Branson by the Ocean a.k.a. Gulf Shores Alabama

So today reality sets in and its back to the daily grind.  I still haven't told you about our last day at Gulf Shores, Alabama so here goes.

We left St. George Island around 11:00 a.m. on Thursday.  Next stop, Orange Beach and Gulf Shores Alabama. We drove along the coast most of the way.  Lots of swamp logging going on in this area and somewhat unfortunate to see so many closed businesses and abandoned buildings scattered along the coast line.

 It was a different story when we got into Orange Beach/Gulf Shores.  I compare it to a place we have in the southern part of Missouri called Branson.  Lots of people, lots of cars, and a bunch of tourist type attractions.  So to me Gulf Shores was Branson by the Ocean.

 It has a higher density of people and high rise accommodations than my heart desires but we have never been here and now we know.




    
The slogan for Gulf shores is "Small Town, Big Beach"  The beach was wide and where we stopped there was probably 3-4 people deep on the beach.  It was late afternoon and I'm sure the bulk of the crowd had retreated back to their hotels.  I could only imagine what the beach would look like during peak hours.  Probably a great place to people watch.  That's not a must do for me when I'm on vacation.  I'm sure many people enjoy their vacation there every year, but its just not my kind of relaxing.

What I call Branson by the Ocean

  



Gulf Shores at the Beach














We did have a good meal while in Gulf Shores.  "Louisiana Lagniappe".  Bayou Grouper melted in my mouth.  Since we were headed home the next morning I had to get my last taste of Grouper before leaving. 
 
They served hush puppies instead of bread at the table.  Nice touch!  We could have sat there and stuffed ourselves on the hush puppies alone.
 
Do you know where the term "Hush Puppies" came from?
 
The first recorded reference to the word "hush-puppy" dates to 1899.
Hushpuppies are a food with strong ties to the Southern United States, although they are available in many areas of the United States on the menus of deep fried fish restaurants. The name "hushpuppies" is often attributed to hunters, fishermen, or other cooks who would fry some basic cornmeal mixture (possibly that they had been bread-coating or battering their own food with) and feed it to their dogs to "hush the puppies" during cook-outs or fish-fries.
Other hush puppy legends purport to date the etymology of the term "hushpuppies" to the Civil War, in which soldiers are claimed to have tossed fried cornbread to quell the barks of Confederate dogs.
 
So I'm not sure if the folks at Louisiana Lagniappe were feeding us hush puppies to keep us quite but I wasn't going to share mine with the dogs!
 
 
 
 
 

 Our view during dinner at Louisiana Lagniappe



 It was nice sitting at dinner and watching the boats come in from a day at sea.  I think to really enjoy this place you probably need to charter an excursion out on the ocean.
 
Overall we put on about 3,300 miles on the odometer this year.  It was a great time.  The ocean welcomed us.  Paradise treated me to a rare find of a Lion's paw and a chance to kick back and enjoy our time together.  I'm already missing my afternoon naps under the beach umbrella with the fresh ocean air blowing in my face.

I got my copy of the Island Sun newspaper today with my cheesy picture of my shell find.  Right next to it was another picture of a couple who found a Lightning Whelk, Fighting Conch, and a cockle!!!! I don't feel so bad now. I know how hard it is to find a Cockle on Sanibel!!!!! LOL
 
I know I'm bias towards Sanibel & Captiva once paradise gets a hold on you, You'll never let go.
 
Now for a little "Shell Porn".  It's ok its rated G. 
 
 
 



 
  
We did pick up a few gifts for those that were not fortunate to be with us this year.  We found these neat little shadow boxes at Dream catcher in Sanibel. When you shine a light in the top of the box the scene comes to life.


 
 


 

 
 
 
 
 
 
PLAY GOLF, NOT THIS YEAR
 
RENT A BIKE,  NOPE
 
FLOAT IN THE GULF,  ALMOST EVERY DAY
 
SLEEP IN & STAY UP LATE, SURE DID
 
PLAY TENNIS & SHUFFLEBOARD, ARE YOU KIDDING ME
 
EAT TOO MUCH,  SOO TRUE
 
CATCH A FISH,  DOES ONE LANDING ON MY BOOGIE BOARD COUNT?
 
OR JUST DO NOTHING!  TOPS ON MY LIST
 
 
Wow, I got so much done on my stretch of lazy this year.  hope you enjoyed the blog as much as we enjoyed our time there.

