We're Back!

I suppose I sort of jinxed myself last week when I wrote "even if a storm rolls in" regarding my vacation to the beach. You see, a storm DID roll in... and it hung around for two of the five days we were vacating.

The trip from our house to the condo we rented should have taken about 7 1/2 hours total. But due to the storm and the fact that it seemed everybody and their grandmother decided to head to the beach the same day we did, it took us 10 1/2 hours to get there. But I gotta tell ya... my car mates really made it okay. I mean, yes, we were all sick of being in the car, and yes, we were tired of the rain. But everybody kept their feelings in check and we ended up having fun, even though the situation was not the best.

By the time we finally got there, it was already time to go eat dinner. So we freshened up and started the trip off right by dining at Louisiana Lagniappe. It was delicious!

The next day it rained, too. All day. But this was my view:

I grabbed a blanket and a book and went out on our enormous balcony to watch the rain and read. It was so relaxing! In fact, my daughter came out there and said to me, "Mom, do you have any idea how long you've been out here?" I thought it had been maybe an hour or so. She informed me I had been out there for 3 hours. Ha! Some people, like the two teenage girls who accompanied us on the trip, may have found that to be a waste of time. I found it to be a fabulous way to spend the day.

The next day the weather was beautiful. The sun was shining, the temperature started in the 80's and eventually hit the 90's in the afternoon. I spent half the day in the sun, and the other half under the beach umbrella. It was awesome!

The rest of the trip was much the same, with beautiful weather and fun to be had by all. You can't really tell by these pictures, but the sand was whiter than I've seen it in years. And the water was so clear and cool!

One of the best parts of the whole vacation occurred on the last day. Teddy and I were lying on the beach, when we heard somebody holler something about a dolphin. We looked up to see a dolphin jumping out of the water, performing much like you'd see at Sea World, but only about 30 yards from the beach. It was fascinating to watch! He put on his little show for about 10 minutes, captivating every beach-goer's attention. The dolphin would rise out of the water and do a flip or some other such trick, and the entire beach would erupt in applause. So incredibly cool!

The drive home was, thankfully, uneventful and unmarred by the traffic congestion we encountered on the way down there. My hubby even found a less-traveled highway which took us around the typical traffic on I-10. As usual, he was my hero! We made it back safely and had a few days left to unwind before returning to work this week. Of course, neither of us actually rested. More on that later...