Family Trip to Alabama
We had an amazing (almost) week-long trip!
Sunday
Starting bright and early, we drove from Cincinnati to DeSoto State Park in Alabama. But the drive wasn't just that simple - we made lots of stops along the way, including to an urgent care, which took the 7.5 hour drive to about 13 hours. My favorite stop was Buc-ee's - none of us had ever been there before. If you're not familiar, Buc-ee's is a gas station with 124 gas pumps (yes you read that correctly), and a VERY large convenience store. Anyway, once we got to the state park - we stated in a rustic cabin which was a historical miners' residence before being moved to the state park at a later date. The cabin had been modernized featuring utilities, hot water, HVAC, and even cable TV!
Monday
Monday morning was off to a great start with some scenic waterfall hiking, ziplining, and then more driving. Finishing our drive in Gulf Shores, Alabama - we got checked in at the house just in time to catch some rest.
Tuesday
There was A LOT of fog on Tuesday. Somehow I still managed to get sunburn on the beach even though I couldn't see the end of the pier. Lunch was at The Original Oyster House - highly recommend this place if you're into seafood. Tuesday afternoon we did an amazing dolphin-watching cruise. I learned that dolphins love attention and are very social animals. We also fed seagulls Cheetos from our hands! What a fun time. My mom also managed to lock us out of the house on Tuesday 😆
Wednesday
The weather was a lot better - we went parasailing, which I had never done before! I was surprised how smooth the ride was. We went up about 400 feet with 800 feet of rope. After parasailing, we rented jet skis - another first for me! The jet skis were such a thrill and I would love to do it again. 47MPH feels like 100MPH when you're operating a vessel that small.
Thursday
This was the last day before the drive. My dad, sister, and her friend went horseback riding while I stayed at the house trying to enjoy the rest of the vacation. Later, we went swimming at the beach and ate dinner at a place called Shrimp Basket. The restaurant had some great food with lots of different seafood options. After dinner, we got some ice cream at Matt's Homemade Ice Cream just down the street. If you ever go to Gulf Shores, I HIGHLY recommend getting ice cream from Matt's - they're voted top ice cream shop in the state of Alabama on Yelp, TripAdvisor, Facebook, and BuzzFeed.
Friday
Friday was the longest day for sure. We drove from about 7am (CDT) until 11pm (EDT) - but we did make one interesting stop to visit the town of Sceptre where the movie Big Fish was filmed. The town is abandoned, but is on a maintained island that is now privately owned. There are a bunch of wild goats that roam the island as well!
