The Gulf Coast

Matt and I have been completely consumed with the coverage on Anderson Cooper 360 of the disaster in the Gulf. We are both heart broken for the people who live in the area, for all the poor animals and that we are losing what was once a beautiful part of the US.

I was telling Matt that I had some pictures of when I went to the Gulf Shores with my Mom and Dad. I found this picture in some of my albums. It is actually one of my favorite pictures of my dad. (A funny side note, my mom took this and my favorite picture of Grandpa Minch) I called my parent's house to ask if this was in fact in the Gulf. My Dad answered and told me a really sweet, nostalgic story. It made me smile that my parents had such great memories of the Alabama and Florida panhandle beaches.

In the spring of 1980, Steve was in flight school at Fort Rucker in Alabama. He and his 'stick buddy' Bobby Micheal were flying their Night Hawk hours, which meant they flew from midnight to 6 am. Dad said most weekends he and Bobby would finish flying on Saturday morning and meet Mom, me and Bobby's wife Mary to go to the beach, coming home Monday afternoon so the guys could fly that night. We would drive down in Bobby's Ranchero, with Mom, Mary and I in the front, Dad and Bobby sleeping for a few hours in the back after their long night! (When Dad told me this part, I was glad Mom was sitting up front since she has a tendency to be carsick and she was pregnant with Beckie at the time.) There were trailers that the Army used as military recreation near the beach that could be rented for the weekend where we would sometimes stay.

There are great pictures of us at the beach, making sand castles and playing in the water. This particular picture is from a day when the couples rented a boat to go to Shell Island and the boat broke down on the way. Another boat came to the rescue and gave us a tow; the girls rode in the working boat with Dad and Bobby riding in the broken boat, enjoying the view of the beautiful waters of the Gulf.