On December 10th, C.J. and I embarked on a dolphin tour in Orange Beach, Alabama. The last time we went on a dolphin tour together, I ended up engaged! This tour had a lot to live up to. We got lucky and were able to go on this tour for free; our condo was put up for sale while we were still there, and we had several potential customers do walkthroughs of the place with us in it. The owner felt bad about that and gifted us the free dolphin tour!
Our ride got off to a great start with a witty captain, friendly passengers, and alcoholic beverages. The weather was sunny and 67 degrees; it was the perfect day. As our boat crept along the water, we all had our heads on a swivel; not knowing where to expect the dolphins to be. Pretty soon, a couple of distant dolphins started emerging. I brought along my Canon camera and had fun trying to capture the quick creatures.




Our adventure progressed into a calmer side canal, where we saw various species of birds; including a bald eagle! Our captain pointed out several houses on the banks, explaining how expensive property has gotten here. We hadn’t seen any dolphins for a bit, so the captain decided to speed up the boat, creating waves and inviting the dolphins to come play.





Before we knew it, multiple dolphins were popping up in the waves behind our boat. They were jumping, diving, and I’m quite certain I saw them smile. All of us passengers were enthralled by the view. I did my best to snap as many pictures as I could, but I still don’t know a ton about photography and didn’t quite do the animals justice. It was a very fun experience to try and photograph dolphins; they move so quickly so I couldn’t tell if I was getting any good shots or not.









I’ve decided that the dolphin tour last year and this dolphin tour were equally as amazing. Last year’s tour was followed by my engagement to C.J.; so of course that will always be special to me. But on this year’s tour, I was watching dolphins with my husband in our temporary home of Alabama; that was a great feeling.

This dolphin tour was at the Wharf in Orange Beach, so after the tour ended, C.J. and I headed over to the nearby movie theater and watched Violent Night. This movie does have the typical Christmas magic, but it also has an axe wielding Santa and quite a bit of gore. In my opinion, David Harbour (Hopper from Stranger Things) was the perfect choice to play Santa. If you like happy feel-good Hallmark Christmas movies… don’t watch Violent Night.

After the movie, C.J. and I ate dinner at our favorite restaurant: Villaggio’s. Their bread, pasta, and drinks are *chef’s kiss*. Once we were done with dinner, we browsed the Wharf shops a bit, only to stumble upon something glorious. A store that was hosting a dog adoption party. We walked into the store and were greeted by dogs and free beer. C.J. sat on the bench with some of the free-roaming dogs. Meanwhile, I got the other dogs out of their kennels and walked them around the store. It killed me that I couldn’t adopt all of those pups right then and there. But in the time that we were there, we did see several dogs get adopted!


Our last stop of the night, was our go-to bar: Pour. After getting drinks and playing shuffleboard, C.J. and I played Scrabble; this was my first time playing scrabble and I’ve since become addicted. Of course C.J. won Scrabble, whatever. Overall, though, this day was so wonderful; I feel so blessed to have C.J. as my husband and best friend.



Until next time,
Jess May