Another Spring Break …
and another camping trip to the beach!!! Since we became a camping family
about four years ago we have taken a trip to the beach three out of four Spring
Breaks, and it is always a blast! This year was a little more special
because we have .... A NEW CAMPER!! Yep, that’s right. Kelly and I
have talked about it/dreamed about it for a couple of years and we finally did
it. We were tired of paying to fix Jack (our pop-up camper) but know how
much we value this family time together so decided to enter into the world of
camping with a travel trailer. And wow … we had no idea what we were
missing out on!
Luke (Carter’s name for
our new camper … thanks to Star Wars) is one awesome camper. It has bunk
beds for the kids, an actual toilet (instead of the homemade thing Kelly made),
a shower with tub, a bigger refrigerator that can actually hold our items, a
television with antenna, and storage!! I know I know … this sounds a
little more like “glamping” (glamour camping) than it does roughing it in the
pop-up, but we are determined not to let our new addition take away from the
outdoors family time we so enjoy, and more importantly value with our kids.
The fun started Sunday
evening as we prepared for our trip to Gulf State Park by loading the camper
for the next day’s journey. It is a complete difference maker to be able
to pack your clothes, the food, and all other miscellaneous items inside the
camper before departure. With a pop-up camper you just don’t have
that luxury. I actually packed my bag full of clothes, walked out to the
camper to store it under the bed, looked around, and thought to myself “I can
just put all of these clothes in the drawer!” That was a big moment for
me, and consequently for Kelly as well (especially when we connected this
benefit to putting food in the fridge … now). Eventually we had
all of the loading fun complete and Monday morning rolled around. The
kids were overly excited for another adventure and for testing out the new
camper.
The drive to Gulf State
Park is only about four hours … unless you are towing 3100 lbs and driving
through Spring Break traffic. It seems, from looking at the license
plates on other cars, that there is nothing to do in the northern states
because everyone from Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Kentucky had joined us
on I-65. Actually, if I had a chance to leave the snowstorm that was in
their area this past week, I would have done so also. We left home about
9:00, stopped at McDonald’s for 30 minutes or so, and eventually made it to the
Gulf around 3:30. One key moment occurred at lunch. We were
actually stopping to load up on gas and take a restroom break when Kelly asked
if I could open the camper to get something. As I
opened the door, she said “what if I just make our sandwiches real quick
instead of stopping for fast food?” Big, big, big, big, big moment.
We sat right there and had a brief little picnic, and it’ll be something we do
many more trips in the future.
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| Tradition of taking a picture of the weather forecast. And the kids excitement! Or not yet in Caroline's case. |
Once we arrived and
backed into our spot (no drama for the first time ever), it took about 15
minutes to set up. WOW!! It normally takes 30-45 in the pop-up, and
the only reason this took 15 was because it was the first trip. Hopefully
the future will be even faster. Set up to make sure we are good to go was
done, but Mama hadn’t gotten enough time to set up the interior the way she
likes it; therefore, Carter, Caroline, and I loaded up in the truck and drove
down to the beach pavilion for our first taste of salty air.
It was actually
pretty cool and very windy, but that didn’t stop them from having a
blast. I really wanted to stay out of the sand so we didn’t get the
little grainy stuff everywhere in our first night in the new camper, but the
kiddos had other plans. I really just looked down really quickly to take
my shoes off when I looked up and found Carter making a sand angel. So
much for keeping sand out of the camper tonight … we couldn’t even keep it out
of Carter’s hair. The three of us headed out to play a little while Kelly
continued setting up the camper. We rolled back to the site after an hour
and a half, enjoyed some nice ravioli Kelly had cooked in the microwave (yes,
we have one of those too!), and then we took a family trip to Wal-Mart.
This was a mistake because everyone was tired and at least two members of the
party thought they deserved a toy. Way too much money later (we needed
everything except the toys) we were able to leave Wal-Mart and drive back to
the camper. Luckily, everyone went to bed peacefully … and at times it
was even cute as Carter and Caroline talked to one another in their
bunks. The night itself wasn’t the best because Kelly had to get up with
the kids 2-3 times, but comparatively speaking to other first nights in the
camper, this was a dream!! By this point, I had the toilet up and running
with the new hose I purchased, so Kelly’s evening of taking kids to the potty
wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
This was the first morning on one of our trips where we woke up WITHOUT
the thought of “what the heck are we doing” and “when should we sell this
thing”.
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| First family game of Disc Golf. Kelly's the winner! |
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| Slept great in the bunks! No more swinging from the rafters at midnight! |
Tuesday morning began
with some very excited and very cute kids. Carter and Caroline were
absolutely geared for the beach. We had some muffins to get going and
then began making plans for the day. Carter, Caroline, and I went
exploring for a little bit so Kelly could get the beach stuff together and also
put the finishing touches on the camper (Ok it sounds like this is all I have
been doing- but really it’s almost a mini house and I’m particular! –Kelly).