Comments

Shelllady said…
I'm with you RC, Sanibel is so nice to me because it's not a 'Branson by the Ocean' That's what makes it so nice!! I always say that the Gulf Coast is like Old Florida and the East Coast is like Branson!

Gotta love the shell porn!! You guys did really well this year! and I LOVE the light boxes!!

Keep posting even though you are not at Sanibel! Your blog is such fun! I love your posts!! Thanks for sharing your trip with us!! 3300 fun miles!! Glad you and your bride made it home safely!!
June 23, 2014 at 8:31 PM
Kim@Snug Harbor said…
I agree with Shelllady - you should post more often.

That sharks eye looks like a nice one. You got some good shells. We didn't get a lot of good ones this year and probably brought home the least amount of shells we ever did.

Gulf Shores looks too crowded for my liking.
June 24, 2014 at 7:19 AM
sue in mexico mo said…
Year before last I decided we should try a different beach - that we were in a rut with our beloved Sanibel. . . We went to Savannah for a few days (great) and then to Tybee Island for a few days. It reminded me of the "strip" at Lake of the Ozarks. Sure learned our lesson! I am not even going to try any other beaches again! We leave this Sat. for two weeks on Sanibel. :)

I enjoyed your trip reports and your blog posts.
June 25, 2014 at 12:53 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Merica Road Trippin Chapter 5 "America the Beautiful"

Image
While spending our day in Glacier, the rain came in during the afternoon.  Not a lot but enough to muddy up the trails.  We had considered staying an extra day, but with the rain and the fact that there were some ongoing issues back home because of storms while we were gone. We thought we should push on towards our next stop.  We headed to Rapid City, SD.  Our target areas here would be Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial and the Badlands. Mt. Rushmore Birth, Growth, Development, Preservation   There is a secret room carved into the mountain behind one of the president's heads. The Hidden Hall of Records.  Do you know which president?  Who was known as the 5th face on Rushmore?   As we're walking up the Avenue of flags at Mt. Rushmore, people were of course taking pictures and chatting.  What I found interesting was once you reached the end of the flags and approached the main viewing spot for the monument, there was silence, almost like a sign of reverence. While I have seen ma
Read more

Sand Dollars, Starfish, Stingrays and Sandy Sanibel

Image
We're back home now and I thought I would make one last post to catch up and share some pictures from the week.  Have you ever noticed the older you get how time seems to fly by faster?  I can remember as a child summer vacations that seemed like  they went on forever.  Now a week is here and gone before you know it and a weekend goes by in the blink of an eye.  If I didn't know better I would swear the earth was turning faster.  One thing for sure when I was a kid it was a time when things were much simpler and took longer.  While technology is great, I think it will deprive some of our younger generation from some of the simpler joys in life.  Things like "kick the can" and staying out and playing all day just making sure you got home when the street lights came on. The waters have been clear and full of sea life this trip.  You can stand in the ocean chest deep and see your feet!  We were concerned about how the week was going to go because the week before we
Read more

Soccer PaPa

Image
At the end of February, my life has changed.  No more 9 to 5 for me, every day is a vacation as retirement has officially kicked in!  My blog has been mainly devoted to our experiences on some small islands in southwest Florida, Sanibel and Captiva Island. While I hope to still visit and share more experiences from this magical place, I will be sharing other trips and experiences as we continue to navigate along Life's Highway.   Before, it seemed like I only wrote about the annual trip to that special place. My intentions were to share a bit of humor and to memorialize some of our precious memories and life's lessons we learned along the way.   Most recently, I have become a Soccer PaPa.  No, I don't drive a minivan, I'm not overly vocal when sitting in the stands, and I'm not jumping up to dispute the referees calls (although I have questioned the lack of a call from time to time).  My gosh, since when has soccer become wrestling at the Chase?    Two of our six gr
Read more

Exploration beyond the beach

Image
So the theme this year is about new experiences and first for us while here on Captiva/Sanibel. Our house this year sits on the water up the channel from Blind Pass.  This is a first for us usually we are trying to get closer to the gulf but the island is narrow down by Blind Pass and it is a pretty short walk to the beach. The house is not much more than 30 foot off the water and has a dock which has led to many new discoveries for the Beach Angels.  I put together a Scavenger Hunt for the Angels this year.  They are getting older and I wanted to open their eyes to the wonderful world of nature that surrounds this island. The Scavenger hunt has about forty items.  They either need to collect or spot the items while here this week.  Lexi  and I spent quality time this evening sitting on the dock and watching nature in all its splendor.  From Rainbows, Osprey eating a fish and a alligator we got a little of everything tonight.  Best part was just sitting there sharing the time together.
Read more

