Gulf Shores Alabama

It's been a while since I've written a real post. Time to talk about Gulf Shores Alabama. May 10th-18th Rachel and I were there with my side of the family. Rachel should follow up with pictures, so I'll just talk about it. What an incredible place to be! We had a house right on the beach. Head out the house, walk down 17 steps, and you land on the most beautiful white sand beach imaginable. So sweet! It really was great to have the whole family there one last time before my parents take off for Oregon, Rachel and I take off for L.A., and Tommy and Ash take off for San Francisco.

While there we got to go for a hot air balloon ride. We got up to about 1600 feet immediately. We had to stay close to the ground afterwards, however, because the wind was strong enough that we would miss our landing spot afterwards. Most of the 30 minute flight was spent skimming the tops of wheat fields and trees and being pursued by angry dogs. Pretty wicked sweet.

The following day we went on a guided bus tour of Gulf Shores. We stopped at some civil war sites and saw some awesome scenery. There's a lot more to see there than you might imagine. For example, the day before we stopped and chatted with a local man who had a house on the river front. He was walking down to feed the fish and to check his mailbox, where his mail was delivered by boat. My nieces were thrilled at the opportunity to help him feed the fish.

Among other cool things we also went on a private sail boat where we watched dolphins. We ate tons of seafood. The shrimp they serve are not like shrimp I was accustomed to. They still have the heads, little legs, and shells attached. Eating a single shrimp was pretty time consuming, riping off the heads and legs and all. Very cool though.

Our last day we left a bit early to spend a night in New Orleans. Bourbon street...wow. Never seen anything quite like it. Several whorehouses on both sides of the street every single block. The streets swarming with drunk people staggering around. hahaha...and there we were, our nieces in strollers or being carried in arms! New Orleans was NOT like I imagined it. I figured there would just be happy black people playing jazz music all over the place. Huh...

All in all...great vacation. Thanks Mom and Dad!