We made it back safely from our Gulf Shores vacation late last night. We survived the trip even though Scamp was fussy on the 8 hour trip back. Thank goodness for car DVD players. I normally don't like her to watch a lot of TV, but for this occasion she watched Barney and Blue's Clues the whole way.
We arrived in Gulf Shores, specifically Orange Beach on Monday evening around 5:00 pm in two vehicles, my dad's monster pick up stuffed to the rims with beach luggage and our rented Chevy Malibu with it's 37 miles-to-the-gallon tank--with the air conditioning maxed.
We headed to the beach first thing. The air was muggy but the cool breeze of the ocean made the temperature perfect. Scamp did not like the sand at first and insisted on being towled off, but once she discovered the blissful lapping waves, she was hooked. She wanted to try a little boogy boarding after that, so her Pa took her out for a test ride followed by a quick burying in the sand. My nephew, Bubby, splashed in the waves as well while my niece, Alex, filled her sand castle bucket with shells. Then, it was time for beach pictures before we headed to the recently renovated hotel pool to rinse the rest of the rough sand off that the beach showers could not remove.
The second day we went back to the beach for some more sandy, salty fun before the down pour started. To be in the midst of a drought we sure got a lot of rain while we were there. One of Beef's favorite parts of the beach is building gigantic sand castles. He worked diligently for three hours to create his masterpiece before he allowed a very anxious Bubby to destroy it. The rain started that afternoon, so we decided to go one of Gulf Shores famous restaurants, Lambert's -- Home of the Throwed Rolls, but because of the showers, apparently everyone had the same feat in mind. Therefore, we changed our course to eat at Fire Mountain. I haphazardly picked this place due to the few cars in the parking lot, but once inside we discovered it was a Ryan's buffet in disguise. And I LOVE Ryan's. I couldn't believe I had sniffed it out. I could eat Ryan's gargantuan buffet for all three meals. Did you know they serve breakfast on Saturday's now?!
The next morning, we lounged on the beach again. The weather was overcast, a welcomed forecast since I had been sunburned the day before. We labored away on more sand creations. Beef carved out a cat complete with shell ears, eyes, and a very fancy shell collar. Scamp couldn't wait to pet it, but after only a minute's worth of petting, the head fell off! Poor kitty! I dug out a couple of tunnels while Alex and Beef hollowed out Scamp a deep hole of a house.
That same night, we went to Adventure Island, a race car/mini golf park we thought the kiddies would enjoy. Alex and I putted around the course while Bubby and Scamp rode the motorized cars. Beef challenged my niece to a car race next, and he took first place of course. Then, I took Scamp on the water boats hoping I would not get soaked from Alex and Bubby's water-gunned boat. I was wrong! Alex hardly took pity on my cries of protest of being drenched! But, with one false turn of her boat, she was soaked under the elephant waterfall herself! Ha, Alex!!
Later that night, the kid's wanted to swim again in the pool, so Nana and Pa along with Beef too them all down for a dip. Beef let me get a few minutes to myself before I headed down to watch all the water fun. Once I reached the pool deck, I saw Beef and Scamp in the hot tub. I knew hot tubs were Beef's favorite but Scamp seemed to love it more. Every time he would try to take her out, she would cry out "Hot tub" and beg to be put back in. I guess she loved the warm water.
Departure day came, and we went souvenir shopping before caravanning back to out landlocked state. I left with a couple of shell bracelets while Scamp ended up with a pint-sized Gulf Shores t-shirt with an embroidered butterfly. She and Bubby also managed to swing some pretty neat galoshes from Super Target, all gifts from their beloved Nana. All in all, we had a good time even though I think we still have sand in all of our suitcases, a free but pesky souvenir. And on't miss out on more pictures to come! My mom is making me a CD of all her pictures, so I'm probably going to post a few of them, too.
The third day was our trip to the Aquarium. We first stopped at one of the parks along the scenic highway going out of downtown Gatlinburg. This detour is most certainly becoming a tradition in our family. We always make several family pictures. Here we all are minus my mom.
This is the first exhibit you see upon entering the aquarium. We we so glad we were able to use our free tickets. One of the best parts of the center is the shark tank. You step on a moving belt and spend 10-15 minutes following an enclosed shark tank, but there are many more fish besides the sharks. Scamp was freaking out most of the way through especially when we would go under the exceptionally long swordfish with their sharp beaks all plastered to the tunnel ceiling. It's really hard to take good pictures inside the tank, so I'm not going to post those.
There were a few mini aquariums where you could climb inside for a picture. Scamp and Bubby really enjoyed these. My mom, too, as you can tell!
This was the entrance to a miniature cave where all adults had to crawl inside. Scamp thought this was her own little clubhouse.
She really enjoyed meeting the "stuffed" shark. She gave him hugs. She would have been terrified this same time last year. She used to be so afraid when Chuck E. Cheese would come visit her!
We came back to the cabin afterward. The guys all left to ride the slick track cars while the ladies and kiddos under 12 stayed behind. Scamp and Bubby played hide-and-go-seek. I think this is just an adorable picture. Scamp loves her Bubby. That was the end of our stay. We left the next morning. I'll post our family pictures we took prior to leaving later since this is already a pretty long post.
