Return to Your Beloved Sea

During his visit, my brother and I were able to release our father's ashes into the waters that reach into the Gulf of Mexico and beyond.

 The hub took us out on a beautiful morn.

 It was absolutely breathtaking.

We brought hydrangea from the yard which I think fascinated the dolphin. It all made my heart dance.

He would have been 98 this month. 

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,

To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;

And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover

And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

--John Masefield

Labels: Brother Jim, Hub, Dad, Mobile Bay

Friends at Riverside

Beth (from Lasting Impressions from the HeArt) came down to Riverside on Monday. I tried to post, but this has been sitting on the computer for two days now. Solly. This was our first night on Mobile Bay at sunset.

Tuesday, I took her on the grand tour of the Gulf. We, of course, had to start with beignets from the Beignet Cafe. Sinfully good.

Oh, so much better than a power bar, ya think? Diet? Whaaaa?

They gave us enough strength to hit the beaches and the sorry state that the Gulf of Mexico is in.

But the beauty remains at first glance.

Double red flag? NO swimming. NO SWIMMING!!!

Warning signs are posted everywhere. I think this would have had my attention. Of course, there were still families, yes FAMILIES, in the water. So many local stories we heard. One lady said her daughter watched as a family came out of the water with welts on them. WELTS! (Or what Beth and I call "them whelps.") What are they thinking?

This was left over from the Jimmy Buffett concert made with seaweed (and probably a little oil mixed in). I think I would have made a NO BP sign, myself. But I'm sure the day was all full of peace and love, which was the point.

We then drove East towards my favorite beach, Perdido. This is looking West at Perdido Pass Bridge from Perdido Point. The pass separates Alabama from Florida.

These seagulls just sat by and watched. (Sorry about the smudge on the lens, I'm getting pretty good at that, aren't I. Hey, at least it's shaped like a seagull!)

The sands were much cleaner than they were three weeks ago at the same location. Still, we kept our sandals on.

Clean-up crews on the horizon in that gorgeous water.

There was a CNN.com reporter and photographer there. The reporter interviewed Beth.

There weren't a whole lot of people here, and the photog was trying to capture that, I'm sure. More people were walking along the beach than were in the waters. That's a good thing. The reporter told Beth that one lady had come out of the water and she asked her how it was. The lady said "Well, yes, there's some oil on me but mascara remover removes it really 'good.'" Oooooof. And when you come down with skin cancer, will the makeup remover help there? Lordy me.

After we had enough, we went and chilled at the Crab Trap and had my favorite there.

Pina Coladas! Woooot.

Then we made our way inland a tad to The Wharf. Oh, I do love this shop. Beth and I were oooohing and awwwing over all the pretties.

I'd love to do the "girls'" room like this. Not enough money in the world. lol

K, I AM going to make something similar to this though, thank you very much.

After all that window shopping, we were parched. So we headed over to LuLu's (Jimmy Buffett's sister's restaurant). Of course, they had a run on all the One Love, One Ocean T shirts during big bro's latest visit. The only things left were the hats and visors.

Of course, we had to have a margarita; and let me tell you, if I wasn't already warm and fuzzy, this one would have done the trick.

Woooooosh. A new tequila the bartender told us about that is as good as Petron, but cheaper. Thank goodness I only had the one.

After a few more stops, we headed back to Riverside. Only for a short while though. It was almost dinner time. The kid and I wanted to take Beth to one of our favorite haunts, Felix's on the Bay.
I love the copper menus at the bar. Beth ordered a Bloody Mary and I stuck with the margaritas.

It couldn't hold a candle to LuLu's though. (Must be a Buffett thang.)

She ordered my favorite dinner here, the BBQ shrimp. She was in for a real treat.

Straight outta New Orleans. My mouth is watering just looking at the pic.

Needless to say, I think we all slept well that night. No moss grows under our toesies. Zzzzzzzzzz.

Alive and Well

Just busy. One more week of school and then we're over and out! Planning a trip to Europe, as you can see. My printer spit paper out every which direction which amused Bella, so I left it. K, here's the itinerary: Dublin, Brussels, London, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Edinburgh, Lake District and then back to London. Two weeks. Phew. A lot to see. We bringing my niece Jacq! So, of course, we have to fit EVERYTHING in! Oooooof.

I finally got around to working on the kid's childhood room. The bunk beds, gone. I put them up for sale, along with a whole slew of items included, on Craig's List. My first time using it. They were sold within a couple of hours! I was very pleased with myself. And I was happy that a young family will get another 15 years of usage out of them.

Ew, look how yucky after we lifted the mattress. EW. Bad boy.

And the walls! Oy! Lots of spackling and priming. Yuck.

But it all turned out quite nicely. It turned out to be a putty color. The kid was animate about having a more masculine color. He says the taupe I used in the teenager's old room was too pink. Wha??? Oh well, I didn't redo it for him anyway. Regardless, he was happy to be back in his old room, updated a tad.

And I got "my" room back for the girls (all of my nieces)! I'm going to girly it up. I don't have a girly room in the house, so this is going to be it, by golly! The curtains are going somewhere else and I just pulled the little rug from my room to get an idea of what some color on the floor will look like. My plan is to do the twin beds in white-on-white and then add splashes of color on the walls and floor. Yay!

Look at the last of the cookies from Carlo's. Heart shaped. Aw. I ate it.

Mom's peace lily is blooming happily. Sweet.

The Cumberland River has finally gone down. This is one of the waterways that did so much damage in downtown Nashville. You can barely see our Titan's football field at the top left which was completely flooded. The waters rose two block up the streets. Crazy. It so reminded me of back home in Virginia when the Potomac would flood Old Town Alexandria. We are having storms again today and my alarm keeps going off warning of more flash flooding. Oh no.

A shot at the Hermitage Hotel at brunch last weekend. This was at the front desk. Perty.

Think we're heading down to Riverside next weekend for a week. The oil has not hit Mobile Bay yet. I keep praying that the gush will soon be capped off. C'mon people, we can do this.

I can't even imagine the impact we will see down the road. It makes me utterly sick to my stomach. Literally.

Shame on US.