Back from the beach

Just got back today from an enjoyable weekend in Orange Beach/Gulf Shores, AL. Our family met my sister and parents there for a weekend playing in the sand and in the pool at our condo in Phoenix V. Click the link for a look at where we stayed, complete with live webcam of the beach! A pic from our balcony is below. We had a terrific time! My 6 year old daughter loved spending as much time in the water (the non-saltwater variety) as possible, while my 3 year old just played on the steps to the pool and in the sand. The last time we were at the beach was 5 years ago, so this was a good trip! The weather was interesting - warm and windy with no rain. In fact, it was very windy, with gusts in the 20-25 mph range during the day nearly the entire time, leading to pretty good waves ("moderate chop" or "Small Craft Advisory") and yellow flag conditions (which bordered on red flag) all 3 days we were on the beach. The second pic below shows a little of the surf conditions. Even the sand was being blown into the air pretty good (could see sandstorm-like conditions down the beach a mile or so). If you've been to the area, leave me a comment and tell me about it!

Back home, after being out of touch with local weather for several days, I see a nice fall trough is on our doorstep with one more warm day before it really cools off late this week. Could we see a few 30s in cooler spots across west TN Saturday morning? At least it appears that the 80s may be done for a while after Wednesday! Autumn is probably my favorite season, so I'm glad to see 70s and sun in the extended forecast! Nice football (and marching band) weather!