The Suburban Kelley's: Gulf Shores, Alabama

We recently spent a week in Gulf Shores, Alabama. And it was wonderful!!!! We rented a condo that was right on the beach. It was just enough space for us and we loved having the ocean as our daily view. Click here to see pics of the condo we rented.

We spent most of the time hanging out by the water. We played in the sand,

played in the water,

played horseshoes,

paddle ball,

threw the football, the frisbee...pretty much your typical beach activities.

At night, you would see lots of lights on the beach. Families would take their flashlights and walk along the shore to try to find some little crabs. We did that a couple nights and it was actually a lot of fun.

Hard to see the crab but it's at the top of the sand, between the blue and orange. You can see the legs!

We had a tent and beach blanket set a little further away from the shore in a designated spot. Closer to the shore we set up our beach chairs, umbrella, and toys. The best part was that we left everything where it was all week! Everybody left their stuff out overnight and never had any theft issues. Much better than lugging everything back and forth each day.

We ate a majority of our meals from the condo...on the balcony...listening to the waves. Craig and I made some simple meals like omelets, baked chicken wraps, etc. We did go to a couple local restaurants that were fun, family friendly, and great food.

The Hangout is just an all around cool place located on the beach. There are stages, seating areas, games, foam machine, and a gift shop located around the outside of the building. When we went for lunch, there was actually a trick dog show on one of the stages. And the food was great!!

Lulu's was AWESOME!!!! It's located on the marina and it's full of activities. They have a stage, outdoor bar, sand volleyball, huge gift shop, free popcorn and water, and a ropes course. Craig and Preston couldn't wait to get on the ropes course. They had a lot of fun on it. And our food was soooo good! I definitely recommend the jalapeno hushpuppies.

We spent part of one afternoon touring the USS Alabama battleship located in Mobile about 45 minutes away. We also checked out a submarine. The kids really enjoy learning about history and were amazed to see what our fearless military had to endure. We even came across some soldiers working on some drills on the ship.

We did some souvenir shopping at a couple of cool places.

But, of course, everyone's favorite part was the ocean. We saw boats, people parasailing, and dolphins every day. We saw sunrises and sunsets. We saw a storm roll across the ocean. I spent one morning running on the beach with such beautiful scenery. Plus, we left the balcony door to our bedroom open every night and fell asleep to the sound of the waves. Much better to hear the real thing instead of my white noise machine I use.