Happy New Year!

First post of 2007...

Jen and I had an awesome night last night, during what would turn out to be a 25-hour beach extravaganza. We headed south after church, armed with a single piece of luggage and the green Beetle, and wound up in Gulf Shores five hours later. The first stop was Scoops, the adorable ice cream parlor on Highway 59, because 1) it's so cute, 2) we were hungry, and 3) I was Fluffy-hunting (if Mary ever sees this, she'll know. But no sightings. He had the night off). Satiated, we then checked into the Holiday Inn, dressed for dinner, and headed over to Lulu's.

Jimmy Buffett's little sister started her own restaurant and moved it to Gulf Shores a few years back, and it's now a happening spot on the Intracostal Waterway. Though the wait was an hour and a half, it was in the low 60s, the Wet Willy Band was playing, I had a frozen key lime pie drink in hand (vanilla ice cream, Licor 43, and lime juice), the locals were sloshed, and the ring toss game was in full swing. They gave us beads at dinner (quality shrimp...Edinburgh, "prawns" don't cut it), and around nine we drove over to the Wharf for their "street party."

The "party" was more a gathering around the stage for what would have been a bad 50th high school reunion band, but the beer was plentiful and the big screens were showing muted football. I was getting cold and we were a little bored, so we headed for Starbucks (inevitably), then stood on the balcony for the rest of the concert/muted broadcast of Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve. At midnight, they dropped a light-up anchor (this is Gulf Shores, after all) and shot off fireworks, and we somehow managed to beat the line out to the road.

This morning, we had a nice hour on the beach, which would have been better if the air and water temperatures had been out of the 50s. Sadly, the sand was freezing, and an hour was all my feet could take. Numbness is unpleasant at 8 AM. We tried to go to our favorite breakfast place, but they were closed (New Year's Day? Who'd have thought?) and so we continued out of town.

Five hours later, we were back in Hoover, and I had managed a beach trip without a sunburn. Amazing.

There would have been video, but I sort of suck at it, especially in the dark. Sorry.