Orange Beach, Alabama 2018

Last year while we were visiting family in Baton Rouge, we decided to take a few days and head to a "real" beach on the Gulf Coast.  We had such a good time that we have decided to make it an annual tradition. 

This year we tried to get other family members to come along with us.  My dad was hoping to come but it didn't work out.  But Stuart's brother and his daughter came.  It was fun for the cousins to get to spend time together.  

We got rooms at the Hampton Inn and Suites right on the beach.  This is where we stayed last year.  The rooms are nice plus they have a great breakfast included with the room price.  And, did I mention that it is right on the beach?!  We bring umbrellas, ice chest, snorkeling gear, sand castle gear, etc so it is nice to be right there on the beach and not have to lug that stuff around more than necessary.

We arrived late in the day but we hadn't even gotten our stuff unpacked when the kids were begging to go down to the beach.  Look how beautiful the view from our room was.

The next morning we got up early to play on the beach.  The waters were no longer still.  Instead they were actually quite rough.

We played in the surf some but we spent most of our time just hanging out in the sand.

Nicholas played around with dripping wet sand on to itself.

Eventually it started to look like a sand stalagmite!

Stuart buried Nicholas in the sand.  Look at that big smile on Nicholas' face!  He loved it!

I love that I can always find THE BEST flip flops at the beach.  I bought a pair of Cobian flip flops when we were here last summer and they were my favorite shoe all year long until they eventually broke.  So, of course, I had to come back to get a replacement pair.

Even the waves hitting the shore were strong.  If you weren't paying attention, they could knock you over.

One great thing about the strong waves is that they brought in a lot of shells. Most of them were not very big but we collected quite a few neat ones to bring home.

Plus Rachel had fun "riding" the waves on her boogie board.

We played and played until we were just wiped out.

We headed back to the rooms for showers and to go searching for food.  I was ready to just sit on the balcony and read a book while listening to the waves and watching the seagulls but the kids were longing to go down to the beach again.

So we headed back down and spent the rest of the afternoon in the sand and surf.

Nicholas enjoys playing in the sand.  He buried Rachel in the sand and shaped the sand to make her look like a mermaid.

Pretty impressive!

Then he wanted to bury Mommy.  I wasn't excited about being buried in sand but then I reminded myself to savor the days.  He had so much fun and it was neat seeing him at work.

He used the tip of the shovel to make a neat pattern that could be used for scales or feathers.

In my case they became feathers as I transformed into an eagle!

There had been some rain earlier but it was short-lived and moved through quickly.  But the waves were still quite strong.  I kept getting knocked over when I went out in it.  But they were beautiful to watch and the sound of them crashing was so relaxing to listen to.

This is our second summer to come to Orange Beach and we just love it.  We love the location of this hotel, we love the quality of the beach, and we love that it isn't too far of a drive.  However, the only problem we have with this beach is..... 

….there are a lot of jellyfish in the water!  And they aren't far out where it is deep and most people don't go.  No, they are right at the shore where everyone is playing.

And look how long their tentacles are!  I think we might have to hunt down another beach to visit next summer, even if it means driving a little further.

Sometimes we saw dead jellyfish that has washed up on the beach.

We have each gotten little stings over the two trips we have made here.  Your skins burns some but fortunately we haven't had it bad enough to keep us out of the water.

This summer we found a new fun thing to do here.  Helicopter rides over the beach with Orange Beach Helicopter Tours!  Even though they gave rides all day and each ride was rather short, we still had to make reservations.  There was a constant stream of people coming in for rides.

The helicopter is only big enough for three riders.  Stuart and I took a helicopter tour in Hawaii so it wasn't as big of a deal for us but both kids were super excited to ride in a helicopter for the first time. 

I got a video of the take-off but somehow the video stops just as they leave the ground.



I love the video of them coming back in for the landing.  They come in so quickly yet gracefully.



We only stayed for two nights so it was a short trip but it was a lot of fun.  The brothers got to hang out and relax.

And the cousins got to spend time playing at the beach together.

Hopefully we can make another trip like this again next summer!

