Sweet Home Alabama

Saturday night as soon as we arrived

View from our patio during dinner

Heading out for the dolphin cruise; Mel claims to have seen 29 dolphins

Peaceful

Zionsville had a full week off for Fall Break 2014, so the Worzalas hit the road and visited Orange Beach/Gulf Shores, AL.  It was certainly the longest road trip we'd ever taken; but it was also the first real "Vacation" we had taken, just the four of us.  We've gone on many trips to visit people, and vacations with grandparents - but this was 9 days of just us; it was great to get away.  We had PERFECT weather; sunny, clear, and 75-80 every day.  A great dose of Vitamin D before we head into the winter!

We were blessed to stay in a sorority sister of mine, Holly's, condo while we were there.  It was a ninth-floor unit directly overlooking the beach, and dolphins could be spotted from the patio.  The condo building had an indoor pool and hot tub, an outdoor pool and kiddie pool, and then the pier down to the beach.  While we were there, we went on a dolphin cruise, played three rounds of miniature golf,  the kids discovered the evils of an arcade (attached to mini-golf), went to the Gulf Shores Zoo, spent hours at the beach, and ate lots of good food.  We checked out several restaurants; The Hang Up, Live Bait, The Gulf, Lulu's (Jimmy Buffett's sister), Moe's (BBQ).  Some of these we did as carry-out, since Joey apparently had no appetite the whole time, and it was a bigger debacle to dine in.  We stayed the night en route both on the way down and back, and that helped with the kids' attention span in the car.  The trip back was a little smoother, because they knew better what to expect.  

While Jeff says he'll never drive that far for a family vacation again, I would definitely go back to Gulf Shores - it was a beautiful area, with a lot to do!