The Last Week at the Beach

  After my parents left the beach on Sunday, my bestest, Kathryn, and her boyfriend, Dave, drove down to spend the last week with us. My mom was mad because we stayed up super late all week long when we couldn't even stay up later than 11pm one night with her! We ate pizza and played several games of hand and foot throughout the night as soon as Kat and Dave got to the beach. Wrigley also decided that his new best friend was Dave, so we started calling Dave Wrigley's "grandpa-pa". You can see the evidence of Wrigley's newfound love from this picture below.

I love the fact that the Wrigster adopted Dave and Patrick had to get a picture for the full effect.

Dave and his new BFF

  I absolutely love it. Wrigley did too, as he didn't wake up for several hours as we played cards. For a while now, every time the four of us get together and play cards, it is always girls versus boys. I think it was last summer (Kat, correct me if I'm wrong) when we were at the beach together that we formed pair names. The boys became Manmates and the girls were aptly named Skinny B******, or Skinny B's. Kathryn makes a killer margarita based off of the skinny girl margarita that we kept sipping the whole time we were at the beach and our name was born! Now it's been a running joke that whenever we are drinking our "B" juice, we kill the boys in cards. Well, our juice didn't seem to have the usual mojo it carries as we lost most of our games we played. UGH! I hate losing!

  The above picture is very random, but I had to document the huge bruise I got when I jumped out of my dad's car to go eat at The Beach Club. Yup, that's what slamming a door on your leg will do. Watch out for those rear Explorer doors! It has finally healed and I am so glad! Ouch!

  Anyways, when we weren't playing cards at night, we were laying out by the pool. It was quite relaxing. We grilled steaks, tomatoes, onions, and okra one night and then Kathryn made an amazing shrimp creole another night. We ate at Cosmo's again, but it was terrible. I ordered the grilled shrimp and none of them were deveined. I'm sorry, but that doesn't fly in my book. We told the manager and at least she comped our meal, but she didn't really tell the waitress so it was a little awkward when we told her. Oh well, one bad meal over the course of 2 weeks isn't bad (at least the risotto underneath the grilled shrimp wasn't bad)!

Dinner at Cosmo's

  We spent our last night eating at Louisiana Lagniappe once again and it was delicious! I had the crabcakes again (no surprise there) and Patrick branched out and had some kind of fish that he liked, but he enjoyed the shrimp etouffee and lobster tails best. Kat had the crab stuffed shrimp and I can't remember what Dave had.

The Skinny B's

Manmates

  I thoroughly enjoyed our time down at the beach and felt re-energized once we arrived back in Atlanta. I'm very glad that we were able to spend so much time down at the beach, thanks to Patrick's job requirements. I know, right? 

  Anyways, two last pictures of the Wrigster. The first is where we found him one night while we were playing cards late into the night. I guess he decided he was really tired and loved the couches my mom has at the beach so he put himself to bed. He was quite irate when we had to wake him up and put him in his crate for bed that night.

  Don't you love these ears? I do, but I might just be a little biased. :) Wrigley would jump up on the couch every day and would just watch what we were doing if we were eating at the dining room table or if we were in the kitchen. We figured that he must just love being able to see since normally due to those stubby little legs, he can't! So precious! 

The First Week at the Beach

  The last two weeks, P, the Wrigster, and I were able to spend time down at the beach in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Oh, I love the beach so much! As soon as we hit the BP station off the interstate, I start getting super excited. Patrick thinks I'm crazy, but I can smell the beach from there. My whole mentality changes and I know I am at the beach where I can simply relax. I very much needed this vacation, but of course, I wasn't ready to come back home yesterday.
  The first week, P and I were at my parent's beach house enjoying each other's company. Now, we really didn't go down to the beach very much because every day the clean up crews were down on the beach. And I'm sorry, but I don't really like to be stared at in a bikini, so we stayed by the pool for the most part. I was impressed that Patrick was able to stay out with me every day as long as he did. Poor Wrigster though as we had to keep him in the house for the most part. But don't worry, my parents came down to spend the weekend with us and they brought Tucker with them.

  Patrick and I enjoyed dinner at The Oyster House the first night we got down to the beach and were pleasantly surprised when we were able to walk right in with no wait! Now I know many people have decided to forego their beach trips this year due to the oil spill, but it still didn't explain the walk-right-into The Oyster House on a Sunday night. Thanks to the trusty iphone, we found out that Jimmy Buffett was playing a free concert down on the public beach at the T. We saw some snippets of him on the tv and it seemed like a great concert.

  We also ate at a place called Cosmo's, but once you've had crabcakes from Louisiana Lagniappe, you can't really get crabcakes from anywhere else. Like I said, my parents and sister came down for the weekend and we ate at The Oyster House again and we introduced my parents to Louisiana Lagniappe. Mmm, so good!! Ever since we went there last year with Kat and Dave to meet Kat's dad, it has become my favorite place to eat at the beach. They bring out hushpuppies first and then a salad and all the entrees come with a twice baked creole potato. P had the lobster tails and shrimp Étouffée while I had the crabcakes though I could only finish 3 of the 4 (yes, they give you FOUR fantastic crabcakes). Oh man, my mouth is watering just thinking about them!! Take me back to the beach now!

                                   

                                   

  Tucker came down with my parents to the beach and ever since he has been a wee little pup, he has always traveled to the beach with them. So once they arrived, Tucker was itching to get down to the beach. This being the first time the Wrigster has ever been down to the beach, he had no idea what the beach was. All he knew was that he would follow Tucker and especially my mom (his Grandma-ma) wherever they go. I mean, look at the picture below. Both Tucker and Wrigley are waiting for my mom to take them to the beach.
                                  

  We are about to go down to the beach and are so excited!! We asked Tucker if he wanted to go down to the beach and he took one look at us and bolted out the door and down the sidewalks. He didn't stop walking until we made it all the way down to the boardwalk. Wrigley was just following along behind Tucker and my mom. He really had no idea about the beach yet, but was just running right along with Tuck.

  My mom really didn't want to take the pups down onto the beach due to the oil, but once Tucker reached the pier, he wouldn't stop. My mom was trying to hold Tucker back, but my sister and I convinced her to let the pups go down to the sand right off the boardwalk.

  And once we got onto the beach, this is what Tucker did. Yup, he just sat down on the sand and stared out at the ocean. That little fatty wouldn't budge. He was probably the happiest corgi I've ever seen. I'm so glad that we allowed the pups down on the beach. Now we only let them chill out on the beach for a while, but while Tucker could have stayed there forever, Wrigley was seeking out people to love on him. He is such an attention hog! He was lucky to find a lady and her two kids who had had a corgi and loved Wrigley. Tucker could have cared less that anyone else was around; he was on his beach watching the waves and was perfectly content. 

                                  

                                  

  That pretty much sums up our first week at the beach! Next up, second week recap to come!