The three of us found a nice trail, a swing set, the Nature Center, the pool
and splash pad, as well as some cool RV ideas we saw at other sites. By
the time we returned, Kelly was ready and we loaded the truck for a trip to the
beach. This trip was super successful because the kids had an absolute
blast! They built sand castles, dug holes in the sand, played in the
waves, and ran around doing things only kids love doing. It was once
again a lot of fun for Kelly and me to see them enjoying this time so
much. After about three hours of fun (and maybe some sunburn) we headed
back to the camper for dinner and bed. This night was even better as
everyone seemed to sleep well and get rested after a big day.
Wednesday morning brought
another good breakfast and then a little hang-out time. We cooked sausage and bacon and had a great
lazy morning before heading to Wal-Mart again.
After coming home and having sandwiches, we were hoping to all go to the
1:00 show at the Nature Center. However,
Caroline shocked everyone about 12:45 when she said, “I’m tired. I want
to go night-night.” This never happens, but Kelly and I agreed with her
request and sent her to the bottom bunk for a few hours. Carter and I went to the Nature Center for
the showing of different animals that are found in the Gulf States. We
learned all about gators, birds, turtles/tortoises, and even got to hold a King
Snake! It was a lot of fun for sure and something Carter would not
forget. From here, we checked in on the pool and then played about 15-20
minutes of tennis. We then went back to the camper to finish up nap times, let Kelly go for a long run, and then headed out to the Gulf State Park Pier. This was certainly a
highlight because we were able to walk out pretty far and see a good bit of the
gulf. We were also lucky enough to see two ladies cleaning some fish they
had recently caught. Carter and Caroline were mesmerized with this
process while Kelly and I were not. To close our time at the pier, we all
headed back to the lovely sand for some more play time! This go-round we
were able to run around under the pier and play some hide-n-seek and also some
chase. Carter and Caroline once again had a great time, and then we
headed back to give kids baths in our own shower! YES!!! No more loading the kids up to the bath
house!!! Hallelujah! We were all clean and ready for bed.
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| Quite a bit of fun with the sand dune! |
By the time Thursday
arrived, we were closely watching the upcoming weather event. For a few
days all of Alabama had been tracking two consecutive storms that were headed
our way. At one point Kelly and I had decided to leave Thursday morning
to avoid the heavy winds and tornado watches, but continued to monitor enough
to where we realized that wasn’t necessary. Thursday actually turned out
to be one of the prettier days, even if it was very windy.
Once again, we
made it over the the Nature Center for their 10:00 show … which this time was
Snake Encounters. We heard all about snakes … more than I ever wanted to
know … and actually got to watch a King Snake feast on some mice. Pretty
gross in my mind, but very thrilling for the kids in the room. We both could have done without them
explaining how common it is for snakes to crawl on the ceiling in the
bathhouses. Oh but don’t worry, they aren’t
the poisonous ones. Those are actually
on the ground on our level- lovely.
We
decided to then take a hike and hopefully find an alligator, but unfortunately
for us the walk down the trail was way too long.
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| This lasted approximately 45 seconds! |
It was heating up and
the kids were wearing out (frankly, so was I) so Kelly and I made an executive
decision to abandon the gator hunt and head out for a seafood lunch. We
found the Shrimp Basket in Orange Beach and enjoyed a nice meal while watching
our kids run around in the restaurant and also keeping the other eye on the
weather. I was pretty nervous about the radar because I wasn’t interested
in testing our new camper’s ability to handle wind and thunderstorms.
That evening we decided to take a trip to the outlet mall so we could get some
shopping done! It was a lot of fun as usual, even though I didn’t buy
anything.
Thursday evening Kelly
and I went to sleep thinking we would get up the next morning and take our time
leaving since the storms were not coming through until around noon. Of
course, by the time we woke that forecast had changed. I looked at the at
the radar about 7:45am and saw that there was a large rainstorm heading our way
in the next 15-20 minutes! YIKES! So, I naturally made the rest of
everyone’s day stressful by saying we have got to get out of here. Kelly
did her thing inside the camper while I did my thing to get load us up … all in
the rain. Alas, we made it out alive and drove through terrible rain most
of the way home.
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| What would a trip be like without a breathing treatment?! Poor guy... |
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| Add caption |
All in all, it was another great trip!!!
We would not trade these memories with our kids for anything!!
Rating- we put this at first with a 9.3! The Nature Center and Pool/Splash Pad bump this one up. The playgrounds were just swings but the other activities and of course beach access bring it to the top!
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| How the self-timer really goes. Caroline purposely looking the opposite direction to make Mommy mad |
