A Day at the Beach

Today turned out to be a truly fantastic day. The temperature was nearly perfect at about 70 degrees and the sun was shining brightly. We decided to relax today and so we headed for the beach. We packed our chairs, cameras and a few diet cokes and off we went. This beach is pleasantly clean and not extremely crowded….. yet! We parked the Jeep and found a place to plant our chairs in the sand. Aaaaah now this is the life! The waves were breaking a little harder today than the other times we had visited the beach which made for a most calming sound to relax by.

There was someone down the beach a ways flying a really colorful kite and a group of young folks playing volleyball. Quite a few people were out slowly walking on the beach and several were sitting in chairs just enjoying the afternoon. This is a major location for snowbirds to migrate to for the winter and many rent or own condominiums on either Gulf Shores or Orange Beach. It certainly beats shoveling snow and enduring the freezing temperatures up north.

Mike and I collected a few more shells to add to our collection and while on our shell hunt we noticed a man creating a design in the sand.

He is a professor of interpersonal communications at a college in Connecticut. He took this semester off and he and his wife are spending a few months at Gulf Shores. He told us that he just enjoys making “sand art.” Today he was creating a sea monster with a swimmer holding onto its tail. Next to this creation he also had a seal complete with grass attached for the whiskers. He is quite good. I have included some pictures but it probably looked better viewing the entire thing in person than in pictures. For more pics of the sand sculpture click on new folder.

We also saw a couple of guys doing what looked like surfing. I commented to Mike that I didn’t think the waves were quite that big.. However, I imagine that they were very cold even though they were wearing body suits.
As they made their way closer to where we were sitting we noticed that on the bottom of their boards it said RESCUE. As it turns out they were putting in their hours for rescue services. We aren’t sure if they were practicing being in cold water for rescue or practicing with the boards for rescue but either way they were great entertainment for the day.

Around 4:00 we noticed that the temperature was getting a little chilly and since we had been sitting there for two and half hours we decided it was time to pack up and head for home. It was a wonderful day to just sit together and BE. Hope you had a great day also.