Day 1 of our Gulf Shores, Alabama Family Vacation

Our trip to Gulf Shores started bright and early Saturday morning, August 3rd. We got up and got on the road at around 7:30 a.m. My parent's met us at our house to get the car packed up the night before, so all we had to do that morning was shower and pack a few more essentials. As you can see, our trunk was very full! We also had 2 sets of golf clubs tied onto the roof rack of our Equinox. ( I should have probably taken a picture of that too, but didn't.)

Once all packed, we were on our way. It was about a 12 hour drive through the states of Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and then Alabama.

It rained a majority of the morning. We planned to stop in Memphis for lunch. I had never been to Memphis, so it was fun to at least stop and see it, even if it was only for a very short time. We first drove by Beale Street, to get a glimpse of it...

and then we stopped off at the Memphis City Visitor's Center for a potty break and to stretch our legs.

We let Jackson run out some energy inside...

... and outside. He had so much fun splashing in the rain puddles.

He also enjoyed checking out the Hernando de Soto Bridge.

While we were there, we got a few family pictures with the bridge and then headed out of town a little ways to find somewhere to stop for lunch.

Once out of Memphis a little ways, we stopped at Memphis BBQ Company for lunch. It was right across the state line into Mississippi. It was really good!

photo

After lunch, we drove and drove and drove, only making a few stops to go to the bathroom and stretch our legs. Jackson did fabulous in the car. He took a nap a little while after lunch and was pretty happy in the car considering the long drive. When he would start to get too crabby, we would stop and let him run around for a little while and that always helped him get in a much better mood.

We arrived at our condo/resort at around 9:15 that evening. We stopped by the little restaurant/grocery store on the resort and ordered a couple pizzas for dinner. We ate out on the patio and listened to the waves coming in on the beach. It was too dark to see the ocean at that point, but it was nice hearing it and smelling it in the air. After dinner, we headed up to the condo to check it out, get unpacked and settled in.


(I'll start Day Two's post with pictures of the condo. I waited til the next day to take any pictures because we were just so tired that first night.)


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