The Beach

Who knew there are beaches here in Alabama? There's not a lot of Alabama coastline, but what there is was totally awesome and blows the California beaches I've been to out of the water. When we were in Tucson, Danny had a co-worker who grew up in Alabama and when she learned we'd be moving here, she told us of her all-time favorite beach vacation spot: Gulf Shores, Alabama. We immediately put it on our "Things to do in Alabama" list and had planned on going before this baby comes. We were able to work it in this past week from Wednesday night to Saturday and we were not disappointed at all. The beach was clean and beautiful, with really fine white sand and warm water. The trip went just exactly as we'd hoped - no rain, lots of beach time, stress-free. Both of the full days we had on the beach went as followed: We went out to the beach as soon as breakfast was over, and everyone was swimsuited up and lathered with sunscreen. We played out there for a few hours till lunch. Then we went back up to the condo for lunch and naps. Then we headed out to the beach again for a couple of hours till dinner. Then it was baths, dinner, and bed time. It was perfect.


We rented a little two-bedroom condo right on the beach. It was just right for us.


























































































Emily's first moments on the beach. From the beginning she was ready to get wet, build sand castles, and dig in the sand.

Dallin's first moments on the beach. At first, he was pretty afraid of the water, but got used to it quickly and really loved it.

They were very excited to be there.

During the night, the tide came up high enough to a little dip in the sand that created sort of a river or mote that every kid on the beach loved playing in. It was warm and shallow, and even had little minnows in it. Daddy would try and catch them with our little net. Here they are looking at one.

Mommy and the kids sitting so the water would wash up and get our feet. They thought it was a really fun game because sometimes it would reach our feet and sometimes it wouldn't.

Danny and Emily did this for hours: catching little sea creatures as the waves rolled in. Emily absolutely loved it and was totally into it. She'd bring whatever was caught in her bare hands to the bucket that was up by me. They caught a lot of sand fleas, minnows, a sand crab, and a hermit crab.

We went to Lambert's Cafe for dinner. Danny had heard of this place and they're famous for literally throwing their piping hot rolls from across the room to anyone who wants one. This was my catch and they were very tasty.












Our second morning was cloudy and cooler, but the rain never came and we had a great time out there. Here are the kids playing in the "river".

Playing in the "river".

Since I can barely bend over these days, I sat in the beach chair a lot and took walks along the beach with the kids. I left the bending and digging and such to Danny. This is the view I had a lot of the time and I think they look cute.

I also thought this shot was cool.









Some condo time.




Dallin was finishing up lunch. They loved sitting on these stools and the fact that there were so many different colors to choose from.

At Emily's request, Daddy's taking her in "deep" to lift her over the waves.

This little "river" was seriously the best for little kids.

After dinner on Saturday we went to The Warf to ride this ferris wheel, the tallest in the South. Emily was so excited she could hardly contain herself.

Getting ready to ride it.

So that other passengers could also ride, we happened to get stopped for a few moments at the very top. Emily thought it was the greatest.

Danny and Dallin.

In looking into things to do down in Gulf Shores, I found this place and we thought the kids would enjoy it. It was on the way home, so we stopped there after checking out of the condo on Saturday morning. It was very cool.

This place has over 200 alligators of various ages and sizes. Most of them have been brought here for being "problem" alligators. Some of them are in enclosures like this.





The big dudes are in this huge swamp.

We followed a guide along this pathway over the swamp to see a lot of them.


This is their most famous, world record-holding alligator: Captain Crunch.







Pretty impressive stats!

Then we went to some bleachers to watch feeding time.

The guide, Wes, went into the enclosure to feed the alligators dead chickens. The gators also knew it was time to eat and 15-20 big ones came up out of the river right near him.

After they were fed, some stayed on the bank and others went back into the water.

Then it was time for the alligator encounter. The first one to hold this little guy was a kid of about 12 years old. When Wes offered the other littler boys ahead of us a chance, they were all too scared. Emily was totally fearless as she marched up to take her turn. She thought it was great.
Dallin also wanted a turn.

Danny and I couldn't pass up the chance to hold the little guy either.

It was very cool to actually hold one.
Then we walked over to the giant snake exhibit. They have a whole bunch of huge snakes in cages for you to see, only species that grow to 20+ feet. We saw anacondas, boa constrictors, and pythons, etc. Then they took out one of the smaller, safer ones for people to handle. I thought the kids would be satisfied to just touch it.

But Emily wanted to hold it like everyone else.

For that matter, so did I.

And so did Danny.

As if that weren't enough, Emily still wanted more and asked to touch its head. That made me a little nervous because, hello the teeth, but the guy said he'd hold the head to keep it from biting.

And then Dallin wanted to touch its head too.

Then they brought out a bigger snake and invited everyone to touch it too.

Again, Emily was all for it.

We laughed because Dallin liked to gently squeeze it over and over again.

They let all the kids help carry it back to its cage.

We then began our 6-hour drive home, completely satisfied with a really great trip.