Well, the first phase of our honeymoon has come to a close. We cleaned up Coco Beach House this morning and hauled all our stuff back to Mobile (stopping along the way to help Dad deliver a washer and dryer to one of my church’s refugee families). It was so nice to spend a couple of weeks on the beach, just the two of us… in a way-too-huge house. We watched lots of DVD’s on a player Dad bought at Winn-Dixie for $34, took walks on the beach, collected sea shells with holes in them and strung them together, flew my brother-in-law Nathan’s four-string stunt kite, baked lots of bread, took baths in the over-sized masterbath tub, and generally had a wonderful, relaxed, lovely time.

Next, we replace the water pump in the Miata, celebrate my brother’s 22nd birthday, and then head west.