Gulf Shores and the Shrimp Festival

 

We picked Sandi up Sunday morning and instead of spending the day in Florida, we decided to head towards Alabama.   There were several things we thought about doing.  

First we wanted to drive by the Elks in Foley.  We know some folks heading this way so thought we’d post a picture of the Foley Elks since we’ve already posted several of the camping facilities at the one in Pensacola.

Foley Elks

Next was the Coleman Outlet in Foley.  We were looking for a new ice chest so what better place to stop?    This was Columbus Day weekend.  Which meant there would be a big sale going on  and we hoped to score big.  There were a lot of things we would have liked but we don’t have a lot of room for extras.

Next stop was the ever so popular Foley's Outlet Center.  Our goal was mainly to walk it. Very little shopping was done during that walk because most of the stores didn’t open until 11 AM. 

We were just killing time before we headed towards Lambert’s Restaurant – The restaurant of the throwed rolls.  However, once we arrived we discovered that just about everyone else in Foley was waiting for a table too.  The wait was an hour long and none of us wanted to wait an hour.  Instead, we headed towards Gulf Shores and their Annual Shrimp Festival which was just a few miles down the road.

We could tell we were getting close to the festival just by the traffic.  It was bumper to bumper.  Local homeowners were standing on the corner with signs advertising parking at their houses.  The cost? $10.

Having passed on lunch at Lamberts, food was one of the first things we wanted.  There were dozens of food carts and most seemed to offer some type of shrimp.  My choice was coconut shrimp and Sandi wanted to try paella!  We were able to get our food and sit down with a Gulf view.  Nice!

With the food gone, all we had left to do was spend time visiting with the Shrimp Festival vendors.  Just about everything was for sale.  Sandi found a few little things she wanted but other than that, we enjoyed looking more than spending.  Before long we were zonked and it was time to head back across the Alabama border and into Florida.  Sunday was history.

Monday was a Federal holiday.  I’m sure not many of you knew that.  Federal employees had the day off as did Sandi.  However, we decided it would be nice to have a day of doing nothing.  Monday was designated as that day.  We picked up Sandi at the “normal” place and brought her over to the Elks.  

We read books, watched movies, ate dinner and then waited for the Hyders to arrive.  The last time Sandi was with the Hyders was in Texas during her spring break in 2014 as she traveled along the Texas coast with us.  At that time she coerced Jerry into riding some pretty “exciting” rides at the local fair.  Some of those rides, Jerry still hasn’t forgotten. They were even beyond his scope of enjoyment but a fun time it was for sure.  Time was spent reminiscing before Sandi needed to be returned to base.

Yep, that’s Sandi and Jerry way up there during Spring Break 2014

Janice picked cotton on the way south.

Tuesday we made another visit to the NAS Naval Air Museum.  This time we visited building number two.  It is definitely an amazing museum.

We have no idea what’s in the plans for this week.  The Elks in Pensacola is hosting the State President’s dinner on Saturday.  It’ll be interesting to see if the RV area fills up.  So far, it hasn’t.  However, the mowers have been out getting it ready for the event.  They started mowing this morning at 6:00 AM.  In addition several volunteers have been helping clean up.  If I wasn't already awake and out of bed, I certainly would have been after the mowing and yelling but why so early?

 

‘  Tis life on the road.