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!
Colors of Life 