with airbrushing! We just thought we were going to get out of Gulf Shores without it. HaHa! We get on the road around 10 and immediately hit storms. Storms seem to follow this group. Tornados in Mempho and North Mississippi...great. Thanks to CBass aka Greg AND my dad we detour through Marks, MS. We miss it all and arrive safely at home at 630pm. Not too shabby.

VACAY WRAP-UP: A GREAT time was had by ALL! Thanks to my man for the money to go and the Lace's for the road trip! Hope to do it again NEXT year! And thanks to the man upstairs aka God for making the beach. There's nothing quite like a beach at 530 in the morning viewing a beautiful sunrise and enjoying the sounds of the calming waves. Two thumbs up!