Hi everyone!
We’re back from our amazing week in Gulf Shores, Alabama with the entire Kraft crew! Although this was our third annual vacation, it was the first trip that every family member was able to make!
We arrived at our lagoon-front rental on Saturday around midday, and took the kids for a walk on the beach until it was time to check in.
Once we were able to get into the house, everyone chose rooms and we got settled in for the evening.
On Sunday morning the kids were up bright and early and were ready for some pool time.
Jordan and Parker also went out fishing on the dock behind our house. We enjoyed the lazy pace of hanging out at the beach house with the family.
Monday morning we started out with a quick workout and a run before the whole family trucked down the street to the beach.
The kids loved digging in the sand and Parker loved the waves. We were cracking up as he shouted “Brace for impact!” every time a wave came by… classic Octonauts reference.
Baby Finn enjoyed sleeping in one of the wagons in the shade while we played.
Lots of fish were caught in the lagoon on Monday afternoon.
A rainy forecast on Tuesday shifted our plans to take the ferry across Mobile Bay to Dauphin Island and the Alabama Aquarium at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab.
Unfortunately the ferry is quite small and we were running late, so one of our group of cars didn’t make it onto the boat. The drive around if you miss the ferry is 2 hours long, so one of the families had to make up some ground.
Although the aquarium was on the smaller side, it had tons of interactive things for the kids to do.
After our time at the aquarium we headed to lunch at the Dockside Seafood Restaurant. The fish tacos were great, as was Jordan’s shrimp po-boy. Finny enjoyed some of the Key Lime Pie as well.
After lunch our little group was tired, so while the rest of the extended family went to explore the fort on the island, we decided to hop back on the ferry. It ended up being a good choice as the storm rolled back in while we were crossing and the ferry was shut down for the rest of the day.
Despite the gloomy weather, we decided to brave the rain to check out Fort Morgan once we were back on the Gulf Shores side of the bay.
The fort was pretty cool, and much better maintained than Fort Jefferson at Dry Tortugas (which makes sense, since it’s so much easier to care for a fort on the mainland). The kids also had a blast climbing up and down the stairs and exploring all the tiny creepy passageways.
We headed back to relax at the house before bedtime.
Wednesday morning we were up early again, for an hour drive into Pensacola to visit the Children’s Museum. The kids had an absolute blast playing with all of the stuff at the museum.
We grabbed lunch at the Garden, an outdoor pavilion lined with food trucks. Jordan was so excited to see the Airstreams.
After our busy morning, the kids were more than happy to go back and crash at the house for the evening.
The baby enjoyed dressing up like his sister 🙂
Thursday morning we headed out to the public pier, about 2 miles down from our house on the lagoon. We were hoping to have our first shark sighting of the trip. Despite the rain, the pier did not disappoint.
Over the last couple of days more fish were caught.
More beaching occurred.
And a great time was had by everyone.
We can’t wait until next year’s family vacation!
jordanpluskate 