The last time Jim & I had been to Alabama was for our one year anniversary nearly 19 years ago. We went to Gulf Shores to visit friends we'd met on our honeymoon, so thought it would be fun to see if the area brought back any memories. Funny thing is, one of our memories from 1993 was seeing a tornado for the first time and wouldn't you know, one day of this visit was spent hunkering down in the clubhouse while under a tornado watch! Thankfully, no sightings this time:)
Some fellow travelers led us to our first luxury campground... yes, campgrounds can be luxurious! My clean-freak husband instantly fell in love and has made it his new mission to find one in every state:) Beautifully paved sights- some with gazebos, fire pits, outdoor kitchens, garden furniture- and all with beautiful landscape. Amenities included an infinity pool, hot tub, scenic pond which all sites face, beautiful club house equipped with huge fitness room, movie theater & spa. Seriously! We hardly wanted to leave our new neighborhood to explore!
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| Our view-for-the-week |
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| Beautiful sunsets from our patio each night |
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| Home! |
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| Girls enjoying the pool & hot tub |
As if the "luxury" were not enough, the lady at the front desk owned this cutest-ever fluffball. The girls made an instant friend & took her on several walks:) Could it get any better?!?
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| Roxy |
While driving around the area, we could quickly tell how much Hurricane Ivan had demolished the area back in 2004. Though some remained, many of the sweet, colorful beach homes on stilts that we remembered had been replaced by high-rise hotels. The beach was still lovely, but sadly too chilly to enjoy.
A fun stop was the Gulf State Pier. This $14.8 million pier replaced the one destroyed by Ivan and boasts a whopping 1,540 feet in length, the title of "longest pier on the Gulf of Mexico", and is a hot spot for fishermen.
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| Apparently this guy didn't look before landing... |
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| The girls peering over the edge at the swarms of spanish mackerel & jellyfish below. |
We found a great little museum that offered information on Gulf Shore history, shrimping, and hurricanes, including video footage from Ivan.
One thing that seems to cover the area are fire ant hills... literally everywhere. It is said that their sting (which injects a toxic venom) literally feels like a burn from fire. To determine whether or not they're actually fire ants, we read that if you place a stick in the mound & they immediately climb up it to attack the intruder, then fire ants they are. And our experiment tested positive...
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| Though hard to notice , dozens of ants appeared from within & immediately made their way up the stick. |
Along with the above mentioned activities, we also fit in a jeep oil change, a day doing school-work while under cover during the tornado warnings, a family night out to see We Bought A Zoo (highly recommended), and a date night in which while searching for good Alabama barbecue, we actually found that we had crossed the border and eaten in Florida! But delicious it was... the Rib Shak's specialty was barbecue egg rolls- yum!
As we enter each state, we add a sticker to our map. Twenty-eight down & filling up fast!
A) Date night in Florida:)
B) Gulf Shores, AL
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