The Fairhope Experience | June 28-July 1

Early Thursday morning, yes, 4:30am early, Nathan and I woke up ready to take on the 11.5 hour drive to Fairhope, AL for the wedding of one of our dearest friends. We have been waiting and praying for this union for so long and were so excited about getting to share in the weekend festivities that we didn't think all that much about the drive down. I know what you're thinking....Fairhope? Where in the world is that? If you look it up on the map, you'll see that it is at the southernmost tip of Alabama.

For me, it was exciting because I'd never been to Alabama. (Props to me for getting to add another state to the growing list of states visited-woohoo). I could never in my wildest dreams imagined that Fairhope would be the most charming little town!  We arrived at around 3pm local time (4pm NC time) and headed to check in at our hotel. At the suggestion of the bride, we made early reservations at the Hampton Inn in downtown Fairhope. Check-in time wasn't until 4 so we were very early but decided to see if we could get to our room anyway. We were very tired from the long drive and thought we might be able to get a nap in before dinner. Our room wasn't ready so we strolled up and down the streets until what seemed like 5 minutes later, I got a call from the hotel letting me know that our room was ready. We went back to the car, unloaded our stuff and crashed. We were greeted to a basket of goodies from Stephanie's family! It was so sweet!

Goody Basket! 

After we took a nap we decided to head out for some grub. We went to a little pizza place within walking distance from the hotel. Papa's Pizza was our destination. It was delicious! We both got salads and one slice of cheese pizza, two for Nathan. When we were done eating, we asked for recommendations for some good ice cream. The waitress was adamant that we check out Mr. Gene's Beans. We walked down to the little coffee/ice cream/yogurt shop and got waffle cones. Nathan stuck to his all time favorite, cookie dough. And me? Well I just can't resist a good mint chocolate chip. Oh my, it was good! We had a good walk back to the hotel and had to be quick about eating our cones. Even after dusk it was still so hot and humid that the ice cream was very drippy. Delicious, but a huge mess if you can't lick fast enough! I remember when I was a kid, my mom and dad would always take our ice cream cones and lick up the drips because our little mouths couldn't keep up with the melting! 

Friday dawned bright but not so early. We lazily got up and ate breakfast provided by the hotel and decided to walk down to the Fairhope Pier. It was around 9:30, maybe 10 and we headed off to check out Mobile Bay. The walk down to the pier was very nice. Huge trees shaded the path and the breeze made the slightly downhill walk pleasant. **Key word there is "downhill".** The bay was mostly smothered in smog but we were able to very faintly see the city of Mobile.  There were several people fishing from the pier and did catch a few fish. As we were walking to the end of the pier, I looked over to the right and saw that one of the docks was covered in pelicans. The funny thing was that they were all lined up in a row sunning themselves or preening. It was quite a sight. The pics below are from the walk to the fountain and on the pier.

There was a pretty rose "garden" next to the pier

A huge fountain

Any idea what this means? or what this is for?  I thought it was funny.

The pier had a bunch of these bird houses that were sanctuary's for different birds.

This bird let me get reallllly close to him before he decided to fly off.

We didn't realize how hot it really was until we got to the pier. Its funny how the sun reflects off of roads and concrete. It was realllllly hot and muggy so we headed back to the hotel. On the way back we ran into Dwight and his family walking down the street - they were headed for ice cream - and we were pretty much drenched in sweat. It was gross. We both definitely realized that we didn't bring enough clothes or plan on how many times we would have to change to accommodate the weather. Nathan ran out of shirts by the second day and we had to "wash" one of his shirts in the sink and hang it up over the AC unit to dry.   I don't remember how many showers we took but it was a lot. I am truly thankful for the thing we call AC. 

We had to be at the church for rehearsal at 5pm. We took another nap and got up in plenty of time to get ready to be at rehearsal. I ironed some clothes and in our typical style we were ready wayyyy ahead of time.  We left the hotel at around 4:40. The church was only 0.2 miles from the hotel, however Google maps told us to turn the wrong way. Yes, we are still old fashioned and don't have a GPS. I had printed off directions a while ago and didn't think it would be so hard to find a place that was within walking distance of our hotel. We finally decided to turn around and go the other way and found what we were looking for. I wanted to get some pictures of the outside of the church before anyone got there. The church was beautiful!

Stained glass at the front of the sanctuary

Front entrance to the church

I love these doors!

Rehearsal went well and after it was over everyone headed over to the church's Christian Life center to celebrate and eat dinner. Dinner was salad, smoked chicken, beef brisket, baked and green beans with rolls. Banana pudding for dessert. Everyone raved about the baked beans. There was pineapple in the recipe and it really made for a good dish! As dinner came to and end, the time of sharing began. There were stories from family and friends of both Dwight & Stephanie. It is very clear that they are both living examples of how  faithful our God is.  They are both beautiful people, inside and out and are so perfect for each other. It is amazing to see how God brought them together and how He continues to mold, shape and draw them closer to Him. The stories were hilarious, touching and heart warming. I feel so blessed to be able to call them friends. I can't wait to see what awesome plans God has for them in the future. 

