Orange Beach and New Orleans

I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend! Today I am going to share about our vacation last week. We spent a week in Orange Beach, Alabama. And we had so much fun. On Saturday morning we were all packed up and on the road by 6:30am. 6 people with our luggage on top of the car.

We were under the impression from dad that it would only be about an 8 or 9 hour drive. We ended up in the car for 13 hours. All I wanted to do was run and run and run after sitting for that long. But finally, we arrived!

Girl’s Room

Boy’s Room

Stocked up Kitchen

Family Room

When we got to our condo and unpacked after dinner it was about 9:30/10:00. First thing we wanted to do was get out to the water! So that’s just what we did…a night stroll along the beach.

After we woke up on Sunday we went to Pensacola, Florida to meet my dad’s friends for brunch. We then stopped at this place:

Joe Patti’s is a popular seafood market down in Florida. This is where we got our seafood that we made for the week. As soon as we thought we were leaving my dad saw something else he wanted. Shrimp, shrimp, scallops, sea bass, crab claws, peaches, tomatoes (at an outside stand), gumbo, clam chowder…he went to town! The rest of Sunday was spent hanging out. We didn’t plan any activities because we didn’t know what the weather was going to do. So the majority of the night we strolled through gulf shores and orange beach. And spent the majority of our night out here:

We were able to go out to the beach Sunday, but Monday was our main beach day.

 

and it was so much fun! We started planning our activities Monday when the weather looked as though it would be okay but nobody had availabilities until Tuesday, so Monday night we went to the local “Adventure Island” to ride go-karts, paddle-boat, and we even got into a hurricane simulator machine.

Tuesday was our ziplining day in the afternoon. Morgan, Ryan, Myself, Rick, Mom and Dad. A picture of our whole motley crew is at the end.

This was definitely the boys’ favorite activity that we did. After this we had a little downtime before our sunset dolphin cruise in the evening. All aboard!

Morgan claimed this was her favorite activity. I bet I know why…we both held a LIVE CRAB! My brothers were way too scared. Chickens!

This crab’s name was Georgette and she lost a claw before I got to hold her. One of the little girls was holding her she squirmed and dropped the crab. The deckhand had to step on her claw to get her, but let me tell you. I laughed for a good 10 minutes afterwards.

Tuesday went by pretty quickly. We had a reservation to Parasail on Wednesday, but it stormed during our time so we had to improvise after they cancelled our flight. Wednesday we just hung out along the beach in the morning during the good weather. Whenever it started to rain we decided to drive around, stop for lottery tickets, and get our t-shirts/souvenirs. Wednesday night we drove across the gulf into Florida to a quiet little beach to take our own pictures with our camera, and tripod.

We got some pretty good shots with the camera that we have. Even this was some quality time together and the boys didn’t get that cranky. Morgan also took some senior pictures while we were there.

My little sis is a beaut. We went to the condo to make seafood after this. We were leaving the next morning, but we were able to sneak in an 8:00am Parasailing Flight. It. Was. Worth. It. My dad did not want to go and the first thing he said when he came down was “That was really fun”. It was so much fun and so relaxing being up there. We went doubles. So it was mom and dad first, then Morgan and Rick, then Ryan and I.

See how excited and happy we all look? Because it was exciting and happy! If you haven’t parasailed, do it once in your life! I promise you won’t regret it. After our Parasailing flight we had to go pack up to. We drove to New Orleans for the night. We just walked around New Orleans because my dad and I were the only ones who had been there. For dinner that night we went to the restaurant of the guy who created “blackened” as a seasoning. It. Was. Delicious. and we got to sit at the Chef’s table.

After, I took everyone for the famous beignets

We walked the streets of NOLA

We wanted to get in before dark though. So we hung out in the hotel room for a while. Friday morning we woke up and traveled to Morgan’s college that she’s playing soccer at.

After a trip to a local hole-in-the-wall diner for lunch. We were sad to say goodbye to vacation.

I’d tell you what we ate the whole, but really all it was is…

Scallops

Seabass & crab claws

Shrimp & Gumbo

And more shrimp!

Foodie Heaven. With some kids’ chicken tenders and fries with a dinner of BBQ thrown in.

This truly was a vacation of a lifetime. And so much fun to hang out with the family. I’ll never forget this trip. If you are planning vacation to Gulf Shores/Orange Beach area, or even New Orleans and need phone numbers of the places we went to for activities, or food. E-mail me! colorsoflifeblog@gmail.com

Everywhere we went, we enjoyed and I would be happy to share names!

Happy Monday, friends!

Friday Favorites!

Happy Friday, I am so jet-lagged. This week my favorites are going to be beach related, because we just got home from our vacation to the beach! Literally, just got home. And what do I do when I get home? I get to my computer so I can blog with Andrea, Erika, and Narci.

Ahhhh, that brings me to favorite #1: Home

I don’t have a picture of home, but this is the empty garage waiting for our return. Home really is where the heart is. I think that being on vacation makes me appreciate home that much more. My siblings and I always talk about how there is a certain smell that our home has when we walk in…whatever that is. We can’t really describe it. It’s so nice to just walk in your own house after a long week gone. Being able to have my own shower and bed back is my most favorite thing!

Favorite #2: Long walks along the beach

 

Isn’t that so cliche? But actually, this was one of my favorite parts of our vacation. I went walking around 7:30 with my mom and my sister in the morning. On our last morning we had there we went searching for shells. Is this not the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen?!

Favorite #3: These two signs

 

The top one says:
Family

The ones who…1) I love most in this world. 2) Teach me to laugh at myself. 3) Drive me crazy. 4) Keep me sane. 5) Remind me where I came from. 6) Watched me grow. 7) Tell me that I am loved.

The bottom one says:
The South

The place where… 1) Tea is sweet but accents are sweeter. 2) Summer starts in April. 3) Macaroni and Cheese is a vegetable. 4) Front porches are wide and words are long. 5) Pecan pie is a staple. 6) Y’all is the only proper noun. 7) Chicken is fried and biscuits come with gravy. 8) Everything is darlin’ 9) Someone’s heart is always being blessed.

These were in our condo as we walked in and I thought they were so cute. I’ve actually seen them before so I found them for you to purchase for yourself or to use as a gift…

The South only has 20 left. It’s a 6×18. Click for your South Wall Frame.
Now, I couldn’t find the exact family one…but here’s a Family Rules Fence Post Decorative Wall Plaque that I probably like just as much, if not more. There’s only 14 left!

Favorite #4: Seafood

This foodie loves her some seafood. And dad loves seafood. He grew up on the East Coast so he could eat seafood for every meal if he wanted. In fact, he did. His breakfast the past two mornings was shrimp and scallops. He’s a weird human, but we love him anyways. Almost every night in our condo we made crab claws/scallops/shrimp/etc. It was relaxing to kick back on the balcony and enjoy our seafood while watching the waves and listening to the water.

Which brings me to favorite #5: Dad, Mom and my siblings

We ended up taking our own beach pictures, with our tripod and self-timer. Guess who got to be the designated runner? Yep this girl! Actually it wasn’t that bad. And we got some good pictures from it. The whole trip was my favorite part, but my absolute favorite part was just spending time with these people. It’s so much more relaxing when everyone is out of their daily routines. We had maaaany laughs, a lot of good quality time, and a few arguments. But hey, that’s normal for us. I’ll never forget this trip.

Enjoy the weekend. See you on Monday for my post about Gulf Shores/Orange Beach!