everyone needs a vacation.

It doesn't matter how old or young you are. It doesn't matter if you sell vacation packages for a living. It doesn't matter how happy or miserable your job makes you, but it's always nice to go somewhere new and I firmly believe that everyone needs to go out and get some fresh air.

I had the chance to go with a couple of girlfriends to the partially-sunny city of Gulf Shores this weekend. It was a serene 8-hour drive through 3 states - wait, scratch that, did I say serene? I meant boring. I meant 8 hours of corn fields, soybean farms, plains, and a few small country towns. And then, finally, the beach.

Gulf Shores was a bit larger and more populated with vacationers than I expected. Up until I moved to Arkansas, I'd grown up surrounded by an ocean for 75% of my life. I didn't recognize this kind of beach. Gulf Shores' air didn't smell quite as salty as the Pacific Ocean, but it brought back fond memories of having the beach as my backyard in Hawaii as a teenager or floating on an inner tube as a young girl the Philippines.

We stayed in a rather humble hotel which only had 5 floors. We sat on the beach, I read, I stuck my toes in the sand and waded in the water, I ate shrimp (my favorite type of shellfish), splashed around in the hotel pool, shopped, and walked about. It was a good vacation.

I brought along a video camcorder to document the trip, and only ended up shooting less than 10 minutes. Pretty sad. I brought along a digital SLR and only shot 75 photos, even sadder. I had every intention of capturing as much as I could with hopes that I could make a great photo book, slide show, and video, but I came up pretty short to my high expectations.

But I'm okay with that. I was on vacation.

*Edit*
I actually recorded 30 minutes of video whilst on vacation. But only because I accidentally left the camera on for 20 of those minutes. I have some exclusive documentation of my elbow, a leg, and the side of my book.