We left out Friday evening around 6 pm (a little later than intended) and headed South. We had reservations at a Holiday Inn just south of Birmingham in Pelham, AL. about 5 hours away.
We barely got everything in the car, but all door shut and we used some innovative engineering to mount the portable dvd player to the top of the back seat butting up to Tucker's barrier:
With a stop in Franklin, KY for some dinner we arrived at Pelham around 11:30 pm. I'm always worried about driving at night but Ben and I kept ourselves awake by singing old country songs from the 60's, 70's and 80's at the top of our lungs. It made it more enjoyable : ) That and we had an audio book earlier when we weren't trying to stay awake, Shooter by Jack Coughlin.
Here's Bean enjoying some breakfast at the Holiday Inn before we hit the road again:
We had tons of toys for Bean too to keep her occupied. Here's one of her with all her toys on top of her looking at her through her mirror!
We know we are getting close when we get to Opp!
I just love saying Opp. Opp Alabama. It wasn't in my territory when I lived down there but just on the edge of it and we would head over to Doc's to eat.
Here's our first palm tree!
I think that was at Florala. And finally, here's the Mid Bay Bridge taking us over to Destin!
We arrived around 1:30 pm so we ate lunch at the cafe at the condo.
We got into the room at 3 pm. Bean was impressed, as was I. Just as described:
Everything we needed at our fingertips!
Mom and Dad arrived around 5pm and Susan and Nick around 6pm. Our first night we just went over to Rick's Crap Trap which was located in the next condo over. Pretty good, nothing overly exciting. We wanted crab claws and we got them!
Susan got a video of Bean and Nick playing keep away. It was hilarious and we cackled at them for a good 10 minutes!
Oh, and here's the view from our Room 508!
We weren't right on the beach, a little walk, maybe 100 yards but there was nothing infront to block our view. It ended up working out just fine because Mallory just wanted to eat the sand, so Mallory and I probably only spent 10 minutes total at the beach the whole week!
Sunday we hit the pool. It was HUMID! Here's some steaming pictures of Daddy and Ben playing with Bean in the pool.
Sunday night we headed over to Baytowne Warf and ate at Hammerheads. More seafood....that's why we are here right : ) Here's some pictures from there and we walked down to the Marina to gawk at the yachts and there was a guy with his birds that you could take pictures with for a donation.
We also stopped for ice cream while at the Warf. Bean enjoyed hers too!
And of course we had to sit in the huge chair! Sad to say I think this is the only picture of all 3 of us that I got on my camera.
Miss Bean has been having a ball in the big garden tub!
And I bought this to take with us since I didn't want to haul around a high chair and it worked like a charm!
I don't remember if it was Sunday or Monday that we hit the beach in the afternoon and quickly learned that Mallory and I wouldn't be staying there long! It took about 15 seconds to get a handful of sand into her mouth. Then sand on the hands, sand in the eyes, sippy cup in the sand. Ahhhhhhh. So we went to sit in the waves, which she loved but when I wouldn't be watching she'd reach over and take a big handful of wet sand and shove that in her mouth. Needless to say, we went back to the pool. We did venture back down for a few minutes on Tuesday just to say she was actually at the beach and here's the pictures to prove it!
Monday night we were looking for a place to eat that wasn't as seafood focused. After being told it was a 3 hour wait at Fudpuckers, we found Graffiti. I liked it, it was a toss up on the rest, but here's Bean and Dad as we were waiting to get in.
Bean loves exploring the condo, especially in her pj's!
We also got good use of the pea pod. We'd swim a while then play a while then swim a while. She likes playing in it.
She would not wear her hat nor her sun glasses so I have few pictures where she's outside and would look at the camera, the sun was always in her eyes!
Tuesday night, after Ben and Nick played a round of golf at the course at the condo, we went to Callahan's a local all american type restaurant that was tasty. Here's Bean and Sue!
Mom, Dad, Susan and Nick headed out Wednesday morning and Bud and Susan came in on Wednesday to spend the next few days with us.
As we waited for them to arrive, we went back to Baytowne Warf to head to Another Broken Egg Cafe for some Brunch.
Wednesday night we headed down to Harbor Walk to eat at AJ's and to get Ben and his Dad booked on a Deep Sea Fishing trip for Thursday.
Here's a pigeon that was just waiting by the boat docks for some leftovers!
We stopped for Ice Cream at Brewsters. Yummy and Bean thought so too!
Thursday Ben and his dad went on a 6 hour deep sea fishing trip. They went about 14 miles out and caught Red Snapper and Mackerel mostly. We went back down to Harbor Docks to meet them as they came off the boat at 5pm and then headed over to eat at Dewey's.
Friday we went back to the other Another Broken Egg Cafe so Ben's parents could eat there. Bean and I were meeting Dusty for lunch, so I passed on breakfast, but Mallory ate both : )
She was a little crabby that morning:
But she was in a better mood as we met up with Dusty but was for sure needing a nap by the time we were done. We met up at Pompano Joes just down from our condo:
We then spent Friday afternoon shopping at the outlet mall and then headed out to Mellow Mushroom for dinner.
Ben always got a big kick out of the name of this bar for some reason....he just likes saying Lower Alabama, lol!
Saturday we woke up to pouring rain. Which was fine in one way, at least it hadn't rained like that while we were there wanting to be at the pool or beach but it made for a messy and unpleasant loading up of the vehicles to head back north.
But we got it all back in some how and off we went, treking back 12 hour in one day.
We wanted to stop in Decatur, AL so Ben could eat dinner at Big Bob Gibson's bbq, which had been on one of those Food Network or Travel Channel shows. It wasn't bad, that coming from someone who isn't a big bbq fan.
On the way out of Decatur we stopped at this gas station, we thought the sign was funny!
We only had to stop once other than our planned stops because of Mallory being crabby. She made it to Nashville, so we pulled over and let her stretch her legs for a bit and then hit the road again. After that she went to sleep, so she was a real trooper for being cooped up in the car for 12 hours!
We had fun but we are glad to be home!!
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