Ferrying Over to Dauphin Island and Mississippi (Day 9)

Day 9 was a very busy day on our trip.  This was the day the girls and I headed over to Mississippi to go on an airboat tour to look for alligators.  Norah was not feeling great, but she really wanted to go, so we made it happen.  

We left early in the morning to get on the Mobile Bay Ferry that crosses between Fort Morgan and Dauphin Island.  The girls have never been on a ferry before so they were excited to get out on the water, especially with our car on the boat.  The ferry takes about 40 minutes to cross the bay.  The cost was $15 for our car and then $6 per person for the girls and I to make the trip.  The girls had a blast climbing on the tree as we waited for the ferry to arrive to cross the bay.  

Once on the ferry, the girls and I exited the car to take pictures.  While on the upper deck, I felt a tap on the should and it happened to be my friend and beer buddy from Pennsylvania named Dave.  I knew he was down in the area, but what are the chances that we were on the same ferry that morning?!?!  So it was a lot of fun to catch up.  

As we got into Dauphin Island, we had to drive a bit to get back into Mississippi where the alligator air boat tour was taking place.  The drive up Highway 193 over the Dauphin Island Bridge and then along Highway 188 was great.  You could see forever across the water.  It honestly felt like you were driving on the water.  

To get to the Gulf Coast Gator Ranch and Tours you had to drive through Bayou La Batre.  For those of you who may recognized that name, that was where Bubba from the movie Forrest Gump was from.  It's a pretty small boating town with a cool drawbridge.  We stopped there for lunch at a local Subway and McDonalds.  

Just over the Mississippi border was Moss Point, which is where the Gator Ranch was located.  I went on a swamp and alligator tour once when I was in New Orleans, but this was the first time for the girls.  They love alligators and fast boats, so this was perfect for them.  We bought some cups of food to feed the alligators on the ranch while we waited to get ready to head out on the boat.  

The boat ride was fun.  We did not see many alligators in the wild (although there was one right at the dock as we loaded into the boat), but the girls loved zooming around the swamp.  We eventually saw a few alligators and that made them happy.

After the swamp boat tour, we drove down to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab.  This is an aquarium pretty close to the Mobile Bay Ferry that had a bunch of fish and exhibits.  It was a cool little sea lab that we spent about 90 minutes exploring.  

We knew when the next ferry was, but we decided to see if we could find a beach for the girls to go swimming.  Unfortunately the beaches in Dauphin Island were still under a rip current advisory and so we decided to head back to the AirBnb.  The ride back was windy and wild.  Waves were crashing over the bow of the boat and splashing us.  

It was a long day and with Norah coming back from being sick, we just opted to lay low and eat at the AirBnB.  We had so much fun on this day!

A Drive to Fairhope for a Lazy Beach Day (Day 8)

Norah had been fighting a cold the whole time we were on vacation so we needed to use Tuesday as a lazy day.  The whole point of staying in Gulf Shores, Alabama was to have easy access to the beach.  Unfortunately on this day, there were rip current warnings and bad waves at the beach.  I am not a strong swimmer, so I opted to take the girls to a beach in Mobile Bay where the waters were more calm and the girls would be safer.  

It was about an hour drive from Gulf Shores to North Beach in Fairhope, Alabama.  It was a nice, peaceful drive to a pretty quiet beach.  The girls got out and played a lot in the water there.  They were disappointed by the lack of waves, but we could not risk them swimming in rip current waters, so they understood the reason.  They did meet some local kids and play with them in the water so that made it better.  

I'm not a beach guy, so this was my view the whole time while I just listened to SiriusXM radio on my phone.  

We did get a surprise visit from a childhood friend named Tom while there in Fairhope. He lives there in town and it was great to catch up with him for about an hour.  

After being at the beach, we headed into town to get a lunch.  Tom gave us some dinning recommendations and we decided to eat at a place called Locals.  The food there was pretty good and I ate the burger.  They had a great patio that allowed us to dine outside.  

After eating lunch we hit up a really fun toy store named Fantasy Island Toys.  The girls loved it as they had some amazing toys in there.  Every town needs a fun toy shop like this one!

Before leaving town we stopped at Page and Palette for ice cream.  Page and Palette was a really cool book store / art gallery / coffee shop that was pretty hopping for a mid day visit.  The girls were so happy to get some ice cream before the ride back to the AirBnB.

Overall, I can see why my friend Tom loves living in Fairhope.  The downtown area is fun and vibrant.  I wish we had planned some more time there, but we will just need to spend more time there next time we visit.  

Once back in Gulf Shores, the wife and Norah wanted to stay back and relax at the AirBnB.  Avery and I were hungry so we went on a Daddy / Daughter Date Night at Cactus Cantina, a Mexican restaurant in Gulf Shores.  We had a great time watching baseball from our table, scarfing down torilla chips and laughing.  We had a busy day planned for the next day, so we called it an early night and went back to the AirBnB after dinner.  

Disc Golf, Mini Golf, and Throwed Rolls....Oh My! (Day 7)

Day 7 was a day the girls and I had been looking forward to for a while.  It was the day that we got to go to Lambert's Cafe, Home of the Throwed Rolls.  But first we had some outdoor adventures to do.  

The day started with a round of disc golf with my Dad and Avery at Graham Creek Nature Preserve.  This is a beautiful park located in Foley, Alabama, not too far from Gulf Shores.  The course got very good ratings on UDisc and so I figured it was a good one to check out.  The course was perfect for our trio as they had both adult and children's tee boxes.   

Overall, I played really well going only 5 over par.  This might have been on the best rounds I've ever played.  

Next up, we went back to the AirBnB and got changed so the girls could go swimming at the pool in the Gulf Shores State Park.  The pool at our AirBnB was out of order and my Dad was staying at the Gulf Shores State Park, so he invited them over to use the pool there.  It was a very nice, large and well maintained pool.  My girls had a blast there.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of it.  

After that, the girls got cleaned up, took showers, and we went to play Mini Golf before dinner.  There were a bunch of Mini Golf locations we could have gone to, but we decided to go to the Tiki's Mini Golf.  This was a strange place as it was $5 all you could play, there was no staff there and you paid using the honor system.  The course was a little rundown (probably not cleaned up from the winter), but still a lot of fun.  

After mini golf we went over to dinner at Lambert's Cafe.  The girls have heard me talk about going to Lambert's for a while.  My wife and I had gone there when visiting my brother when he was stationed in Pensacola, Florida.  Not only did I rave about the fried okra and they threw rolls around the room.  They could not believe that the servers would seriously toss rolls in the air around the dinning room.  So we had to make sure we took them there.  Between the awesome food and the entertainment of rolls flying in every direction, the whole family had a blast!

For those who have never seen the roll throwing in action, here's a view of things.  

This server was dropping some dimes out there!

Here's the carnage of a roll tossed to our table and fumbled on the floor.  No one took ownership of who dropped it even though most believe it was Norah.  

As you can see Norah was pretty full when all was said and done.  

After dinner we dropped my Dad off at Gulf Shores State Park and said our goodbyes.  He was leaving early the next morning to head out on the road.  It was a a really fun day and I am so glad that Lambert's lived up to the hype for my kids.