The Tourists, Sites, Sand & Sea Edition

Part 5, Days 6-9  Beachy Days

This is a VERY picture heavy post!

This trip was taken in June, I am just getting around to posting more now...

We checked out of Pensacola and headed to Perdido Key for our full beach/sand day.  The water was rough.  The "funniest" thing on this beach was the squeaky sand - DD LOVED that she could run on it and it sounded like really loud courdoroy pants.

 The heron just hung out and watched the kids play in the sand. He wasn't bothered at all!

 We enjoyed lunch at the Shrimp Basket - it was quite tasty! No frills but good food.

 We drove to Orange Beach, Alabama (yes, we'd go back...). We stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites - it was a great resort and we wish we'd spent a little more time there.

We started off with daquiris for all (virgin for the kids!)

We rented beach chairs and umbrellas for a couple of hours. It was wonderful to relax and enjoy!

 In the entertaining category for this stop....First up - These two ladies sat in the water, each with a beer and were going to do EVERYTHING in their power to keep the saltwater out of it. We were dying laughing watching them.

 Second - the WalMart parking lot. Yes....you're not seeing things - it IS a golf cart!

We ordered pizza for dinner - hubby and kids were in bed by 8. I sat out on our balcony absorbing the last of the surf I would hear on this trip. It was heavenly!

DH & I got up at sunrise and took a walk on the beach (sunburned and all...)

It was a gorgeous morning!

We had breakfast at the hotel and headed for Fort Morgan then took the Mobile Bay Ferry

We stopped at The Shed for lunch then drove on to Canton, Mississippi for the night.

Day 8: We headed north toward Tupelo via part of the Natchez Trace Parkway. I was the only one of the four of us who enjoyed this part.

We stopped in Tupelo to see the Civil War Memorial

 and Elvis' birthplace

We headed into Tennessee to Shiloh National Military Park

The funniest thing we heard was a visitor talking to a park ranger:

"It's so hot out there that I saw a dog chasing a cat. They were both walking"

He had summed up the heat very well!  WHEW!

 We headed further north for the night - Sikeston, Missouri

For those of you with weak stomaches....scroll fast!

Yes, that is armadillo roadkill. But let me tell you a story about this picture. My husband had wanted to see an armadillo SO bad. So we were driving down the road and he literally locks up tthe brakes, backs up so I can take this picture... So - I guess he got his souvenier photo!

Onto a cheerier note - food!

Day 9 - We had a quick breakfast and headed into St. Louis (YEA!!!!). We had lunch at Pappy's Smokehouse.  YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!! (if you're ever in St. L - make it a stop!)

 This is the "Big Ben" at Pappy's - it feeds all 4 of us.

We made it home by mid-afternoon and got started on:

Mount Dirty Laundry

We all had a great time!

Just the stats:

We drove 2,834 miles through 7 different states

The most expensive gas we saw was when we left home: $3.68

The cheapest gas we saw was near Canton, MS: $2.89

One of the things that surprised us most was all the pine trees in Mississippi

I mentioned this southern gentleman from our tour of Beauvoir in Biloxi

DS dubbed him "Sean Connery" because he kept flirting with all the ladies on our tour in what we can only assume was his impression of Sean Connery. It was somewhat entertaining.

Thank you all for going along on our vacation with us.

(IF you are interested in seeing the other segments, click on the 'travel' tag to the left)