This is the Life!

This weekend could not have been better! Friday morning I loaded my car with three of my favorite girls (and had another new friend meet us from at the beach from Jackson, MS) and headed to Orange Beach...or specifically Ono Island. When we pulled up to the this house, we had to pick our jaws up off the floor!! Uncle Pat spoiled us rotten and hooked us up with I'm pretty sure the biggest house on the island....we were so intimidated we all stayed together on the same floor, when we could have each had our own!! After we were all finished playing hide in seek in the elevator, media rooms, theater, pool room, bars, bathroom (equipt with tvs of course) and playing with the flatscreen that came out of the footboards....we immediately threw on our suits and spent the rest of the day doing a lot of this!

There wasnt a cloud in the sky all weekend, it couldnt have been more perfect! The pool was over the top, to include this perky lady and the rest of her statue friends shooting water in the pool and hottub.

We made due with our tiny little shack, just the five of us, and spent a lot of time jumping back and forth from the chairs to this ricketly little infinity pool (ha!) it was so dang HOT!

We finally cleaned up a bit and decided to get some dinner, so it was off to Cosmo's, one of my favorite restuarants in Orange Beach. It was absolute torture to tear ourselves away from this place though!

Lisa, my precious friend from Columbus, who is having a baby GIRL soon, and her girlfriend Melissa who came to join us from Mississippi, at dinner.

The next day was the same....nothing but sun and pool, sun then pool...and then Haley and I decided to try out the bay. So we walked down our dock, and turned around to see this view!

After building up the nerve to jump over the little fishies at the end of the pier, we landed safe and sound in the oil free bay, and soaked up the sun in some salty water....the true beach experience.

Then we rounded up the girls, loaded the car and went to the beach. We had to see for ourselves what the news is telling us. And seeing all these boats with your own eyes is truly heartbreaking. I wont lie, I got emotional. I feel like the Gulf Coast is a second home to me, and seeing all the equipment on the sand, and all the boats in the water, all the booms, is a scary site. It's overwhelming.

We did manage some smiles though. Partly because people are still out there, laying in the sun, and in the water (the part protected by the big floating bouy-thingies). I did hear one guy yelling to his son in the water "DON'T DRINK THE WATER, SON!!" I had to kind of laugh.

The sand looks pretty normal, see? But to tell the truth, it's not our bleach white gulf sands. It does have a darker tint, they have been cleaning it daily, and regrading it. I saw no tarballs, and no oily film in the water. But it's there, and it's still coming. And it's devastating. This won't go away in months, and in my guess years. I have a feeling our children will feel the effects of this tragedy. My heart breaks for the gulf coast, and forever I will keep coming, and do all I can to support its community. This weekend it was eat all I can wherever I could, and love the time with my girlfriends.

Next weekend it'll be the same....with JIMMY BUFFETT!!