Nathan & Katie after the rehearsal dinner

[father's day]

For Father's Day this year, we went to the in-laws. Pam decided it would be a good idea to make pineapple ice cream for Rick since he loves anything and everything with pineapple and/or coconut. We were going to make it in the big electric ice cream maker. I think that it makes about 4 quarts but I asked Pam where the tabletop maker was instead. For some reason I thought we were doing it inside and didn't realize that she wanted to make a TON of ice cream and had forgotten that she even had the counter top maker. **random rambling: it is 9:05pm and our neighbor is outside shooting hoops in the driveway. Sometimes he's out there at 10 pm or later- lol** Since I reminded her of the smaller ice cream maker, she decided that would be a better idea (way less messy). While we were waiting for the 3rd batch to get done, Sampson and I went outside and watched the boys play HORSE.

through the trees...

hi buddy!

I think he gave up trying to get away.

Not too much variety on the angle of the pooch. Every time I'd try to move around him, he'd follow me or look up to see where I was going. Also didn't help that I had about a 5 foot lead. Haha.

While the boys played basketball, Pam and I took a stroll up the street. The weather was so nice and all of the plants looked so healthy and green.

One of my fav. trees in their yard. Especially in the fall.

{WeDDinG sEasOn}

So, so excited for our friends Dwight and Stephanie who tie the knot on June 30th!! 

I don't know what those cakes were but they sure looked D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!

Cruise 2012 | Day 6, 7 & 8 {Days at Sea/Nassau}

Well folks, we're about at the end of our journey. After leaving Tortola we had one last day at sea before getting to Nassau. I've been to Nassau 3 times now and I can say that I will be perfectly happy if that port doesn't show up in the itinerary any time soon. On our way to Nassau, another tropical storm was brewing in the Caribbean. This produced a waterspout that hovered over the water for a very long time. Nathan and I were eating breakfast and all of a sudden people started clamoring to the opposite side of the ship. We were about finished eating, so I grabbed my trusty camera and set off to see what all of the fuss was about. The side of the ship that we were sitting on was bright and sunny and by the looks of it, the complete opposite was happening on the other side. Rain, dark clouds and of course the water spout. Unfortunately, I didn't have my long lens with me and Nathan didn't want to run to the room to get it, so all we get are some wider shots. :) I won't bore you with the many pictures I took of the H2O spout but here are a few:

After we passed the storm

After the waterspout excitement had passed, we sat on the deck content to sit on a bench and read a book while we watched Nassau come into view. This was the only port itinerary that had a strange timeline. We didn't get into port until about 1pm and then we left around 6. It was a short stop. Fine with me but short. Not sure how anyone was able to get in any "excursion time". We got off the boat with Jimmy and Chell and made our way through the throngs of people, tourist traps and pushy natives selling their wares. We did not plan an excursion for this stop because, to be perfectly honest, none of the four of us were all that excited about it. We were pretty hungry when we got off the boat so we headed out in search of something to eat. We found a place called "Sharkeez". It was really good. I got an island burger, which was absolutely HUMONGOUS, was made with their caribbean jerk sauce and had grilled pineapple and other yummy goodness on it. The burger was seriously the size of my head! Nathan had to help me eat it.... :) Also treated myself to a mango margarita which was good but wish I'd told them on-the-rocks instead of frozen. 

Waiting for our food at Sharkeez

After lunch we strolled down the main drag and found ourselves at Senor Frogs. 

The Senor himself!

Is NC on this? 

Senor Frogs was PACKED with people. We barely made our way into the gift shop and got out alive. I am really glad that we didn't try to eat there because we may have missed the boat, that's how long the lines were. Neat place, but those of you that know me, know that I can definitely go without crowded spaces. 

Once again, Nathan and I decided to head back to the ship for a nap while Jimmy and Chell explored the city. After a few hours of shopping and walking around we were bushed and ready to relax. We showered, changed and relaxed a little bit before heading off to an early dinner. This was the last night on board the ship and somehow we both ended up getting two desserts! Yikes. Nathan had some kind of mango or peach cold soup for his appetizer which was divine! He said he could have eaten 3 times the amount he did, it was so good. Since we had eaten pretty early we headed up to the top deck to watch the sun go down as we said goodbye to Atlantis and its tropical home. 

Yes, that's my shadow blocking half his face- dang it!

You can't tell by the picture but this was Michael Buble in concert. The daily ship happenings had it listed as "Michael Bubble". I could not stop laughing.

Empty waterslide

Goodbye, Atlantis!

I went a little bit overboard with the sunset pictures that night. It was the only night that we were able to see any kind of sunset at all. The other nights, we were either at dinner or it was cloudy and we couldn't see anything. I remember thinking that we had better sunsets off the back deck of my house. :) (Seriously, they are pretty amazing...come visit and you'll see.)  

Sun shining through the ping pong table

The ship at dusk

Oh, one last funny thing from Nassau--- they sell champagne in the soda frig! Ha!