Post Thanksgiving at the Beach!

After we finished Thanksgiving dinner at Dan's parents we continued on for the remainder of our planned trip for the weekend. Dan signed up to run a Half Marathon in Gulf Shores, Alabama, which ended up being a lot longer of a drive than we had planned on from their house. We arrived around 10pm. Upon arrival we found out that the condo rental company had forgotten we were showing up that day. Usually they give you a code to the building so you can pick up your key that they leave out on the front desk...but since they didn't remember about us, there was no key to be found. We had to wait for a security guard to arrive and get our key for us.

The next morning we had to go back to the main office and pay our balance. They kept on apologizing over and over again for the trouble they put us through...which honestly wasn't that big of a deal, other than we were tired and were sick of being in the car. They ended up giving us a $50 gift card to a local res truant for all the "trouble" they put us through. Dan was also given another $25 res truant gift card, $20 Tanger Outlet gift card, and a free night stay at the condo for the race...so between everything we got a great deal on our weekend getaway! All we paid for was the gas and 2 nights at the condo. We cooked our own breakfast and ate sandwiches for lunch...and had free dinners! It definitely worked out to our advantage!

This is the view from the living room balcony at the condo.

This is the bedroom balcony view.



And this is a picture I took of the pool area. The pool was as cold as ice water but at least the hot tub was nice!

On Friday morning we decided to hit a few souvenir shops. One of them had a really cool Shark as part of the entrance.

After we were done shopping we headed to the Beach! The water was ABSOLUTELY FREEZING! I love looking for shells though so we walked along the beach and let the water hit our legs and feet. By the time we were done at the beach my feet were totally numb:)

There were the CUTEST little birds on the beach. They would run up to the edge of the water to eat bugs and as soon as the tide got close to them they would run away at lightning speed. Their little legs would move so fast you could barely even see them! Dan kept on teasing me that I was just like the birds....I would run up to the water's edge to look for shells and as soon as the water came near me I would squeal and run away because it was so cold! It was totally worth it though!

After we were done searching for shells we attempted to make a sand castle and then buried one another. We were the only people playing on the beach (there were a few people walking on the beach and such...but we were the only ones actually playing like it was summer!) but we had a lot of fun!

Me by our sandcastle...it was collapsing as we were building so we didn't get so far.

Dan by our sandcastle.

I buried Dan entirely except for his head...I accidentally got a lot of sand in his ears too!

Dan imitating the Incredible Hulk....lol

Dan got it easy...he buried me in the same spot I buried him. So all he had to do is pile all the sand on top of me that I had dug out for him!

After the beach we went out to eat at one of the "free" res truants. The food wasn't that great...but the view was nice! (Pardon our extremely cheesy smiles...)

For the rest of the weekend it rained almost constantly but it at least stopped for the race! So although we didn't get much More beach time we enjoyed being able to relax, shop, go to the movies, etc...I even dragged Dan to see Twilight with me for my second time of seeing it...his first!