Welcome to Marathon

Image
The adventure continues as we head further south, down to the keys.  Home base this week will be Marathon.  On Monday, we have a trip planned to Dry Tortuga National Park.  That is pretty much the only thing that has a time commitment to it.  We're just going to let the week play out and see what each day brings us. We drove through Fort Myers Beach on our way to an overnight stop in Bonita Springs.  I think due to the higher concentration of houses and businesses on FMB the devastation was extreme.  We stayed in a house on the south end FMB back in 2019.  Below is a picture of that house taken in March of this year.  Bottom floor blown out, and what you don't see in this picture is the whole back of the house is gone. Beach house FMB March 2023 When we drove by, all that is left is an empty lot.  Property on FMB is selling for the same dollar evaluation post hurricane Ian as it was before hurricane Ian, house or no house.  There's no doubt that the future landscape of Fort
Read more

In the Blink of an Eye

Image
It's been a rough week this week.  While I generally keep my blog on the lighter side.  My words come from my head, but my desire to write comes from my heart.  My heart this week has felt both pain and Joy some of which I'll share with you today. On Monday Nov. 20th I'm on the mends from a rough couple of days on what looks like could be a precursory strike from a future Kidney Stone.  Spent a couple of days on pain meds, telling myself I'm not going to the ER.  Carol's been battling the crud and been coughing a lot for the past week.  We get a visit from Kristine, our daughter (technically Daughter-in law) but we adopted here years ago when she moved down here from Oregon to carve out a life with our son Ryan.  In her selfless manner, she's here to deliver a spare nebulizer to her Missouri mom, who's been fighting the crud.  Why? Because that's just who she is. She didn't visit for long, and we shared a few passing comments about her not wanting to
Read more

Boogie Board Beach Angels

Image
So Sunday started off with overcast skies, a quick thank-you to the man upstairs for giving us such a beautiful place to be, and breakfast at the Lighthouse Cafe.  Best seafood omelette on Sanibel hands down. When we got back we were in "Beach Mode".  Not Marshawn Lynch "Beast Mode" but Carol lets getting moving, time to go to the Beach Mode.  Since the skies were still overcast we weren't  in full Beach Mode which means we didn't take all the usual stuff.  For those of you that have been with us you know how much of the usual stuff we take! I would have to rate this as one of the best Beach Days for the Beach Angels that I can remember.  Our spot on the beach has a nice sandbar running  just out from the shore line and it made for Boogie Board heaven for the girls today. The Beach Angels 2011 The beach angels 2017 It doesn't seem like that long ago we would have to take them up after a couple hours for an afternoon nap.  Ok, that was
Read more

Some of today's "BS"

Image
 Today we started our day with some "BS".   B reakfast & S trawberry Preserves Our usual opening parlay into a week of eating out and consuming adult beverages. No better place to start than the Lighthouse Cafe. The crowds seem a little lighter this year.  Not sure why but I know people are dealing with a lot of "BS".  Hopefully my "BS" this week will make you smile. Waitress comes to the table "Hi you all ready to order."  Me: "You kidding I been waiting a year for this" I could go on and on about my breakfast choice but you've heard that before.  Today we'll focus on something else that the Lighthouse does really well.  They make their own strawberry preserves and serve it in a little container.  Take that hot buttered toast and dip it in there.  OMG it's pure heaven. We can't leave Sanibel without taking a few of jars home every year.  It's kinda become a tradition. Lighthouse Cafe "Beach Angel Approved&q
Read more

Tuesday's addition chasing the sunrise

Image
So Tuesday we spent on the beach.  The nice thing about being right on the beach is you seem to spend much more time on it.  We have logged quite a few hours on beach time this week.  Since we only see it once a year the more time soaking up the sun and the surf the better. On Tuesday morning we got out early Carol wanted to see if she could get some pictures of the sunrise.  We are not on the best part of the island for sunrise or sunset pictures we are spoiled from spending so much time on Captiva where sunset especially, is worshiped. One beach Angel (Taylor) was up for the task the other Beach Angel (Lexi) did one of her favorite things SLEEP! When we hit the beach like a kid and a mud puddle I'm drawn to the water and automatically go into treasure hunting mode.  I looked up and Carol and Taylor are gone.  They were on a mission to find that sunrise and it was some where down the beach around the bend. A quick check of my pockets,  no cell phone check, no wa
Read more