Wednesday night a spontaneous trip was born… less than 10 hours to the ocean? Challenge accepted!
Bright and early Saturday we finished our long trek arriving in Mobile, AL around noon. First stop… USS Alabama, a warship used during WWII which seemed quite a fitting way to kick off the patriotic weekend ahead. We were able to walk all through the ship — down to the engine rooms and up to the upper decks. The heat inside each room was excruciating, so I can’t even imagine how the sailors managed the temperature while serving (I could barely manage the two hour self guided tour!). One of the most interesting rooms held all the switches to shoot off the missiles/guns… I never knew the sailors in charge of attacking were actually hidden deep in the ship with just a room full of switches to flip to shoot… very interesting!
After getting through the ship and the grounds, we were exhausted from the sun and heat, so we checked into our hotel and went to see Finding Dory. So cute!
Sunday — The day is finally here! Ocean and Monkeys! We started at the Gulf Shores Zoo right when they opened to try to beat the crowd and quite honestly the heat. The draw of this particular attraction is the ability to have one on one interactions with some of the animals. In particular, Kevin chose the sloth encounter and I the lemur encounter. After walking through the small zoo, we stopped to see the sloths — Sid and Silvia — both were hanging out in the back room dozing which was just adorable to see. Kevin was so excited to pet and feed Silvia =)
Next stop… lemurs! And not just lemurs… baby lemurs! We unknowingly chose the entrance with the baby lemurs which turned out to be awesome, because little four month old Gonzo was so playful and fun. He hung out with us for about 10 minutes grabbing our fingers and licking them.
Onto the beach! The Gulf Shores State Park had a huge pier and a surprisingly empty, yet gorgeous beach that we decided was the right beach for us. Frisbeeing in the water, sandcastle building and picnicking entertained us for three hours or so… we are so not beach vacation people. Give us a castle and we’ll climb it for hours – give us a beach and we are bored in an hour which is why a weekend beach trip is perfect for us =)
After a few hours of the heat and sun we were once again exhausted (not sure how you all manage the heat for so long!). We headed back towards the hotel, found frozen yogurt and a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. With a couple of hours more to fill, we headed to Village Point Park Reserve where they warned us to ‘not feed the alligators’. I’m not sure about you, but if I were to see a wild alligator, the last thing I would do is try to feed it… Regardless I never wanted to see a wild alligator more in my life so we went hunting. We came up short, but I did attempt to catch a little lizard and touched it’s tail. So that’s a win. This reserve had numerous docks out into the bay and a nice little beach front which turned out to be a great place to end our spontaneous road trip.
Monday will consist of a really long drive home and likely no trip for fireworks because my maid never shows up to do laundry 🙁
