Perfect Beach Vacation

by Charles
(Knoxville, TN)

In the summer of 2009 I traveled to Gulf Shores, AL with my husband and two children. We met eleven other family members in Gulf Shores for an annual family beach vacation. Unfortunately we had missed the two previous years so we were eagerly looking forward to seeing all of the family again.

We rented a large five bedroom house just off of the beach, it was absolutely gorgeous and the neighborhood was nice and quiet. We all seem to be “beach families” as we spent just about every daylight hour on the beach. The kids built sand castles, buried each other in the sand, and played on the floats and boogie boards we brought along. The older boys and men played football and helped the kids fly kites.

It was truly a great time of family bonding and turned distant cousins into best friends.

One afternoon the we split up our group, the women went shopping at the outlet malls while the men went on a chartered fishing trip. We had a blast trying on clothes and ended up bringing quite a few things home with us. The men had a successful fishing trip and provided dinner for the next two nights!

The house was great, each night a different couple would fix dinner for everyone. After dinner we spent our time watching movies and playing cards or board games. It was a great trip and we’re hoping that we can repeat it next year and get back to the “annual” tradition.