Exploring Gulf Shores

Evening Scene at Gulf Shores State Park

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

We were up, ate a quick breakfast and headed out in search for an internet site. We found a Coffee Shop and set up for an hour or so of catching up. Ben needed to get Sprinter tags updated and reserve a hotel room for our return trip. We will stay in Birmingham on Friday night and eat Sukiyaki - we found it at an upscale Japanese restaurant on the way down. Ben has been wanting Sukiyaki for close to a year and most Japanese restaurants do not have it on their menus. Anyway – Jane caught up on Farmville and checked a couple other things.

We left the internet café and headed to the outlet mall in Foley – about 10 miles. Ben had given Jane a rocking chair to replace our old fold up chairs for camping – and he wants one like it. We saw some at the Mullet Festival and the folks who owned them said they came from the Coleman Outlet in Foley. We drove all around the outlet mall and did not find Coleman. Jane however wanted to look around in Coldwater Creek so since there was a Tool/Hardware outlet close-by; Ben went there. BIG mistake on Jane’s part! She looked for the appointed 20 minutes and headed back to the Sprinter. Ben had two huge boxes … he had bought a chain saw AND a leaf blower! Said he had been thinking about buying one or the other this fall and for the great prices here he got both for less than he had anticipated spending for one at Home Depot. While there were several nice things at Coldwater Creek; nothing that just cried out for purchase…so, Jane didn’t buy anything. Ben always says he is not a shopper – he is a buyer. Well he proved that today – chain saw, leaf blower, and when we got to Coleman – his new chair! My time will come…..

After his buying Ben said he was exhausted. We headed to the Bon Secour National Wildlife Preserve. We ate a nice lunch at a picnic table and drove on a couple roads. It was too hot for hiking and not much wildlife was out midday, so we headed back to camp and spent a couple hours reading and figuring out where to put the chain saw and leaf blower!! When you travel/camp in a 20 foot Sprinter everything has a place and there are not many places to store extra things!

Ben unpacks his purchases

Laundry room at Gulf Shores State Park

We had a nice bike ride over to the activity area and took a few photos. The photo of the laundry room may not look exciting but this was as large as any laundromat you would see anywhere - and for campgrounds this is unusual. They did not have any shirts Jane liked to purchase for herself or Daniel, so we will hope the Naval Aviation Museum has something great.

Dinner was at the Original Oyster House – fair oysters, good flounder and shrimp and very good mahi-mahi. Thanks David for the recommendation. The evening was quiet with NCIS, other TV and photo processing and blog writing. Hopefully we will head out to the beach for a short time tomorrow before we head to Florida.

Bayside near some of the campsites