Apr 2009

I have a friend who is taking her young baby on a beach trip this summer. I, of course, strongly urged her to head to the Alabama Gulf Coast. It wasn’t too hard to persuade her, and now they are in the midst of planning a little family trip down there.

This will actually be their first trip with the baby, and she’s a little nervous about how her baby will handle it (the car ride, the pack-n-play, the actual beach, etc.). I just told her that there is no way to know until they try, but there are things she and her husband can do to try to make events run as smooth as possible, such as arming themselves with as much baby entertainment as possible for the drive down and bringing familiar blankets and stuffed animals to help the baby sleep at night. Concerning the beach…some babies love it and some hate it! It helps to be flexible and realize that beach time may be limited. Having a backup plan of alternate places to spend time together as a family is a good idea (like the pool, a playground or the zoo).

It will definitely be an adventure, and my final piece of advice to my friend was to record the memories—these are the kind of photos and videos that will always be treasured (and that might win a free vacation for someone: www.thebeachiscalling.org).

Anyone who owns a dog (or any other type of pet) probably knows that once you drop off your furry friend to be boarded, “road trip” becomes synonymous with “guilt trip.” You know the routine: As soon as you start packing, those little eyes start silently begging you not to go. Then you have to drag him into the kennel and watch as they drag him away to his “room” (it makes me feel better to call it a room rather than a cage).

I love my dog, and this used to break my heart every time. The first time we boarded her, she had no idea what was coming and so she was fine going in—but I was not! I worried about her the entire week. And from that point on she knew exactly what was happening whenever we pulled out the suitcases.

Now we always try to bring her wherever we go. If possible, we’ll make arrangements to stay at a hotel that allows dogs. Our other option is to board her at a kennel in the area where we are traveling. This way she doesn’t experience the anxiety of being left behind, and we can check on her throughout our vacation.

So think of your pet the next time you plan a visit to the Alabama Gulf Coast. Go to www.thebeachiscalling.org, look under Travel Tools/Guest Services and click on Pet Services. You’ll find a list of places that can care for your pet, everything from run-of-the-mill veterinary kennels to luxurious pet resorts. This could come in handy if you win one of the vacation prizes offered in the Gulf Shores/Orange Beach contests (more info is available at the address listed above).

My sister and I were just talking about how there’s nothing like a good beach book. It’s a very important issue for us, as we both love to sit on the beach, dig our toes into the sand and get lost in a good book. It just doesn’t get anymore relaxing than that.

We were trying to figure out what exactly makes a good beach book. Does the story have to take place at an actual beach? Should it be a romance? A comedy? Is a realistic story better or should it be more whimsical? We realized that the beach books we’ve read and loved over the years have varied between all of these characteristics and more. This led us to our next question: do the books enhance the beach experience or does the beach enhance our enjoyment of the book?

Maybe it’s a little of both, but one thing I know for sure is that sitting on a beach at the Alabama Gulf Coast definitely makes reading more enjoyable. With the gorgeous Gulf of Mexico sprawled out in front of me, I can easily relax and be absorbed by just about any story. I love to read anyway, so this type of setting is absolute heaven. I’m already planning for our next trip down to Gulf Shores, and this planning includes picking out a good book.

To start planning your next Gulf vacation, and for more information about the Gulf Shores/Orange Beach contests, go to www.thebeachiscalling.org.

The differences in how I used to spend spring break years ago and how I spend spring break these days are quite funny. When I was in college, the only necessary requirement when finding a hot spring break spot was that there had to be great bars and a thriving night life. My friends and I would spend the week partying, and then we’d go home.

My husband and I thought it would be fun to re-visit one of our old spring break spots during our first spring vacation after we were married. It was definitely entertaining: we sat on our hotel balcony at night and watched the young spring breakers parade up and down the street in their cars, their music pouring loudly out of the windows. We watched the flirting and the dancing and the various antics, including one streaking incident. Amusing, yes, but we felt pretty out of place. We began to realize that life was changing, and that type of getaway was no longer our scene.

Along came our first child a year later to finalize the transition. From that point on, vacations took on a new tone. We seek out more family-oriented destinations, which is what makes the Alabama Gulf Coast so great. I feel comfortable bringing my family there, and there are many activities that the kids enjoy.

Visit www.thebeachiscalling.org to learn more and to enter the Gulf Shores/Orange Beach contests.

My aunt was in town yesterday. We were looking at the hundreds of pictures that my cousin has taken—in the past week—of her young baby, and we realized how different picture-taking habits are today compared to the “old days.” It really wasn’t all that long ago that you had a limited number of pictures you could take, you had to pay to develop them, and you couldn’t even preview them before. You waited for that perfect moment, snapped the picture and hoped for the best. Now you can take fifty pictures in ten minutes and not think twice about—and not have to pay for them!

My aunt, who is a little old-fashioned, thought that this devalues pictures, that a hundred pictures of a child’s first steps aren’t as special as one or two of that precious moment. But I completely disagree. I think having lots of pictures helps you to fully recapture the moment. For example, I have an endless number of pictures from our last few trips to the Alabama Gulf Coast. I was able to take a picture anytime the moment seemed right, and now we can look back at those pictures and remember everything. I consider that to be extremely valuable.

And thanks to all of those digital photos, I had a lot of options to choose from when entering the “Show Us Your Best Gulf Shores/Orange Beach Vacation Ever” contest, which is still active…so if you haven’t entered yet, go to www.thebeachiscalling.org.