So we went to the beach in April! We went to Orange Beach, AL. Neither Vin nor I’d ever been (not just to Orange Beach but to Alabama in general) so this was a first. We had an amazing time!
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach12.jpg:Family portrait on the beach:center:0]]
Oh Adik! Why didn’t you look up? Anyway, I had been planning a short entry with a few pictures of our fabulous time in Orange Beach, but I ended up with way too many photos and a chronic inability to edit it anymore. I think we must refrain from taking so many pictures next time. Some of them actually turn out quite nice.
* Mouse over pictures for captions
So rather than being all talky talky, let’s let the photos speak for themselves. We begin with Day 2 of traveling – waking up in Athens, AL and then driving the rest of the way to Orange Beach:
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach01.jpg:Dancing to WordWorld:center:0]]
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach02.jpg:Adik looks like a real baby! (For some reason Yaya thinks real babies wear diapers and nothing else):center:0]]
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach03.jpg:Yaya amusing Adik with her impression of an elephant trumpeting and pouring water onto itself:center:0]]
Note the saliva coming out of her mouth. When Yaya acts like an elephant bathing itself using its trunk, she really commits to the role and the drool is the make-believe water. We stop at a rest area before we get on the little roads that take us to the beach:
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach04.jpg:Happy Papa and Adik:center:0]]
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach05.jpg:Yaya plays with a pump faucet thingy:center:0]]
We finally get to our hotel. The little roads had been driving us crazy. Luckily for us, Zen restaurant was right across the street from our hotel:
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach06.jpg:Stealing silverware from Mama and Papa is fun!:center:0]]
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach07.jpg:Adik is ecstatic to get out of his car seat:center:0]]
We checked into our hotel, unpacked, and got into our beach gear!
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach08.jpg:Beach haiku- The sun is setting, Adik walks on sandy beach, I can’t ask for more:center:0]]
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach09.jpg:After some initial apprehension, Adik decides he loves the beach!:center:0]]
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach10.jpg:Happily running around:center:0]]
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach11.jpg:Another family portrait:center:0]]
The next morning, it is a little bit cloudy but that does not stop us from enjoying the beach:
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach13.jpg:View from our balcony:center:0]]
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach14.jpg:Adik has two shovels!:center:0]]
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach15.jpg:Yaya gets busy building sandcastles:center:0]]
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach16.jpg:Happy Yaya:center:0]]
It is windy and the water is a little bit cold so we aren’t in a huge hurry to jump into the surf. Well, other than Yaya, that is. She seemed quite impervious to the water temperature.
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach17.jpg:Yaya packs wet sand into her bucket – it’s like cement and won’t come out:center:0]]
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach18.jpg:The answer is more water! Hey, a parachute!:center:0]]
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach19.jpg:Papa loves the beach!:center:0]]
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach20.jpg:Adik is busy burying himself:center:0]]
The sand at Orange Beach is really lovely – fine, soft and white. Not quite Pulau Redang, but definitely the best beach I’ve experienced in this country. Beautiful! Plus, coming in April before the summer holidays begin meant that we practically had the whole beach to ourselves. Whee! The only way to get Yaya off the beach is to promise her a turn in the pool. This becomes our strategy every day: beach, pool, then room.
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach21.jpg:Windy and cold in the pool:center:0]]
Sadly, it rained that afternoon and put a damper on our plans to go back down. Yaya was quite disappointed and upset about the whole situation, but we made the best of it.
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach22.jpg:Pocoyo game on the iPod:center:0]]
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach23.jpg:Yaya on the iPad (“the big thing”) and Adik on the iPod (“Mama’s black phone”):center:0]]
It was definitely a fun time. Tune in soon for the second part of our beach escapade.
[[image:2013_april_orangebeach24.jpg:Happy smiling Adik ready for action!:center:0]]
