Beach Recap and Back to Real Life

 
Perdido Key, Florida is the hidden treasure of the Gulf Coast. Nestled between Orange Beach and Pensacola, the city is underpopulated even in peak season. So much so, in fact, that some business have had a hard time staying open even before Hurricane Ivan or the BP oil spill. We stayed at a unit in Ocean Breeze West, one of a pair of twin buildings less than a mile apart on the main stretch of coastline right before the road turns and runs directly into Pensacola proper.


Celebrating our anniversary, we were fortunate enough to have great weather and no crowd. It was warm enough to swim in the ocean and the pool is heated so we enjoyed both. When I say no crowd, we saw literally two people on the beach in front of the building and at the pool deck on Friday and that was it. The remainder of the weekend, we had full run of the sand and water.

 

I know it is cliche, but I love eating seafood at the beach. In addition to popcorn shrimp at the Shrimp Basket, we also had burgers at local dive The Keg in Orange Beach, beignets and cafe au lait at Cafe Beignet and pizza at Lillian's. Lillian's has a long and interesting history in the area. Once located beach-side in a much smaller convenience store, rumor has it she was a holdout in the planning phase of a large condo development and was able to negotiate her way into a small fortune. Her new restaurant supports this claim as it dwarfs the old one and everything is new and sparkling clean.    

 Al's Five and Dime, a dollar store before dollar stores were the rage. Mom used to take us there on family vacations for activity books and souvenirs. Still kicking and hope it stays so we can take the girls one day...

We found this in another shop in Gulf Shores. A tribute of sorts to Pat the Bunny, which Ruby loves, we got a real kick out of this book. We read through it a couple times in hysterics, reading along as the kids torture the poor beastie to a not so happy ending. Not quite sure the girls are ready for this one yet...

 Ruby was on the tire swing with Uncle Ken when we got to the in-laws place on Sunday afternoon. She was having the time of her life and could have cared less that we were there...

 Back to it on Monday, Ruby caught up on her e-mail. 

 Sailor tried to get the hang of a new stacking toy.

Walked the girls to the playground yesterday and came across a leftover Halloween yard decoration. The first of many conversations to come in which I don't know quite how to explain something to my daughters. How would you have handled the "whats that" question on this one?