Hi everyone,

In my previous blog post I told you about my stay in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Right now I’ll tell you all about my fall break adventure, 12 hours away from home.

The title of this blog post already gave away the surprise, but guess what… I went to Gulf Shores Alabama. With a fully packed car the six of us drove straight to the south part of America. Just to clarify who the six of us are, Gregory (Cassidy’s dad) and uncle Scott were driving, Emma and Austin sat behind them (Scott’s children) and Cassidy and I sat in the back seats of the car.

To summarize the car ride: tingly feet, regretting being tall, no sleep, too cold, too hot, dark outside = no view, having to pee all the time but only being able to do that when we stopped every four hours, McDonald’s for breakfast, listening to music, loving my pillow and comfy blanket, sunrise = nice view, beach, sun, sea, starting to count down the minutes and YESSS WE’RE HEREEEEE!!! (I’m exaggerating a little bit. I mean yeah it wasn’t the most comfortable ride, but it wasn’t that bad at all.)

We left in the middle of the night and arrived Sunday around 2pm (local time). That meant we still had the whole day to enjoy the beautiful weather and relax on the beach, whilst getting a tan of course. We stayed in a hotel right on the beach. And to make it even better, we stayed on the 11^th floor, so we had a great view. Cassidy and I shared a bedroom, but had our own beds. When we came in I was like “Is this bed just for me? But it’s so big?!”. I guess I should get used to the fact that it’s normal to have a big bed in America, haha.

This vacation was quite different from the vacations I’m used to. I’m usually very active and go sight-seeing, take hikes through the mountains, drive through the country and spend time at the pool instead of laying on the beach. I’ve always prefered to lay down by the pool, because all those animals in the see creep me out (just wait for my story about that!). One thing I have learned is that my exchange year means ‘things are different’, so I was ready to just do ’nothing’ every day. I must admit that it was really nice to just lay on the beach, watch the waves and listen to the radio that we brought with us.

Are you ready for my ‘spectacular’ sea story? It started off by us just getting in the sea to feel how cold or warm it was. It wasn’t cold at all, it was actually really nice to swim in. We walked further in the sea, but we could still feel the sand underneath our feet. The water was very clear and you could see the fish swim around you. I was ‘okay’ with that, because they were just small fish. I just thought “at least they’re not stingrays or jellyfish”. But then… someone on shore, next to where we put our beach chairs, was excitingly yelling he caught a stingray. I thought I knew what those were, but I wasn’t sure if I translated that right. Greg, Cassidy and I walked up to see what exactly he caught and then I saw it. Jup, there it was… a ‘baby’ (that’s what they called it) stingray. Well, that got me excited to swim in the sea again… Not really. So I guess the fish and that stingray were the first animals I’ve seen there. That same evening I could add sand crabs to the list. A lot of people like to go to go ‘crab hunting’ at the beach at night. All I’ve seen them do is walk around with their flashlight and look for sand crabs. I joined Cassidy, Emma and Austin one night to go look for crabs and we saw a couple, but one night was enough for me, haha.
… To be continued …

That same evening I brought my pillow and blanket outside to enjoy the colourful sunset from our balcony. Oh and I shouldn’t forget to mention that we ordered pizza and it got delivered to our hotel room (all the way on the 11^th floor). It’s probably normal that pizza delivery people do that. I just thought it was cool.

I was like, well why not sleep on this comfortable wicker chair outside tonight. It wasn’t that cold in the beginning, but after about an hour I gave up and decided that I liked sleeping in my big comfy bed better than sleeping on a small wicker chair. It was a good decision! The following morning I woke up early to watch the sunrise. Guess what I never expected to see that morning but saw anyways?! DOLPHINS! I’m not kidding. Why didn’t I know about that before? Scott was like, “yeah they’re here and you can see them almost every morning.” Well, that was a pleasant surprise!
I noticed how close they swam to the shore, so I got kind of crazy, forgot about all the creepy animals that swim in the sea and proposed to wake up early the next morning so we could swim with the dolphins, since they would be so close to the shore. Just to let you know how it turned out… We didn’t see any dolphins the next mornings, so I didn’t actually do it. Afterwards I’m happy I didn’t do it, because I found out what other animals would be in the sea with and beside me…
That’s where I’ll continue my story about the creepy sea animals. Emma and I went swimming in the sea. We only took a few steps in sea when I saw something under water. It looked like the shape of a stingray, but it was see-through like a jellyfish. It turned out to be a jellyfish. Greg and Scott had the courage to walk up close to take a picture, but unfortunately the only thing we could see was water.

Wednesday afternoon we did something very exciting. Something I’ve been dreaming all my life of doing. This is where the dolphins come into the picture. We went on a dolphin cruise for about two hours. The weather was beautiful and the sun was shining bright. It was so pretty and relaxed to be on the boat. We got to see the dolphins in the beginning, so like the first 30 to 45 minutes, but then they were just gone and no matter where we sailed, there was no sign of dolphins. The rest of the time we were on the boat, we just looked at the nice houses on shore and enjoyed the beautiful weather. We were a little disappointed, because we expected to see more dolphins, but in the end it doesn’t matter to me, we got to go on a dolphin cruise and I’ve seen the dolphins from up close, so that’s already more than enough for me! I’ve seen dolphins before, because there are dolphins where I work in the Netherlands, but this was even more awesome! It was hard taking pictures, so I’ll try to upload a video on my blog soon.

One evening we went out for dinner at a restaurant called ‘Pink Pony’, where they serve unlimited shrimp. As most people know, I’m not a seafood lover, so I just ordered a delicious club sandwich. I did get myself to try the shrimp anyways and it wasn’t that bad. They had fried, grilled and blackened shrimp so I tried all of them, but I was happier with my sandwich, haha.
It was also a good night to take pictures, so we took some family pictures at the beach.

I think I told you guys about everything now, so it’s time to put this fall break story online now.

I had a great time, so thanks again so much for taking me! It was an awesome experience!

(Pictures will follow as soon as possible!)

Love,

Tasha