Gulf Shores Alabama Trip - Part 1

 Darryl and I had the opportunity at the end of September to take a trip for our 20th Anniversary.  It's been in the works for awhile (like years actually) so the fact that we could actually leave for a week on a real vacation was a big deal . .. without the kids!  We talked about alot of the places from Maine to Colorado but ultimately our hearts are with the beach so we headed South to the Gulf! 

Day 1 - Our trip really started on Friday evening when we picked up our rental car, came home, and loaded up!  On Saturday morning we got up, got ready and hit the road.  Our plan was to stop a few hours down the road for coffee.  That was not as easy as it sounds!  We got off at an exit that had a Starbucks.  We noticed a local coffee shop so decided to try that . .. but the line was around the building!  We drove to the Starbucks and figured out why the other coffee shop was so busy . . .because it was closed HA!  So we ended up just driving across the street to Speedway and getting coffee.  It was good and that's all that matters. 

My GPS was set to "no Toll Roads" which sent us across this amazing bridge in Kentucky.  

We stopped for lunch at Skyline Chili - one of those rare treats since they aren't in the North really.  We also picked up Donuts from a shop next door but . . .they ended up not being very good.  

The rest of our trip was uneventful.  We stopped outside of Nashville at the same hotel we stayed at previously.  We had picked out a Mexican restaurant to eat at just down the road from the hotel but quickly discovered that we weren't in the best area (When we stayed there before we arrived at about 11:00 at night and left first thing the next morning and never noticed the area - just the hotel was band new and nice!).  So, we did not eat at the Mexican place and instead drove to a little nicer area and got dinner at Panda Express.  Once back at the hotel we kinda crashed - it had been a long day! 

Day 2 (Sunday) - We slept in a little before hitting in the road.  Breakfast at the hotel was awful. Once again we aimed for Starbucks.  This time we were successful and got some wonderful coffees before hitting the road. 

Finally getting into Alabama!  I don't remember where we ate lunch but I promise you it wasn't McDonald's !!  I told Darryl that I didn't want to eat at McDonald's the whole 10 days and he stuck to that the whole time!  

We stopped at this great rest area with a space ship and history markers.  We passed it last time we were driving down but actually stopped this time!  

And . .. the beach!  This is the view out our window of the condo.  It was just beautiful.  The weather was perfect. We unloaded and headed to dinner.  We knew we wanted Seafood so we stopped at a place just down the road for where we were staying.  It wasn't too busy and the food was pretty good.  In the end, it ended up being our least favorite but that doesn't mean it wasn't tasty!  Fresh fish and shrimp is always good!!  

Finally - we settled into our condo for the night looking forward to a very restful and relaxing vacation!