Traveling to Totality

It was about a year ago when I first heard about the total eclipse crossing the United States on August 21, 2017 and I didn't think much of it.  I recall back when I was a child, we watched a partial eclipse in Baton Rouge through a special lens.  We saw eclipse-shaped shadows on the ground.  It was pretty neat.  Since we do not live in the eclipse's path of totality, we would not experience complete darkness but surely it would still be cool.  We would still get some eclipse glasses and at least watch a partial eclipsere from where we are.

But then in the last week of July, I saw this article called "Close" is not close enough from the eclipse2017.org website and I watched this video below from Smarter Every Day.


That was all it took and I was fired up to travel the path of totality to get the full experience of a total eclipse.  But it seemed silly to travel 8 hours and spend money on gas, food, and hotel for a 2 minute 40 second experience of totality.  I jokingly mentioned it to Stuart and showed him the article and video.  I can't tell you how shocked I was when Mr. Practical said, "We have to go!" 

The closest city in the path of totality is St. Joseph, Missouri.  Of course with less then a month before the big event, all of the hotels in St. Joseph were booked solid.  We were able to find a hotel in Kansas City, MO which is about an hour away from St. Joseph.  We planned to drive 8 hours on Sunday, August 20th to Kansas City.  On Monday morning, the day of the eclipse, we would drive to somewhere in St. Joseph to get the full experience of totality.  After the eclipse we could explore the area and go back to our hotel in Kansas City for Monday night.  We would leave Tuesday to make the 8 hour drive back home.

After hearing concerns about the amount of traffic in the area and worrying about where we might find a place to park and watch the eclipse, we decided to go up a day earlier so we could be rested and have time to explore the area before the day of the actual eclipse.  This was a very good decision!

We tried to extend our hotel room in Kansas City a day earlier so we could come in on Saturday night but our hotel didn't have a room available for that night.  That seemed odd since it was 2 days before the eclipse and I didn't expect that night to have as many rooms booked.  Just for fun we checked for hotels in St. Joseph for Saturday night.  Amazingly we found a hotel room for Saturday night in St. Joseph.  We figured we would drive straight to St. Joseph on Saturday, spend some time looking around and figuring out several options for where we could watch the eclipse, plan driving routes to there from Kansas City, etc then we would head to our hotel in Kansas City Sunday evening and drive back to St. Joseph on Monday to watch the eclipse.

We didn't have much to prepare and gather for the trip.  Unfortunately, my nice Nikon DSLR camera is broken so all we had for cameras were are cell phones and a crummy little Nikon point and shoot camera that doesn't focus well.  We planned to set up the little Nikon on a tripod to capture shadow bands during the eclipse and we would use our cell phones to take pictures.  There are some conflicting theories about what causes shadow bands. Once an eclipse starts, you can see them as lines of shadows rippling across, almost like heat waves.  They are most noticeable on a white background.  Here is a video of shadow bands during a 2016 eclipse.


We went to Lowe's and bought a sheet of white corrugated plastic so we could see the shadow bands.  Nicholas held the board for less than a minute before he was doing his own scientific experiment with static electricity.

And we couldn't get out of the store without the kids coming up with the idea for a Human Newton's Cradle.  They are so much fun!


We excitedly got on the road Saturday morning.  It was a neat trip.  We had never seen so many wind turbines before.  They were all across the landscape in Kansas and Missouri.  They are called "wind farms" and they generate power from the wind spinning the gigantic blades.

The blades are approximately 116 long and they are attached to a 212 foot tower for a total height of 328 feet!  Look below at how big they are behind that big RV on the road.

We got a little sprinkling of rain along our trip.  We just prayed that all of the rain would fall down before Monday at 1:00 when the eclipse would be nearing totality.

At one of our gas stops, I asked Stuart to let me drive.  He said no.  I'm sure he was ready for a break so I bugged him again.  He said, "I like the way I drive."  Hmmm, I think that is a nice way of saying, "I don't like the way you drive".

We saw road signs like this one in Kansas that announced the eclipse and prepared drivers to expect traffic on the 21st.  We were still several hours from St. Joseph so it was surprising to see signs like this so far out.  It got me a little nervous about what the traffic might be like on Monday morning as everyone is trying to drive into St. Joseph.

