Beach Introduction

Jotted down quick notes to remember your first beach vacation! We stayed in Gulf Shores, AL @ Plantation Inn.

Saw a live shark being caught, plus live star fish, and tons of live little sand dollars. Sand bar about 30 feet from the beach. Went crabbing one night and saw lots of little sand colored crabs - saw how they crawl sideways, can bury themselves, and how their eyes pop up and down.

Collected lots of shells with Noni. Desi took some great photos. Karla flew in from Colombus (arriving in Pensacola). 3 hour roundtrip to pick up / drop off.

15 hour drive from KC. Left Sunday at noon; stopped in Meridian, MS at midnight. Overnight at Best Western. Continued south through Mobile (went in tunnel under Mobile Bay), south on 59, then west on 180. Stayed in Fort Morgan / Gulf Shores at the Plantation.

Arrived on Monday at the 3pm check-in time. Location is far out on the peninsula, accessed only from 180 (not the beach road strip). Secluded, not very commercial. Very family oriented. The people who stay here are very friendly and down to earth. Some smokers though.

Jonas was initially hesitant to go into the water, then we couldn't get him out. He especially liked the boogy board and going out to the sand bar. When he got nervous out in the waves, he said over and over, "oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh" He was so excited to go out on the sandbar, he did the "booty" dance.

Gill celebrated a new-found independence, running away from us quite often.

When Shelly went with the ladies to Tanger on the rainy day, Ed took the kids to Books-a-Million and bought the kids a few toys. Jonas and Ed then put together a lego set for 3 hours.

The boys learned how to climb on the counters to get at the sweet treats in the top cabinets.

Gill only liked the water when someone was holding him; otherwise, he was content with the sound. He pronounced crab "cwab" and sun screen as "sun squeem". He liked making snow angels in the sand, and though I often corrected him, saying "sand angels" he insisted on saying that they were snow angels.

We had family gatherings at breakfast and dinner. Ed and I cooked fresh shrimp, flounder, and ratatoille one night and boudin omelets in the morning. Sherry brought crawfish ettouffee, Desi brought paleo blueberry muffins, and Jan made "whole fruit margaritas." Their unit was 2201; it slept 6 (one bedroom with hallway bunk beds and a pullout sofa) and faced the beach. We stayed in 2218 (down the hall) which was bigger (two bedrooms plus a wet bar), but still only slept six. It faced the parking lot. Karla, Jan and Sherry really enjoyed spending time on the beachfront balcony.

There was an awesome pool with a huge one-foot area that somehow, didn't feel like a kiddie pool. The favored sport at the pool was for Jonas to pull Gill around on the boogey board.

Behind the Pines Restaurant has wicked Fish Tacos and karoake on Wednesday nights. Poboys are not authentic; the bread is wrong. *sigh*

Oceans Restaurant delivers all up and down the strip; poboys are decent (don't order just grilled - boring!)

Tanger outlet was nice (Talbots was all we saw) but very busy on a rainy day. We only missed beach time due to rain on Thursday.