Alabama

Last year when we left Florida we spent some time at Jellystone Park of the Alabama Gulf Coast.  Because we had so much fun at Jellystone last year we only spent one day visiting Gulf Shores so this year we decided to stay right in Gulf Shores at Gulf State Park.

My favorite thing about this park is the amazing, paved bike trails!

I rode for miles on these trails and even got to see some cool wildlife like this alligator and her babies.  (The 2 babies are a little hard to see; they are hanging out in the water behind the mama.  I later learned that these are not exactly babies anymore, they’re about 3 years old.)

One day the kids went for a ride with me because I told them I found a cool rock-climbing park along the trail.

The Gulf State Park Pier was across the street from the campground.  This was fun to visit in the evening for the sunsets, and the boys liked wrestling in the sand.

There were cool birds hanging out on the pier.

I like this sign.

Fat Cat enjoyed hunting rabbits at our campsite.  The rabbits didn’t pay any attention to her.  She would sneak up on them, and then when she finally decided to chase them, they ran away and she was stuck because of the leash.  It’s a little hard to see but she is hunting a rabbit (to the left) in this picture.

The highlight of this trip was having the Norstrem family come to stay with us for a few days.  Ken, Kelli and their kids are good friends of ours from back home in Fernandina.  We miss them a lot when we’re traveling and are thankful that they came out to join us for a few days before we got too far away from Florida.  The funny thing is that every time we see them it seems to be rainy and cold.  This was no different.  We had nice weather all week, but as soon as they were on their way to see us the rain started.  And it rained pretty much the entire time they were with us.  You might wonder how can 9 humans and 1 cat live in an RV for 3 rainy days?  With the Norstrems it was no problem.  We have so much fun with them no matter what the circumstances!

One day the kids all decided to go outside in their bathing suits and play in the rain.  But the rain decided to take a break at that time, so instead they had a water balloon fight.

The campground had a really nice nature center so we went there one day to play with snakes.  Umm, I guess I should say the kids played with snakes, I have no interest in holding a snake.

The snake was trying to get in Jesse’s pants!

This snake was on the floor eating a dead mouse.  Yuck!

This turtle roams around the nature center.  You have to be careful where you step!

We wanted to take the Norstrems to the pier, but the weather never cooperated so we just had to go in the rain.

Another cool bird hanging out on the pier in the rain.

We took a field trip back to Florida to the Pensacola Naval Aviation Museum.  This was really cool!

The Blue Angels practice from here, but we were a couple of weeks too early.  Their practice sessions don’t start until late March.

And finally, we celebrated Chris’s birthday.  Poor Chris had to cook dinner on his birthday.  We had planned to have dinner at Lambert’s (Home of the Throwed Rolls), but the wait was 90 minutes.  So Chris suggested we all go back to the house (RV) and have dinner there.  For those of you that know Chris, he is a great cook!  He cooks for everyone that comes to visit, even on his birthday.

We had so much fun at Gulf State Park and especially with our friends visiting.  We miss them and look forward to seeing them again when we get back to Florida.  We keep trying to talk them into joining us on the road!