Tom and I were recently visiting my family in Alabama and snuck away to the Gulf of Mexico for one night. When I tell people here in Lancaster that we went to the beach in Alabama, the response is usually, "there's a beach in Alabama?" Yes! Quite a lovely beach if I may say so myself. I grew up going to the Gulf every summer but since moving away, I hadn't been in, oh... ten years? I can't believe it had been that long. As soon as my feet hit the white sandy beach I felt right at home. The water was warm, the skies were clear. We waded out to the sandbar and walked down the beach collecting seashells. There was even a rainbow when we woke up in the morning!