Spring Break

The Chicago area has been brutally cold and the sunshine scarce. With Spring break approaching, I did something spontaneous and crazy: I booked a place on the beach in Gulf Shores, Alabama for our family to spend in the warmth of the rejuvenating sun. Never before have we attempted to travel so far as a family in our van. It would be at least 14 hours and I was sure it would be awful, but well worth it.

I'm no good at driving at night and neither is my husband. But I'm awesome early in the morning. Once I'm awake, there's no chance I'll go back to sleep. So we woke up our three kids at 4:30am and drove south into the dark toward our bliss. I was certain our children would fall back to sleep for a few hours until we could stop for breakfast. But guess what?! My kids are just like me, once they're awake, they don't fall back to sleep. They just sat there in some sort of pre-dawn freeway hypnosis, their heads occasionally bobbing left and right, but never actually succumbing to sweet sleep.


But they weren't screaming or misbehaving, so that was an excellent start. After we stopped in Indiana for a traditional Denny's breakfast fare of carbohydrates and sugar, we hit the road again...with my secret weapon. I bought DVD players to hang over the back our seats and the kids were mesmerized. John loved A Bug's Life and asked to watch it over and over. And over and over. He didn't want any of the other DVDs I rented from the library, but that's okay. He was happy and though it was repetitive, it was fine. Until the DVD broke. Upon ejection, it went shooting across the interior of our vehicle and cracked. No more "bug movie" for John. He was more upset that the situation called for, but he's 3 and sleep deprived and trapped in a metal box speeding down the freeway. Well, not exactly "speeding", but, um, okay, I speed.

Anyway, we stopped for Kentucky Fried Chicken in Kentucky because...well, it seemed like the thing to do. Then we stopped in Nashville as our halfway point and visited with Jake's friend from Graduate School and went to dinner together, then it was off to the hotel for a good night's rest.

Rise and Shine! This was the final leg of our trip. In seven hours, we would finally get out of this van and be free. It felt like forever. Alabama is a long state. And we got stuck in quite a bit of traffic. I noticed most of the license plates were from up north like us: Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Illinois, etc. Apparently more than just birds head south to escape the cold.

We stopped at a Subway in the middle of nowhere. And since it was the middle of nowhere, it was crowded, being the only place for food. The line was long and as I paid for our food, I heard Jake say:

"Where's John?"

Oh, no.

We ran for the glass front doors as we shouted his name but saw nothing but rows of cars. I came rushing back in and looked in the bathroom. He's not in the restaurant. My heart was pounding and everyone was watching. They all froze as I panicked. Finally, I saw Jake with our little boy outside. He just walked right out of the restaurant all by himself and wandered around between cars. He could have so easily been backed over. Nobody would have even seen him. I was so relieved. Beyond relieved. It was the longest 10 seconds of my life.

A few more hours and we made it to our destination.

This is my face. On the Beach.

 Oh, glorious sunshine! The sand was so white it hurt my eyes to look at it. The water was warm, tame, clear and inviting. It was perfect.

The kids dug in the soft sand for hours. John threw all the seashells he found into the waves. My husband and I let the warm rays of the sun soak into our vitamin D deficient skin. It was perfect.

The vast and beautiful gulf.

Shark bait.

And then cold came. The temperatures dropped into the 40s and 50s and it was too cold to get in the water, but we still went to the beach every day desperate to make the most out of our trip.

In sweatshirts at sunset.

Sophie took this picture.

Adorable.

We had so much fun in Gulf Shores, even when it was windy and cold. The sunsets were gorgeous and the people were friendly. We saw dolphins playing in the water.We ate seafood every day.

Eating an oyster.

It was sad to say good-bye to the ocean and head back up to the freezing cold North, but it was time. We went to Ohio on the way home to visit Jake's cousin's family and have Easter fun.

Silly hubby.

Eat your heart out Taylor Swift!

A tire swing in the country!

It was such a blast. My son has been asking to go back to their house every time we get in the van to go anywhere. We were all unbelievably tired by day 10 and were anxious to get home. Even though we had lots of fun on our Spring Break, I don't think that I'll travel that far again for a long time. All that driving was really exhausting. But we made some great memories and I highly recommend Gulf Shores to anyone.