Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Gulf Shores and the Shrimp Festival

 
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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



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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.

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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. 

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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.


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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.










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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!


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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.  

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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

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Janice picked cotton on the way south.

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

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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?
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‘  Tis life on the road.

9 comments:

  1. Awesome way to spend your time! Sandi looks great...and so does that yummy shrimp!

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  2. What a wonderful time you had, we did all that last year except missed the shrimp festival.
    Have been to that Lamberts, the Coleman outlet and the Naval museum a few times, love the area.

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  3. Jan and Bill were in Lamberts!

    Sandi does look great. All grown up.

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  4. Could move to the Rainbow Plantation skp park..

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  5. We have stayed in that Elks in Foley several times. Not much to look at, but the price is right. We have dropped a few bucks at that Outlet mall!

    Shrimp Festival...I would have loved this one!

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  6. How nice you could spend time with Sandi and give her some good food. Navy chow day in and day out gets old. ;c)

    Speaking of old, that picture of the Coast Guard helo in the museum, I used to fly on that model. I guess that makes me old, too!

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  7. Such an enterprising neighborhood :-) A whole festival for shrimp sounds like something we could get excited about! How nice to have an extra day to spend with Sandi - and a nice quiet day at home is always a treat.

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  8. Air Force museum in Pensacola.....we've been there too. It never ceases to amaze me that there can be such a frenzy around certain restaurants in the States.

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  9. We have also shopped at the Foley's Coleman outlet. Love the Air Force Museum

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Thanks for taking the time to comment.