toes in the sand

Mary Reese, Owen and I just spent a wonderful week at the beach [Banks and Jody stayed back to practice/play baseball].  I was a little nervous about our vacation with the ongoing oil crisis.  We like to spend the majority of our time on the beach.  But before we left, I told myself we might just be spending more time here...



Thankfully I booked us at a condo with a water slide, lazy river and zero entry pool.

This is what the beach/ocean looked like on our first day...



Oil and tar FREE [and no smell] but pretty deserted considering it is June.  [The next day the oil appeared, disappeared for 2 days and then reappeared for the remainder of the trip.]



While the beach was oil free, we soaked up every second.  We spent our days doing things like...



splashing in the waves,



digging in the sand,



watching the waves roll in,



putting our toes in the water,



playing with everyone else's toys,



playing with some friends and,



hunting for shells.

We spent the rest of our days poolside...



Owen enjoyed splashing around the shallow part of the big pool...



By the end of the week, he thought he could swim...



He has NO fear of the water.

Every afternoon he would crawl up in the lounge chair for a little poolside nap under a homemade tent...



While he was napping, Mary Reese was doing a little relaxing of her own...



We bribed her with a new pair of flip flops if she would go down the slide with Aunt Stacey...



On the 3rd time down with auntie, she pushed herself off and started going by herself...



I bet she went down that slide 1000 times during the week [and she got the cutest new pair of "high heel" flip flops]!

So her toes would look there best in those new flops, she got treated to several mani/pedis...



What would a beach trip be without good seafood?  We had some fabulous meals at some of our most favorite spots...



We ate at Big Fish, Wintzell's, The Crab Trap, Louisanna Lagniappe, Cobalt, Tin Top & Cosmos.  It was all delicious & delightful!

My personal favorite was Tin Top.  This is their menu...



They have fabulous food with the best southern sides [like fried okra, lima beans, collard greens, and gouda cheese grits].  Mary Reese was thrilled when these appeared on the table...



Fried Pickles!

On the morning that we left, this is what the ocean looked like...



You can see a huge layer of tar not too far off the shore.

The entire time we were there [day & night], they had people cleaning the beaches...



The people in the orange & green t-shirts shoved up tar by day and machines combed the beaches at night.

Every afternoon, signs like this would fly by...



We missed his visit by 1 day [thankfully because I heard the traffic was awful].

I think these 2 were worn out from all the beach fun...



We were all excited to get home!  We missed having Banks and Jody around...the beach just wasn't the same without them!

Hopefully our beaches will be back by next summer!