Brian & Mandy's 6 Queens-Girls just having fun...: Summer's beginning-road trip to Alabama!

We decided that this years beginning of summer family vacation would take us to a beach. North Carolina and the Atlantic or Florida and the Gulf. Well neither won out but we decided Florida was too overrated and the Salfer's would head to Alabama instead! Gulf Shores, Alabama, where the sand is white and the water Emerald green and just a tad bit cheaper than taking the girls to Mexico or Florida! We have always found a house to rent but this time we would be looking at a high rise condo right on the beach. Honestly I didn't think I would like not having privacy but surprisingly we did and we all loved it! Our condo was on the 16th floor, corner unit overlooking the Gulf with a wrap around balcony. 3 bedrooms 3 baths, plenty of room for us all to stretch our sort legs and not irritate each other too bad. We saved some money by cooking almost every meal at our condo and saving eating out to all the various ice cream shops in the area. Gulf Shores is a beautiful little place with plenty of activity for everyone. We spent 90% of our time there on the beach. The kids loved playing in the ocean, digging for shells and periwinkles, making sand creations and just chilling. Lauren traveled awesome! I was worried it would be a nighmare with her and 20+ hours of driving, but with a few stops and driving thru the night while they slept it worked out perfectly. It didn't even take Brian and I that long to recover from the little sleep we had. A couple places we checked out was a go cart race/mini golf place that we all had fun at. The go carts were the highlight and mini-golf...well we just wanted to get thru the course as fast as possible...too time consuming for little ones who don't grasp the concept or want to wait until everyone is thru before starting the next hole. We went into Mobile, AL to see the Battleship Alabama on a rainy morning. It was neat to see but got a little long for us girls...Brian probably could've spent all day there! We also drove to Pensacola FL, to knock off another state and to see the Blue Angels at the Naval Aviation museum and also get aboard a Dolphin cruise. The Blue Angels usually fly over where we were staying in Gulf Shores but the two days they do it, it was raining during that time. Not a big deal for us it was neat to see all the airplanes at the museum. The Dolphin cruise was a hit! We were able to see quite a few swimming right along side of our boat. Its so tempting to want to jump in and swim with them! On our way back to Saint Peter we stopped in St. Louis for a few hours and toured the museum at the court house and took a ride up the arch to the top. The trip home was just as good as the trip down to Alabama, and thankful we didn't have any bumps along the way. It was a fantastic trip for all of us!