View from the deck of the vacation beach cottage...lovely, quiet, relaxing, restful.
READING: I loaded up my book bag for vacation and threw in books, magazines, pieces of things I printed off or hoarded away, etc., and it was full...I returned with the library books, all the rest I had read and disposed of in one way or another. Whew, that feels good to be caught up with the bits and pieces of things I had around. I did not get to the 1493 book, so that is up next.
COOKING BYTES: Usually this refers to what's been cooking around here, and this past week it would be "not much" as we were on vacation and while I did rustle up some pancakes for breakfast and salads for lunch, we ate dinners out...lots of seafood, great shrimp, etc. On every menu they had the seafood listed with "blackened, grilled, fried, broiled or boiled" as the choices...you can get seafood about any way you want it in the Gulf Shores area. You can also get anything you want FRIED in the Gulf Shores area...I had no idea there was that much fried food available. Yikes. I'm not the biggest fan of fried food...the occasional french fry or fried chicken a few times a year about sums that up for me...but I did try these Fried Pickles (pictured below) as they were everywhere and pickles happen to be one of my favorite foods...so we shared these and I have to say, I could eat a few fried pickle chips throughout the year, better than french fries any day! 
FAV NEW FIND: Well, it isn't what you think probably...as we were returning home from Gulf Shores, and somewhere south of Louisville, Kentucky we got a call from Mark's brother saying that their mother was out of the hospital but feeling really ill and wanted her children to come home to visit with her...a bit of a scare since she is not one to request this ever. So we hurried home and when we arrived she was feeling a bit better after a blood transfusion. Whew. Scary moments there for a bit. Anyway, since all the siblings were home, I snapped a quick shot for the scrapbook...goofy smiles on each and every one of them. So fav new find was that all was well and we had a chance to see all the sibs. 
Back row: Al, Phil, Mark Front row: Nancy, Luke, and Brian.
FAV THIS PAST WEEK: Mark, Matt and I went to Gulf Shores...10 days of vacation...and it was all wonderful. We hadn't been on a family vacation of any sort together for the past 7 years...life got busy, most of our travel and vacation time is spent with following swim meets, so this was fantastic just going somewhere to relax and do nothing much and not be at any sort of swimming competition. Not that we don't love going to swim meets, because we do...it's just nice that for once Matt didn't have to "work" and could just enjoy the time at the beach...doing what? Swimming, of course...lol. 
Photo at right: Had to have the corny photo of Matt with the Big Fish at the Tacky Jack's.
WEEK IN REVIEW: We vacationed at Gulf Shores, Alabama...had a lovely "beach cottage" right on the Gulf, the view from the cottage was wonderful (photos below), the beach was private so no crowds, Matt enjoyed swimming in the Gulf (within the first 5 minutes 5 Auburn 20 year old girls had "picked him up"...they were staying with one of the girls' parents down the beach a mile so he had a tour of the area from the girls who had all been coming there for years), there were movies, dinners, site-seeing adventures, beach walks, star-gazing with Night Skies ap, and Matt even worked a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle with me, despite it's "sewing" theme. We read a lot...all of us were curling up with books all week...so nice to just have the time together. That said, I am sure you are all saying...what is wrong with this picture? I'm not a beach person (although it was a killer view from the cottage day and night, I quickly tire of just seeing water everywhere, sand, and heat)...I was happy to come home, that was a perfect amount of time to be gone, another week and I would have been stir crazy ready to head north to my green lawns and trees, etc. If truth be told, I always think of our home as a vacation destination...I love being in it and our yard/pool/etc. is very pretty and I never tire of it. So, all in all, a great time because I was with my guys and we enjoyed just not having any commitments for that time, but I am happy to be back in the swing of things here. I hope we can find a time in the swim schedule next year to do it again...different location, but just to have the time away together and relax would be lovely. I don't do beach relaxing well, because I like to go and do things like museums and such and time on a beach over 5 minutes bores me to tears (but I was more than happy to go there because my guys loved, loved, loved it), so maybe somewhere museumish with a beach...let's see...where would that be do you suppose?
Each day Matt would be the first to head out to the beach and set up camp.
Mark would walk Vash out to visit Matt...Vash didn't want anything to do with that water, however, Tibbies are not swimmers...but Vash did like the little beach friend he made and they would romp around having a good time...photo: Mark, Matt, Vash, Vash's doggie friend, Owner of the doggie friend...this guy was very interesting as he had been coming to this area since after WWII and had build a house to live in year round two doors down from the one we were in, he said nothing was in Gulf Shores back then, just the beach and the water.
Puzzles are a great thing to do with your family...just sitting down together for prolonged periods brings out a lot of fun and information you wouldn't necessarily hear about otherwise. The guys even let me pick out the puzzle.
WEEK IN REVIEW: We vacationed at Gulf Shores, Alabama...had a lovely "beach cottage" right on the Gulf, the view from the cottage was wonderful (photos below), the beach was private so no crowds, Matt enjoyed swimming in the Gulf (within the first 5 minutes 5 Auburn 20 year old girls had "picked him up"...they were staying with one of the girls' parents down the beach a mile so he had a tour of the area from the girls who had all been coming there for years), there were movies, dinners, site-seeing adventures, beach walks, star-gazing with Night Skies ap, and Matt even worked a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle with me, despite it's "sewing" theme. We read a lot...all of us were curling up with books all week...so nice to just have the time together. That said, I am sure you are all saying...what is wrong with this picture? I'm not a beach person (although it was a killer view from the cottage day and night, I quickly tire of just seeing water everywhere, sand, and heat)...I was happy to come home, that was a perfect amount of time to be gone, another week and I would have been stir crazy ready to head north to my green lawns and trees, etc. If truth be told, I always think of our home as a vacation destination...I love being in it and our yard/pool/etc. is very pretty and I never tire of it. So, all in all, a great time because I was with my guys and we enjoyed just not having any commitments for that time, but I am happy to be back in the swing of things here. I hope we can find a time in the swim schedule next year to do it again...different location, but just to have the time away together and relax would be lovely. I don't do beach relaxing well, because I like to go and do things like museums and such and time on a beach over 5 minutes bores me to tears (but I was more than happy to go there because my guys loved, loved, loved it), so maybe somewhere museumish with a beach...let's see...where would that be do you suppose?
Each day Matt would be the first to head out to the beach and set up camp.
Mark would walk Vash out to visit Matt...Vash didn't want anything to do with that water, however, Tibbies are not swimmers...but Vash did like the little beach friend he made and they would romp around having a good time...photo: Mark, Matt, Vash, Vash's doggie friend, Owner of the doggie friend...this guy was very interesting as he had been coming to this area since after WWII and had build a house to live in year round two doors down from the one we were in, he said nothing was in Gulf Shores back then, just the beach and the water.
Puzzles are a great thing to do with your family...just sitting down together for prolonged periods brings out a lot of fun and information you wouldn't necessarily hear about otherwise. The guys even let me pick out the puzzle.
LOOKING FORWARD TO: At the IMA, Musha (Warrior Prints) (Japanese), click here for details. At the ISO: Classical Mystery Tour: A Tribute to the Beatles, click here for details.