Friday morning, we got up at 5:00 am and were on the road to Gulf Shores by about 5:45. I just got Pearce up and put him in the car in his jammies. He was SUCH a good traveler. We had 12 hours to drive and he never once got upset or cried or wanted out of the car. I brought his iPad, a portable DVD player, a few toys, and some snacks. He slept for the first 4 hours and then we stopped for breakfast at McDonald's. We all ate a good breakfast and then back on the road. We made several quick stops along the way, but I really was amazed at how well Pearce did. We got to Gulf Shores that evening around 7:00 and Pearce could not wait to go to the pool! The condos we stayed at have the neatest pools with water slides and a lazy river. Pearce LOVED being able to go on the water slides. We swam each night.
On Friday morning, we were up and out the door to go to the beach by 10:45! We went to the National Seashore right across the border into Florida. It was just a few miles away, but this part of beach is just so gorgeous and not crowded at all, which we loved. Pearce played and played on the beach and in the waves. Papa set up his own little umbrella so that he could play in the sand under the shade. Pearce wanted to go out in the water a lot! At one point, we saw some guys were fishing a little bit down the beach, so we went to see them. We saw that he had something big on his line but didn't know what it was yet.....then he pulled out a 5 foot long shark! We later found out it was a Black Tip shark. He got off the line and swam away and I guess I should have been concerned about a shark being out in the water pretty close to us, but I wasn't! We never went out very far, but still! We would stay out on the beach for several hours and eat lunch on the beach and then pack up and go back to the condo to rest a little bit. On our first afternoon after we got back to the condo, we took our showers and then went to an amusement park for Pearce to ride a few of the kiddie rides. We usually go to The Track but a lady had told Daddy that a different park would be fun, called Waterville. It's a water park but has rides, too. As soon as we pulled up, Pearce saw a huge roller coaster and asked if he could do it. We did ask if he could ride with an adult, but he was still too short. Oh man, that made Pearce so mad! You can see his face on the first ride....like he's saying "I wanted to ride that big roller coaster, but I'm stuck riding this dumb kiddie ride!" But finally, he got into the rides and had fun...although we did realize The Track had much better kiddie rides and so we ended up going to The Track on our last day! We went back to the condo for a yummy dinner of baked potatoes and peel and eat shrimp and then went swimming!
Our gorgeous view!
This is the "I'm so mad I can't be on the gigantic roller coaster" face :) One day, Pearce will be my ride buddy!
On our second beach day, Pearce and I slept in until 9:30! We were worn out! We got our suits on, packed our coolers and headed out once again! Pearce remembers the Blue Heron from last year and on this day we spotted one and he walked up and stayed right by us for a while! We played and played in the water, in the sand, dug holes, played football, ate snacks, looked for shells, and ate more snacks :) In the afternoon, after we all got showered, Papa and Pearce dropped Mama and I off at the nail salon while the boys went to get ice cream....and ride rides at The Track! When they picked us up, Pearce was so excited about the fun rides he rode and then they said they wanted to take me to see Pearce ride them....again! We had one more visit to The Track on the last day :) We went to eat dinner at a cute seafood place right on the beach. The food was so good! After that, we went out on the Gulf Shores Fishing Pier which goes out a mile or so into the ocean. I loved walking out on this because I just love looking out into the water and wondering whats out there :) We looked over the rails and saw TONS of big jellyfish floating. I kept thinking "Man, it would be awful if someone fell over." It was really fun to see all the fisherman out on the pier fishing and seeing what they were catching. The serious fisherman were at the end of the pier! Pearce was good about walking the first 30 steps on the pier and then he wanted me to carry him. Papa had a very serious talk with Pearce about being a big boy and walking and from then on out, Pearce did walk like a big boy....thank you Papa!!!!!! Every once in a while, Pearce would tell Papa "See Papa, I'm walking like a big boy!" After the pier we went back to the condo to swim and then go night night!
This is a statue in the lobby of the condos and Pearce just randomly said "Take my picture here, Mommy." Ummmm...ok!!
On our last beach day, we did lots more playing, swimming, digging, and eating. For some reason, there were a ton of black biting flies on the beach. They were very annoying and hurt! Papa ran to the store to get bug spray and I must say, I doubted bug spray was going to help, but he came back with spray specifically for black biting flies! We sprayed ourselves down and that did the trick! After we got back and showered, we went to Fisherman's Wharf to ride the big ferris wheel and to look at the shops there. Pearce loved the ferris wheel which went really high! We got him a cute t-shirt that was airbrushed with his name and a shark! I also got a cute pair of TOMS shoes there....thanks Mama and Papa!!! After that, Pearce wanted to take me back to The Track to watch him ride the rides. Papa got him 7 tickets for the 7 kiddie rides and oh my goodness, did Pearce love them! His favorites were the spinning cups, swings, and airplanes...he rode each of those twice and then did the train :) After the rides we went to eat at Lulu's. The wait for the main restaurant was 1.5 hrs...no thanks! But they had a more casual area out back with a huge sand pit and picnic tables. This place was totally packed with kids and families, but I loved it! Pearce loved being able to play in the sand while we waited for our dinner. When his cheeseburger came, he would just come over and have me hold it while he took a bite since his hands were all sandy. Sadly, when it was time to go, Pearce threw a bit of a fit. Poor little guy :( Papa worked his magic and got Pearce to stand up and leave, but he was still not too happy. We got back to the condo and just relaxed and sat out on the balcony and got our things packed up. We had another early morning wake up call to leave. We left the next morning around 5:30 to go home. Once again, I just woke up Pearce at the last minute and had him go potty and then get in the car. He was sleepy but happy and talked to us for a while before falling asleep and taking a good nap just in time to wake up for breakfast at McDonald's. The whole way back, Pearce was SUCH a good traveler!!! I mean, we were all amazed at how good he was! We all had such a fun time together!!! Thank you Mama and Papa for a great beach getaway!!
