Gulf Shores or Bust.

As y'all know, I spent last week at the beach with some of my girlfriends, and I had a blast, but I'm so excited to be back because...
1) I missed my puppy! I had never been away from her for longer than a few hours, and it was harder than I thought it was going to be to be away from her for that long,
2) Jon moved in the day before I left, so I didn't even get to soak in the fact that we're actually living together, and 
3) I'm so ready to start gearing up for my trip to Europe! I can't believe how close it's getting. I mean...next Sunday! AHHHHH!
But before I go getting all excited about Europe, I definitely have to relive my 5 days in Gulf Shores. So let me introduce you to the main characters from the trip:

These are my pretty friends. We, and all of our friends and family, call us TASK. 
From left to right (yes, we are in TASK order): T for Tiffany. Duh. That's me. A for Amanda. S for Sarah. K for Katherine.
They all know each other from elementary/middle school, but I didn't enter the picture until high school. We decided it was easier to just say "TASK" rather than say all of our names individually. So anyway, these are my road trip buddies.
Now for the trip...
Day 1 It took us 8 hours to get there. I slept for a lot of it, but also got some reading done. I'm currently in the middle of Summer and the City, the second book in the Carrie Diaries series. I'm unimpressed so far, but I'm holding out for it to get better. Fingers crossed.
We were so relieved when we finally got to the condo, and then we we walked in the door, we were blown away. I mean, how gorgeous is this condo? 

I still can't believe we got to live here for four nights. A huge contrast to the condo we stayed in last year. This condo was at a place called Sanibel, and Sarah's mom paid for the room as part of her graduation gift. We were all pretty grateful. P.S. I didn't get pictures of the bedrooms because all of our crap was already strewn about. You know how it is.
In spite of the gross weather outside, we decided to hit up the beach almost immediately. The water was freezing, so we didn't get in, but we did lay on our towels and take some monopod pictures. 

Mind you, these pictures were taken with no make-up after being up since before 4 am and in a car for 8 hours. The wind started blowing, and it got a bit cold, so we all went back to the condo to get ready for a night out.

We went to Mudbugs, which is where we went every night of our trip last time. When we went this time, there were maybe four people there, and one of them was onstage singing. We left pretty quickly. One of the employees said we came too early. It was 9:30 on a Saturday, and there was no way we were going to wait around for more people to come. We left there and went to The Hangout. There were lots of people there, but some of them made me feel so old. They were all toddlers with their parents or high schoolers. We still ended up staying for a few dances. I mean, they played "The Wobble." I can't not dance to that. 

After The Hangout, we went to Flora-Bama. In spite of the incredible time we had last year on our last day at Flora-Bama, this time, it was a bust. Yes, there were tons of people there. It was even hard to walk because every room was crowded, but there was no good music. With three bands playing, not one of them was playing something we could dance to. We still ended up staying for awhile, and when we left, we went to the the Waffle House across the street, because we hadn't eaten dinner. Mind you, it was about 1:30 in the morning at this point. I practically inhaled my hashbrowns.
Day 2 I got up super early compared to everyone else. It was about 8:30, so I took advantage of my alone time to call Jon so he could give me updates on my dog. I missed her so much. Not kidding. He said she waited by the door for me around 5:30 the day before, which is when I usually get home from work. My heart almost broke right then and there. 
I also ate breakfast on the balcony and took advantage of this amazing view. 

Even though our condo was across the street from the beach, the view was still breathtaking. I cleaned up the kitchen a little bit like the old lady I am, and then I was bored, so I decided to go to the beach by myself around 10 am. I was so happy the sun was out, and I wanted to take advantage of every second, because the weather didn't look so pretty for the rest of our trip. My friends joined me at the beach around noon, and we preceded to take some monopod pics.

I spent a total of 6 hours at the beach. It was incredible. Too bad my poor nose (and by my nose, I mean my entire face) got sunburnt and I lost my left contact, my hair tie and my favorite pair of sunglasses. I guess I should have been prepared because the flags were red during our entire trip, plus I was boogie boarding. Regardless, the ocean hath no fury. Did I mention that there was also some indecent exposure thanks to those ginormous waves? Rude! I still had a blast in the water though. It felt amazing.

After all that time on the beach, we were all starving, so we got ready and went to the Shrimp Basket. I was so pumped for some raw oysters and seafood. I just feel like if I'm at the beach, I have to eat seafood. It's so much fresher. 

While we were waiting for our table, we stopped by the store across the street. I had to get some new sunglasses, and after polling everyone in the group, Jon, and my sister, the ultimate pair were these bad boys:

We also each wasted a quarter to see how hot we were in the romance department.

The group stood as follows --  Me: Sexy Amanda: Uncontrollable Sarah: Harmless Katherine: Hot Stuff
Now back to the food - yes lawd! It was so delicious! I got a combination platter of friend shrimp and fried oysters in addition to the raw oysters I shared with Amanda. I also got a side of new potatoes, but they weren't as tasty as I wanted them to be. They were good with ranch though!
After Shrimp Basket, Katherine went to bed (bless), and the rest of us went back to Florabama. It wasn't nearly as crowded, but there were still a good amount of people there for a Sunday. Also, the music was so much better. The band was playing covers of good songs to dance to, so I was excited to finally get to shake it for Luke Bryan. Amanda and I also walked on the Florida beach for a bit. The beach is so gorgeous at night. 

Probably should've taken a picture at the beginning of the night instead of the end

I can't wait to share the rest of beach trip with y'all! Come back for more tomorrow! I know you're not dying to see what happens.
**************************************************************************

Today, I'm excited to bring you another giveaway to win $25 to Amazon, ad space on 3 blogs, and a blog design from HPM to celebrate Pam from Hodge Podge Moments's one-year blogiversary! Visit Pam's blog and wish it a happy birthday!