speaking of sharks....me and hubby were at Gulf Shores last month while he was on furlough, managed a 3 day escape. We were in water about waist high, and a sand shark swam betwixt us. I was totally freaked and just started backing away to shore and trying to get him to come along, saying in a pipsqueak voice "shark, shark...." hoping he'd hear. I didn't want to scare the others swimming nearby too much, thrashing around and all is not good....Needless to say, I was very cautious from then out. We love Gulf Shores because it is such a placid place but the rearrangement of the sandbars from the hurricanes must have made it much more shark-prone. Jaws aside, it is scary, but after all, we are guests in THEIR home. I have a sister in NJ that will never get in the ocean...she's seen all the Jaws movies wayyyy too many times!