It’s Monday! That means it’s back to the grind after 9 days of vacation. That’s right, 9 days. We spent the bulk of those days in Gulf Shores, Alabama with our good friends soaking up the sunshine and keeping that sand in our toes. This post is not sponsored; however, we were given free passes for the dolphin cruise from Cetacean Cruises and hosted at Lulu’s for lunch, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Our family basically lives at the lake each year, but we wanted to take our kids to a ‘real’ beach this year, so we packed up the car last week and headed to Gulf Shores, AL. It seemed like such a great option from the reviews I had heard, plus we got a great beach house that was perfect for our family and our friends who we frequently travel with.
Once we got there, our house was like a little quaint cottage straight out of Pinterest. I was so impressed because it was actually quite inexpensive as in much less than a hotel room. I was hesitant as to what we might get, but it was perfect plus the pool was right out our doorstep too. We basically spent most of time at the beach, soaking up the sunshine and soaking in the sunburns. Let’s just say I didn’t skip the sunscreen again after the first day.
We also headed out on a cruise to see dolphins with Cetacean Cruises. This was a fun experience, we saw several dolphins; however, they came out of the water so fast it was almost impossible to get a picture.
A few days later, we rented a boat for the day because well when you are boat people you don’t go to the gulf and not rent a boat. Our friends even pulled their jet-ski from Oklahoma to Alabama so we could use it too. That was a fun day. I think we all agreed that was our favorite day there just being out on the water and finding little coves and secluded little beaches to setup camp at. That’s what we do every weekend though at home, so it was like being home but actually seeing in the clear water. We rode around on the jet-ski and had dolphins right next to us coming out of the water that was AMAZING to see and be so close to them.
In the midst of our trip, we ended up with 3 of 5 kids being sick and my son had some type of stomach bug or he was just swallowing way too much ocean water…I have yet to figure that one out! Luckily, we still enjoyed most of our trip. Another frightful moment was my daughter deciding she could just walk right in the pool without a life-jacket on. She quickly went under, luckily my husband saw it and got her fast! I think he was on edge and shaking all day after that. It’s amazing how quickly though something like that could happen. I literally had just taken off her life-jacket to dry her off and then she up and decided to go back in. It confirmed that we will not be getting our own pool until the kids are much older and she is now enrolled in swimming lessons too.
Aside from that, we had a wonderful time! We ate at our beach house most days, but ventured out a few times one of those times to Lulu’s. They hosted us for lunch and it was so delicious!
They have a plethora of allergy-friendly items and even had staff member available just for those that have food allergies to ensure that their food is not cross contaminated. I decided to get the blackened mahi-mahi and of course it was wonderful but that coleslaw…I could use some more of that right now!
My husband decided to get the crab claw and he was a happy man. We had a great time at the arcade, spent lots of money at the gift shop on t-shirts, and then headed to the ropes course with the kids.
Now, although I would love to be back there right now and didn’t want to leave, it is pretty nice to be home. We are going to be taking off again in a few weeks for a few more little getaways over the summer, I’ll be sharing about those too. This weekend though it’s all about our boat and the lake. It’s time for boating season!
What did you do for Memorial Day weekend? Anything fun?!
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