Fourth of July – Gulf Coast

Over the 4^th of July holiday weekend, we took another one of those three generation vacations together with our son and his two children.  While my wife and I are not necessarily “beach people”, we went along to enjoy the time together.  In two previous years, we had gone together to Orange Beach, AL but this time we went to Fort Morgan, a much less touristy town.

The drive down took most of the day as there is no really easy way to get there.  We were able to take interstate from Memphis to Tupelo, MS but beyond that it was surface roads, some of which were just a two-lane road which always backs up with slow moving traffic.  And every time we have driven through Mobile, AL, there has always been bumper-to-bumper traffic reminding me somewhat of San Francisco traffic.

Our son had rented a three-bedroom condo on the 10^th floor of a high-rise building overlooking the beach and the Gulf.  We were able to get a two-bedroom condo on the same floor for my wife and me.  When I walked in to drop off our luggage, I was impressed with our unit.

Having been cooped up in the car all day with us (our son’s car was so loaded down there was no room for anyone but the driver), the kids were ready to hit the beach before eating dinner.

The next morning, I was up early to enjoy sitting on our balcony drinking coffee.

By 10 in the morning, we were down on the beach for some fun activities.  While our grandson started out building sandcastles …

… our granddaughter got busy with her favorite activity—searching for seashells.

Then it was off floating in the water.

One of the reasons our son had selected this resort to come to is they had adult and kid activities planned every day.  That evening, we took advantage of the ones scheduled at the town center.  While our daughter played this jumping game, …

… our grandson fell in love with this huge water tower.

In fact, every time we went to the town center, this is where he would want to go.

That night after dinner, our son took our granddaughter out for a nighttime swim and search for seashells.

The next day was the fourth and as I was drinking coffee on our balcony, I could see them already blocking off part of the beach and setting up the firework display for that evening.  From what all they were unloading; it looked like it was going to be quite an impressive show.  With my anticipation of what might be a great display that night, we headed off to a public beach not far away that was much less crowded.

In the afternoon, we ventured into several of the pools the complex had before getting some refreshing ice cream.

Having just been to Seattle and having fallen in love with airplanes, our grandson created a small airport on the balcony…

… after taking off from inside the condo.

In fact, almost the entire time we were there, we were constantly having to carefully step over his airport once it had moved inside the condo.

That evening, we headed back over to the town center for more fun activities.

Our granddaughter tried out the mechanical shark, a device that behaved just like those mechanical bulls from the 1980s, but this time the shark throwing you into a make-believe ocean.  There was a petting zoo as well…

… while, you guessed it, our grandson went back to the water tower.

All day long, I had been anxiously waiting for it to get dark for the fireworks.

Prior to the show, there was a live band playing great 1980s rock music beside one of the four pools at the resort and then at 9 sharp, the professional fireworks that had been set up on the beach just below us began.

Being about 100 feet off the ground and maybe 200 yards from the fireworks, we could feel the percussion from the blasts on our chests.

At the finale, my son captured a shot of my granddaughter and me illuminated by the bright flashes.

It was one of the best firework displays I have ever witnessed made all the better by having such a close-up view and when it was over, we didn’t have to fight crowds or traffic; we simply stepped off the balcony back into our condo.

On our last day there, we ventured into Gulf Shores and spent most of the day at a fun waterpark.

While we did not have to face traffic after the fireworks on the 4th, we did however pay the price on our return home on Sunday encountering horrendous holiday weekend traffic that turned what should have been about an 8.5-hour drive into an 11-hour drive.  But despite that terrible drive home, days later I could still picture images of the fireworks in my mind!