Dauphin Island was my husband’s idea. He saw it on a HGTV “Beachfront Bargain Hunters” episode which led to him obsessively poring over realty listings for the island. This was not the first time he had focused in on a destination where we could potentially buy a property in a warmer climate – one year it was Orlando, another year it was Destin, yet another year it was the gulf coast of Florida. Something always made us decide those places were just not the right fit for us.
“You’ve never even been there,” I said. “We’ve never even been to Alabama.”
“So why don’t we take a trip?” he replied.
My son was not enthused about a trip to Alabama. “Alabama? What’s in Alabama? Everybody else goes to Florida!”
Of course, my response was “We’re not everybody else,” but I have to admit that Alabama in August did seem a bit crazy, especially since we actually have warm weather in Michigan that time of year. However, upon looking at rentals I soon realized that late August is considered “off season” on Dauphin Island and it would actually be a lot cheaper to vacation there than on Lake Michigan that time of year. So, we booked a flight and rented Unit 305 at the Inn at Dauphin Island from VRBO.
We arrived at the Inn at Dauphin Island in the evening. I’m always a bit nervous about getting keys and codes for vacation rentals, but the process could not have been smoother, even though we were “after hours.” The lobby to the Inn at Dauphin Island was clean, bright and welcoming. Our key was in a lockbox in the lobby and the instructions provided by Beachfront Rentals & Sales were easy and worked perfectly.
Unit 305 exceeded our expectations. It was clean and cutely decorated with a gorgeous view from the balcony. I could see the sun getting lower in the sky and, having seen the billboards declaring Dauphin Island as “The Sunset Capital of Alabama”, decided we should go out on the beach instead of putting our stuff away.
We all grabbed our phones and headed out to the boardwalk that leads to the beach. The sky was lighting up with every shade of red and orange imaginable. As the sun set further, it became more and more spectacular. The picture at the top of the page was taken by my 13 year old son with his Iphone camera. It is completely unfiltered and in person it was even more amazing. I’ve seen a lot of sunsets in my almost 50 years of life – at the Grand Canyon, Northern Michigan, Southern Florida, and from Cruise Ships in the Caribbean. I am not exaggerating when I say this was the most amazing sunset I’ve ever seen. Wow – just wow. There is something about the Alabama sky that is unique and amazing.
So, back to the Unit 305. We loved everything about it. It was just so homey feeling. Every morning I would eat my breakfast on the balcony looking out at the ocean. My husband and I would take early morning walks and every day we saw amazing birds and other wild life. The beach was so uncrowded and natural compared to other places we had been. The pools at the Inn were clean, warm and uncrowded. There are two pools for only 50 units – not all of which are used as vacation rentals.
We ate at the delicious restaurants, explored Fort Gaines and rode the ferry over to Gulf Shores one day. We rented chairs and a boogie board from Chaise n Rays and sat for hours watching our son ride the waves. We swam a lot in both the gulf and the pools and bought a kite at a souvenir store to fly on the beach. We walked to the shops across the street and had ice cream cones.
During the week, we looked at several properties with a realtor. In my mind I compared everything to Unit 305 and was always a bit disappointed for one reason or another. I probably said “I wish Unit 305 was for sale” at least 20 times. Eventually we decided to put an offer on a different unit at the Inn at Dauphin Island. It was also beautiful but didn’t have the same homey feel. I took hundreds of pictures of Unit 305. “Whatever condo we get – I want to decorate it just like this,” I said to my husband.
When we got home we found out that we had been outbid on the other property and would not be getting it. We were disappointed but still checking the realty listings every day to see if anything new was on the market. I set a notification on the realtor.com app to let me know when new listings were available on Dauphin Island. A few weeks later, a notice popped up and the new listing was for Unit 305! I ran to my husband and said “We need to make an offer!”
When we needed a name for a company to handle the business side of the condo rental, the first thing that came to mind was “Dauphin Island Dreaming” because I actually have vivid dreams of this beautiful peaceful place and dream of the day that we can spend more time here. For now, we are still living and working in Michigan so we don’t get there as often as we would like to. The good news is that it is available for others to enjoy. We hope that if you rent our condo you love it as much as we do. Because we are out of state we are continuing to use Beachfront Rentals & Sales to manage the property. They are onsite at the Inn and do a fabulous job. If you have any questions or problems please also feel free to contact us at info@didreaming.com.