Gulf Shores Memories - Sunday, November 1, 2026

And just like that, Halloween is over! Not only is it over, but it was gone gone gone from Target and Home Goods today! But, I discuss that in the regular blog for today. This one is devoted to the time Steve and I went to Gulf Shores back in 2014, over the Labor Day weekend. It was a fun weekend that we had, one that didn't last long enough, although getting there was so much easier than leaving there! It took us 3 times as long to get home as it did to get there because of nightmare traffic when we were heading home. We ended up having to take I-10 along the coast to Biloxi in order to get home. That was nuts!

Since that was 12 years ago, I honestly don't remember a whole lot about it, but there are pictures below, and that's the main focus of this post. So the first 9 images below are of, surprise surprise, Steve. You can see him on the beach and wading in the water at first, then he gets out one of the 2 floaties we brought with us and is out in the water with his blue floatie. Looks like he's having a great time, doesn't he?

And then you have 2 images of me. The fat me. Of course it's the fat me, it's from 12 years ago! I didn't begin losing that weight until last year, and didn't finish losing it until this year! But I look like I'm having a great time too, huh? Out there in the surf giving 2 thumbs up (Ian's favorite thing for me to do...but of course, Ian was only 14 years old and we didn't know him yet lol).

Then we have Steve on the beach again, some pictures of the pretty water, and then we see Steve out in the water with the other floatie, the one that looks like a car tire. For the record, the floaties were really too small for me to use effectively (translate that as you would like), so I didn't use them at all. Well, I did, but there was no photographic evidence of it, thank God! After Steve, we see 2 photos of a young man in the surf. The first one, where he is but a silhouette against the silver water, is the original. The second one is after I ran it through ChatGPT to see if I could get a clearer image. I honestly like both, but I feel the original is the more artistic one. Then there's an image of Steve smirking at the camera (the original from that was very fuzzy and faint, so I ran that one through the AI filter too, and loved the result). The next 2 images are from the morning that we left, with a brilliant sunrise and then the surf after the sun had come up.

All in all, it was one of the most enjoyable weekends I've ever had. No worries, no fears, no where to be, no rush. Just enjoyment with the man that I love.