Gulf Shores Vacation- Part 2

We made it to Gulf Shores, Alabama on Day 3!  It was still sprinkling when we got in town and we could see from the huge puddles (and flooded parking lot next door) that we missed a deluge.  Apparently they had a very rainy Labor Day weekend.  Driving on Monday afternoon we saw lots of traffic backed up trying to leave Gulf Shores.  We were one of the few cars driving toward it at the end of a holiday weekend!  We picked up some things at the grocery store, then wasted no time in getting in the ocean.

We rented a condo right on the beach.  They girls were super excited about the bunk beds in their room!

And even better than bunk beds, there was a TV in their room!  They got to watch DVDs every night before bed.

 We spent Day 4 on the beach.  The morning was still cloudy from the storms over the weekend.  Well, partly cloudy.  This was the view looking right:

And this was the view looking left:

We kinda liked the clouds because it made it cooler.  When the sun came out, it was hot!

 It was a very weird feeling to be buried.  I laughed so hard I cried.  Multiple times.  And they would tell me to stop because I was cracking the sand.  And that would make me laugh again.

We were trying for mermaids.

They wore their cover-ups in our condo for meals so they could stay in their swimsuits all day.

We were on the top left where Olive is walking up the stairs.

This is the back of our condo with our sandcastle.

We brought life jackets and masks for the girls.  They loved it.  With their life jackets they could go out further in the ocean and ride the swells.  We did that a lot.  Especially on the first day when there was a red flag.  Steve and I loved the big waves that may or may not crash on your head.  It was pretty exciting!  After the first day it was a yellow flag and we didn't see the big waves. :(

Olive would get on her floatie and let the waves carry her back and forth down the shore.  Hannah would watch and get worried about her and go collect her.  It was funny because Hannah is usually the fearless one, but she was more nervous about waves than Olive.  Olive was always asking to go out in the deep water.  Hannah would come with us for awhile but she usually wanted to hold on to someone.  And it wouldn't be long before she tried to convince it was time to go back to the beach.  Meanwhile Olive would swim in circles around us with her head face down in the water.  I'm so glad she learned how to swim underwater with a mask this summer so she could really enjoy herself!

They other thing they loved doing with their masks was jumping into the waves.  One time Hannah vs. the wave didn't turn out well.  The wave won and flipped her over and knocked her mask completely off her head.  Luckily there was a shop just across the street so we quickly bought a new mask and went back to playing.

Her new blue mask.

Sand angel

 That night we went out to eat and the girls were goofy as usual.

Then we raced go carts for the first time.  Olive said,"When I get really excited, my pig tails go straight up like this."

Olive was too short to race the big ones by herself, but she fit on the mini ones.

We also did water bumper cars.  Olive was with me and Hannah was with Steve.  We got way wetter than I expected because you squirt each other with water guns.  That is why I have the thumbs down.  Although looking at this picture, Steve got it worse than me.  So I declare this a win for the Mama/Olive team!

Next day, more ocean pics.

We thought they would be interested in building sandcastles, but instead they just wanted to dig.  They called this the "sand mine."  They could dig for hours.  And they did.

Our condo also had a pool.  Why would anyone want to swim in a tiny pool when you have the whole ocean in your backyard?  I don't know.  Ask my children.

Some people rent a house and stay on the beach for a whole week...or maybe two.  I got bored after a day and a half.  I must suffer from vacation ADD.  So the next day we drove 20 minutes into Florida to check out a different beach.  Change of scenery for me, but still a beach for the kids.  This is Perdido Key State Park.

I loved this beach because it had lots of shells!  I even found a sand dollar!

We also saw lots of crab holes with their tracks leading to it.  So cool!

And it had this cool sand cliff.  The girls made up a game of rock/paper/scissors where the winner was on the top and the loser was in the ocean.  You kept playing people and constantly moving towards the cliff or ocean.  I think I was family winner, but Hannah might tell you otherwise.

Hannah made "drizzle castles" with wet sand.

Back on our own beach for sunset.

And once the sun went down, the crabs come out.  We caught several small ghost crabs.

On our way back home I tried to scare Olive by saying "Oh look there is a giant crab!" and then grabbing her.  So they all looked down because they thought I was serious...and there actually WAS a giant crab!

On the morning of Day 5 we headed back home.  But first Steve wanted to walk out on the Gulf State Park Pier.  It is the only public pier in Alabama and it was the longest one on the Gulf of Mexico...until Florida built a longer one in Navarre.

Looking back on Gulf Shores

We saw lots of sharks and a few jellyfish from the pier!  Steve said he was glad we waited to do the pier on the last day or else he wouldn't have wanted to swim in the ocean!

I thought this was a sculpture at first, but it was a real bird.

 On the way home we revealed our secret surprise.  We brought the laptop so the girls could watch DVDs!  It was very quiet on the way back.

We took the fastest route home, but we still had time to stop and see some sights.  I really wanted to eat dinner on Beale Street in Memphis.

We ate on the patio at Silky O'Sullivans and listened to a live band.  They also had goats (a favorite in any restaurant) and these bear sculptures.  The girls are pretending to be afraid of the bears.

We found this mural walking around Memphis.

Not quite tall enough to be a butterfly.  She is still a caterpillar.

It was also too hot to camp in Memphis so we stayed in a hotel again.  Then on Day 6 we had another driving day to get home.  Our last stop was in Mammoth Springs, Arkansas.

All in all, it was a wonderful vacation.  We got lucky with the weather and it didn't rain on us at the beach.  The girls did a great job with all the car time with very minimal complaining.  Olive, who sometimes refuses pictures, was in a great mood and requested lots of pictures in silly poses.  We got to see lots a variety of sights with a good balance of nature/historical/fun activities.  I had a great time and best of all I watched my kids have a great time.  And that always makes me the happiest. :)