The wife and I just returned from a weeks vacation along the Gulf Coast. We 
 normally take a week of beach vacation at Myrtle Beach every fall, but 
with  the oil spill and the sour economy we decided to check out the Gulf.
Our first destination was Panama City Beach in Florida. Beautiful place  
with Caribbean crystal clear warm  water and not impacted from the  Deep Water 
oil leak. We took a day trip to Pensacola and checked out the Naval  Air 
Museum where they have an Imax theater and watched the movie about the  Hubble 
Space Telescope. INCREDIBLE photography!!!!!! Elle, you have to see this  
movie.
We left PCB on Wednesday and drove to Gulf Shores Alabama and stayed in a  
Beach Front Hotel. There aren't many hotels left since Ivan went through 
there  in 2004 and Katrina in 2005. Ivan gave the area a direct hit, wiping out 
many  houses and hotels along the beach front. It has been very slow in  
returning. Katrina dumped sand everywhere. It reminded me of winter snow 
storms  in Wisconsin with huge sand drifts. The area is almost a ghost town. 
Mostly  condominiums with many for sale and even more foreclosures. Oil clean up 
crews  were evident and we managed to bring home a tar ball. This is the 
gewey oil  which attaches to sand and forms a small ball. They are working 
constantly to  dig these up, but I think they will be doing this for many years 
to come. Oil  rigs are visible both on the gulf and the mobile bay side. 
Tankers and cargo  ships were ever present. Not very pretty compared to Panama 
City Beach. We  spent three days there, but definitely preferred Panama 
City Beach area. 
Now it's back home to the usual grind and hopefully get some much needed  
fall sailing in.