Gulf Shores May 3 - 9 , 2020

Who would have ever thought that Jill Guenther could decide to go on a road trip vacation 3 hours before departing and remain cool?? Somehow it happened! With the coronavirus pandemic we all have been isolated to our house in Stoughton minus one weekend trip to GreenBay. We needed a getaway! Given Matt works from home and I have been doing telemedicine we were able to pull this off! The kids brought their schoolwork, Wilson stayed with Kelly, and the Christenson's watered our garden.

Our trip down we decided to leave at 4pm. James drove 11:30pm-2AM, I drove 4-6AM and Matt drove all the rest. I maybe slept an hour. I'm really not sure what I did the remainder of the trip....but it seemed like an eternity!!

We arrived in Golf Shores at 8AM. We did our grocery run to Walmart and then headed to our VRBO, Phoenix West. We rented a place on the beach. It was on the 15th floor and had amazing views!! Greta and I shared the master, Claire and Noelle shared a room and the boys a each had their own rooms. With Matt having his own room he was able to do early morning calls.

Our days began with school and work. Greta had her 10am zoom with her classmates. We asked her not to share where she was...but when she does her zoom with the Ocean in the background and when her response to her favorite part of the day being wave jumping...our secret was out. She got pretty good at self navigating her reading, writing, and math. James, Noelle, and Claire sometimes would do early morning work...other days it was 1am schoolwork. Most of the week they slept till at least 10am...and for James it was often noon. I would often see them up when I got up for my midnight snack. They were good at finding interesting things to do in those early morning hours like hunting for crab, making potatoes, or eating ice cream. Oh and not to forget countless hours likely creating or looking at tick tocks and other social media.

Given a large chunk of our days was spent with work we didn't do many crazy off site adventures. Wave jumping, skimmer boarding, walks on the beach, countless trips down the condo's water slide, and runs along the coastline kept us entertained. Matt and James enjoyed watching the "Indian guys" build huts on utube TV for hours. I enjoyed yoga, Pilates, and ab workouts on the patio and coconut hibiscus baths while watching golden girls. James spent many hours playing x-box and working with dad on essays and applications for ROTC.

One thing was missing from our trip...Wilson! Thanks to Kelly he was well entertained by her cats and Bailey her lab. Greta loved our FaceTime chats with Wilson. He didn't quite understand what to do when she kept repeating "come here Wilson" in her high pitched voice.

Our biggest adventure this trip was our Pontune trip along the channel. It was advertised as a great place for dolphin sighting, great fishing, and a multititude of restaurants and sand bars for stopping at. However if you know anything about Matt Hanson, we go 80 mph and don't slow down. In all reality...we really didn't want to. We enjoyed the slightly cooler breeze on our faces and gaucking at the million dollar waterfront properties. We did stop once with intentions on getting ice cream. We really didn't have a great landing plan...thankfully a nearby rookie helped us in. No ice cream was to be found...but that was okay because James spotted fat neck! Matt and I looked at each other wondering "what the heck?" He is an African American male who is famous on Instagram for a mug shot that reveals his unusually fat neck. James was so excited to run into him on a jet ski, just in passing!! We still think Matt should start a mug shot of himself on Instagram and call himself "big forehead". Who knows, maybe he could retire!!

Our other small outings consisted of hitting ice creams shops, BBQ and shrimp takeouts. Of and of course the sulvineer shops...the most famous being the one with the shark mouth as an entrance and the shops at the Wharf in Orange Beach.

Being coronavirus pandemic time we wondered how different this trip was gonna feel. In all honestly...minus the fact we couldn't eat out...it didn't seem any different! Very few people even had masks on. We simply ordered takeout and just followed the 6 foot social distancing rule...

The trip was a hit! The best part according to Matt was how last minute it was without having to hear any of Jill's planning for months in advance. Hmmm..maybe we should vacation this way more often!

So...usually I end my journal with a thought on where we will go next...this time...no plan.

Until next time...

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