Spectacular Interlude

I spent a wonderful week on the beach with the man of my dreams. He is a real man, who actually eats food, sleeps at night, won't destroy me if he touches me and doesn't have to decide if he's going to make me a monster! There is something to be said for asking God to choose your husband. Especially, when your model, as in the case of my father, was a drunk and a wife beater. I had really low expectations in men. When I was widowed from my first marriage - a wife beating, heroin addict, I asked God to choose my husband. I asked for someone like David in the Bible, a man after God's own heart, minus Bathesheba. God literally answered my prayers with a man whose name personifies King David of Israel. My husband's name means - beloved king red like a fox or ruddy complexioned - David was described as ruddy complexioned and the rest is self explanatory.

So, I found myself on the beach with the man who has loved me and been married to me for over 31 years. We spent our mornings waking up on the balcony with our cup of coffee in hand. Watching the waves rolling in on the beautiful soft white beaches of the northern Gulf of Mexico.

We read aloud from our Bibles. We take turns alternating from day to day. Then we read the next section in our current book, "Thy Kingdom Come" by J. Dwight Pentecost, which is an excellent book that I highly recommend.

Some mornings the water was a lovely opaque green with the sun shining straight down and illuminating the sand under the sea. On those mornings we could easily see the schools of stingrays swimming through and avoid them. Other mornings it was the blue green of a stormy see the same color incidentally, of my husbands beautiful eyes. We saw no stingrays on those day the roughness of the sea probably made for poor feeding conditions. The last time we were there in 2009 I thrilled to find myself in the middle of a school of stingrays and I just stopped and stood perfectly still till they moved past me. It was a wonderful experience but there is always that underlying fear that you might get stung. God has always been very kind and merciful to me and I've experienced very little negative interaction with sea life. I trust Him to keep me in the water because I love to swim in the gulf.

We rented our beach chairs and our beach attendant, Ethan, kept our umbrella in the position we desired and my husband generously tipped him for his good service to our needs. I picked back up in "Popes and Bankers {A Cultural History of Credit & Debt, from Aristotle to AIG}" by Jack Cashill. He is an excellent writer with a delightful satirical cynicism to alleviate the otherwise depressing and complicated subject of higher finance. David was reading the "Israel Omen" by David Brennan.

We spent three lovely days in our beach chairs, swimming in the ocean, body surfing and walking the beach. Instead of collecting seashells this time we bought back a few pieces of driftwood for our garden. We packed a cooler full of snacks, sandwiches for lunch, water, gatorade and beer for our day on the beach. Then we'd come in shower, dress and visit one of the very excellent local restaurants. We only had one bad day on the beach and we were still able to spend at least the morning walking on the beach and then read a little by the pool before the rain drove us into our condo. And we spent the rest of the day enjoying ourselves, playing cards and had a light supper in the condo.

Monday, as soon as we drove into Gulf Shores, we stopped at the Original Oyster Bar and ate our fill of seafood. Starting with seafood gumbo. David ordered a fried seafood platter and I ordered two appetizers, cold boiled gulf shrimp with 1,000 Island dressing on the side and fried crab claws with double the tartar sauce (my personal favorites). We had to take the rest of the crab claws home. Tuesday night we ate at Cotton's down in Orange Beach. After a day in the water we both wanted protein so after eating the most excellent cup of seafood gumbo we went with the bacon wrapped Petite Oscar (filet mignon) for me, David got the full size and we went with the traditional house salad with ranch and a fully loaded baked potato. I left nothing but the potato peel and was trying to figure out if I could stuff that down my throat without getting sick when I decided against that course of action. Thusrday night we went to Cobalt's located on the pass right under the bridge and had an excellent cup of crab bisque along with firecracker shrimp, David had a dozen raw oysters plus two. We chose for our entree the scallop stuffed flounder on a bed of rice with black beans and corn and a mango and honeydew salsa. I don't eat scallops but I thoroughly enjoyed the flounder and left the scallop to itself. We finished it off with a most excellent fried apple pie split in two and served with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. Friday night we tried Cafe Grazie and once again went for the beef. What can I say, my husband is a native Texan, beef, it's whats for dinner. We enjoyed spinach and artichoke dip with fried pita chips, then had the bacon wrapped tournedos (filet mignon medallions) with a red gorganzola sauce and polenta. It was demolished but neither of us could finish the polenta. My husband being kindness itself allowed me to pick the wine and every night I chose a different bottle of riesling.

We brought my MP 3 player and enjoyed music and wine on the patio in the evenings with the occaisional slow dance thrown in at a favorite song. We watched "Tristan and Isolde" and "Remember Me" from our dvd collection. We enjoyed the sun, the moon reflecting on the night sea,

the sea, the surf and the beautiful sand. We watched the people go by, struck up conversations with strangers we'll never again see.

We enjoyed the mini-drama along with the rest of the beach crowd of the truck stuck in the sand - the rumor was that a 13 year old drove his Daddy's truck down on the beach. Stuck down to the axles it was an all day ordeal trying to get it out, with the local police overlooking the whole process. The job of the police was to make sure they did not drive the truck over the dunes an offense that would land the driver in prison. Eventually, they got it on packed sand and drove it down and out at the FloraBama, a local iconic bar on the Florida/Alabama state line.

I love the clean beaches and clear green and blue waters of western Alabama and the upper coast of Florida. The water was a wonderful 72 degrees or there about which I found delightful (menopause helps) and my husband found a little cold but enjoyed. The day time temps were in the 80s and as always the humidity was high. It is worth the nine hour drive from our home in Texas and those beaches make the Texas beaches, well just a little inferior. Enough to make us go the distance. Till next time - farewell lovely beach.