We had read articles like this one from the Washington Post which stated, "For months, state highway officials from 14 states have been meeting regularly via conference call to plan for — or more importantly try to head off — what could be the largest traffic jam in U.S. history, when an estimated 200 million people will be within a day’s drive of the path of the total solar eclipse Monday."  It has been a long time since we have had a total eclipse in the United States and this particular one is unique because it will cross the entire country from coast to coast. This makes it more easily accessible for more people to drive to experience it in totality.  Officials just don't know what kind of traffic to expect but I'm impressed that they have been planning for the worst.
We finally made it into Missouri!  This is a neat trip because none of us have ever been to Kansas or Missouri.  When we get home, I'm going to print off a US map for each kid and they can color in all of the states they have been to.  

We were so glad to finally arrive at our hotel.  I'm sure Stuart was especially glad since the stinker insisted on driving the whole way by himself!  We like the Drury Inn so we always seek them out when we are traveling.  This location is nice because there is a BBQ restaurant next door that we could just walk to, it is right on the interstate, and just down the street from the East Hills mall which was going to have a big eclipse watching party in their parking lot.  We planned to check it out because that is where we would like to travel to watch the eclipse on Monday because they had lots of parking, bathrooms and a food court inside the mall, and even live bands playing.

When we checked in at the front desk, Stuart mentioned that we would love to stay here through Tuesday but they were all full when we booked our room.  The receptionist checked and confirmed that they were booked but another receptionist overheard and suggested she check something else.  I couldn't quite hear what she said but sure enough they found a room for us...at the St. Joseph hotel...through Tuesday!  What an amazing blessing!  THIS is where we had hoped to stay from the beginning.  We no longer had to worry about getting up early on Monday to deal with potential gridlock traffic to St. Joseph or worry about getting to the mall before it filled up or trying to find a spot on the side of the road to watch it, finding a bathroom, finding food, etc.  We could just walk out into the parking lot of our hotel and watch the eclipse from right there!  We were very happy!

We asked around for a recommendation for a restaurant that served good local food and we ended up at the Fredrick Inn.  I love the curved windows in the building.

Since the kids have been studying US geography over the summer, I thought it would be neat for them to find some food that was local to Missouri to try.  I had looked at some restaurant menus online and had noticed that at least one of them had livers and onions on the menu.  I was surprised to see that again on the menu at The Fredrick Inn.  

I guess that is a good indication that it is a local dish.  However, I was just tired and hungry and didn't feel like an adventure and the kids weren't interested in trying liver so we all settled for steak instead.  So much for my geography lesson.

At the end of the meal, a waitress will often bring some mints with the ticket.  We were excited to see that we got Andes mints!  I loved these when I was little but haven't had them in forever.  My kids didn't even know what they were.  One of them asked why the waitress gave us pats of butter!

They both loved them mints so I guess we will have to buy them again when we get home.  We headed back to the room to make plans for what we might want to explore the next day.

Gnome Cones in Argyle (All Natural Snow Cones)

We have discovered a great place the for the perfect summer treat and a little whimsical fun!  




It's called Gnome Cones and they are located in Argyle.  It's a fun place to hang out with friends.

Not only is the decor simply adorable but these aren't your regular snow cones.  These are all natural so you don't have to worry about your kids eating artificial colors and flavors.  It's just natural goodness in a cute little gnome cup!

They have a relatively short list of flavors compared some regular snow cones shops I've visited but I love the unique choices offered (plus I hear that they have added Cherry Limeade since we were last there!).  I ordered Cherry and both of the kids ordered Sour Lemon.  You can add ice cream, coconut cream, or fresh cream for just a small fee.  We might have to do that next time!

They started making our order right away so they were passed out to us in just a matter of minutes. 

So sweet and delicious!  Gnome Cones are very refreshing on a hot summer day and I just love that they are all natural!

Nicholas pointed out that the ice is shaved so finely that it almost feels soft to the touch.  

Gnome Cones is located at 421 US 377 South in Argyle.  They are open from 11:00 am - 10:00 pm every day.  You can connect with them on the Gnome Cone website or Gnome Cones on Facebook.