WINTER BREAK AT ORANGE BEACH...

 This is about the 5th time we've gone on a winter break to the Gulf of Mexico!  Several times we have gone to Orange Beach, Alabama, and here's why...

Nice weather!

Great condos - We've stayed in different ones but we really liked The Breakers and Windward Point.

Clean beach - usually lots of shells too!

Fun biking trails - Hugh Branyon and Gulf State Park

Lots of restaurants to choose from!

Plenty of stores - Rouses, a local grocery store, is my favorite!

Lots of treat shops - Buzzcatz is the best!  We also like Southern Grind.

Culture - Friendly, and snowbirds are welcome!

Other fun stuff just a short drive away!

I guess after looking at my lengthy list, we like variety.  Not every day is suitable for the beach, so there's plenty of other things to do here.  Another thing we like is that we can drive - takes us about 14 hours to get here and we love a little road trip.  Give us an audiobook and a couple of fun restaurant stops and we are good!

A few of my favorite pics:

Flowers at Bellingrath Gardens near Mobile

Inside Bellingrath Mansion

Free cooking class on Fridays at Rouses grocery store - see all the snowbirds?

Farmer's Market in Foley

You know it's close to Mardi Gras when they serve Moon Pies with your fries!

Favorite seashells I found!

Mardi Gras night time parade right outside our condo!

Biking fun

Parade floats

Fresh seafood

Puzzle time

Blue jellyfish or Portugese Man O War?

The Coffee Shop that is really not a coffee shop.  

This is the best way to get a break from the dreary winter back home! 
I'm so thankful my husband can work remotely and we can come here. 
What do you like to do to get a break from winter?

ORANGE BEACH IN WINTER...

 We are kind of creating a tradition heading to the Gulf Coast each winter for a couple of weeks (snowbirds in training?) and this year we chose Orange Beach, Alabama.  The Hubs worked and we squeezed in a lot of fun between his responsibilities. 

This was our second time in Orange Beach.  We picked a small-ish condo.  We like the small ones because we like the idea of less people and no lines at the elevator.  We like to get privately owned VRBO places that seem well cared for and have fresh furnishings.  That's what we got this time at The Breakers.  It wasn't fancy or brand new, but it was nice, with a magnificent view of the ocean!  We found ourselves with the balcony doors open most of the time.  Pretty great in January!

We did a lot of the same things we did last time we were here - daily walks on the beach, hiking and biking the Hugh Branyon Backcountry trails.  We did find a couple of new things we loved, though:  

A short drive away you can hunt for dinosaurs along the highway in Elberta!

Near the dinosaurs there is also "Bamahenge." It's pretty big - see me in there?

Part of the Hugh Branyon trail in OB

Along the Jeff Friend trail

We reached the lagoon at the end of Jeff Friend trail!

A new Paula Deen restaurant opened in nearby Foley since we were there last time.  We had to try it out and opted for lunchtime.  It's the same menu as dinner but cheaper, of course.  We also got $10 off using a tourist book coupon we picked up at a local grocery store.  Score!  The biscuits were delicious!  I think that and the broccolli casserole were my favorite things about the meal.  

YUM

Buzzcatz is a coffee shop that we frequented often - they have a Happy Meower (Hour) and sell their cookies 1/2 price!  I think we tried all the different kinds by the end of our time there.  :) We went to another great fish place, Doc's Seafood Shack.  We were told by a local that is the best fried shrimp in the area. - fresh, handbreaded - not from Sam's!  It lived up to the hype!  

We shared this - the fried shrimp is buried under all that!

In the meantime, I re-organized my recipe album and did some reading.  I shopped one day and discovered a family owned supermarket (Rouses) that I liked that had a lot of Cajun specialty foods and King cakes!  I visited an artists gallery that houses about 50 local artists' works, Prosperous Pelican, and then enjoyed a little variety store called Al's 5 & 10 - it reminded me of the old TG&Y variety store I grew up with in OK.  

Another fun thing about the Gulf Coast in winter is that they are getting ready for Mardi Gras! 
I got this mini raspberry filled King Cake at Rouse's Market.  
 

See ya another time, Orange Beach!

I love this new tradition we've started - if you're an emptynester what kind of getaways do you do?

P.S.  I always like to find fun places to eat or see along our route and this time on the way home we stopped in Baton Rouge.  We ate lunch at Elsie's Plate and Pie.  It was pretty delicious, too!  

WINTER BLUES PARTY...

 Here we are again in the dead of winter with more weeks of cold ahead of us than behind us!  I don't know about you, but this time of year is a bit of a struggle for me.  Too many gloomy or cold days and I find myself dragging.  Thankfully, I've been distracted because it was my turn to host a monthly event with my Heartfelt group!  It gave me the motivation to get all Christmas decorations put away and my home ready to entertain again!

 I decided on a WINTER BLUES theme, making it a positive thing with blue and snowflake decor!  I already had a lot of blue things so that helped. I requested that the guests wear blue to the party and be prepared to share a tip with everyone on what helps them avoid the winter blues.  We had comfort food (chicken pot pie, roasted sweet potatoes, salad and apple crisp with ice cream.  We had a craft as well, snowflake mason jar vases.  We had so much fun, even though the temperature was 20 degrees outside. 

 

A fun sign for winter!

Group photo

Making snowflake mason jar vases!

My dishes have a blue stripe and I already had the light denim placemats, in addition to the navy napkins.  I also have several pieces of blue glass from my mother.  

I gathered natural branches to put in my vases and they do look like winter!

I found the snowflake runner, confetti and decorations 

on clearance at Party City!

 

I found two snowman dishes at the local thrift store!  

They were perfect to hold molded snowflake candies!

I think next winter I will hold another WINTER BLUES party now that I have all the cute things!  

SLOW FOOD...

Slow food is a new/old concept to me.  But one I'm ready to embrace!  When you're at a campfire, you know you're in for some simple food and fun!  Our daughter and SIL had the family over for a weiner roast recently.  He made the fire pit where they had two large rocks close together and he brought more from other areas on their acreage.  I'm loving any time we can do slow food and long conversation.  More about slow food next time...

HAPPY FALL, Y'ALL!

GARDEN PLAY...

Play is good for you no matter your age!  Way back in college I learned in early childhood education that play is essential for children.  It's how they learn.  A few days ago I decided it was time to play.  I took a much needed morning off from my phone, emails and other ministry related items.  

 I cleaned out my vegetable garden of these flowers that were taking over and have been enjoying this little arrangement from the "trash" of the garden.  I needed a heavy vase so the wind wouldn't tip it over so I repurposed a candle holder.

This door to nowhere has been here in the wild part of our yard and I wanted to embellish it so I added these English ivy vines I saved when we took down a large tree.  The vines were over 17 years old and had taken over.  They were kind of cool looking though, the way they had woven together, so I played around and at my daughter's suggestion, made these "blinds" for the window.

I put these in a pot for this little plant to climb up on. Upon?  Eh, not worrying about it.

What do you do in your playtime?