Dauphin Island

We had to cancel not one, not even two, but THREE beach trips last year because of Covid. Matt and I were supposed to go to Mexico in March, just the two of us, to celebrate our 15 year anniversary a little early. The McCormick trip was canceled because we were all social distancing. And my Dad also booked a beach house for the first family trip in 5 years and we decided not to go even though he, Janet, Ryan, Jen and kids did. So we definitely felt like getting our toes in the sand was long overdue! 

We drove down to Dauphin Island the day after the wedding for a 5 night trip, just the 4 of us. We had a 4 bedroom, 3 bath house with a private pool on the bay side of the island. (We did that because it was the only pet friendly place I could find and I couldn’t leave Gypsy twice in 3 weeks. ❤️)  It was still a nice place to park for a few days and the best part was we probably only saw 5 people the whole week. The first afternoon and next day were nice. It was a little windy but just enough to where we didn’t get hot. We spent those days fishing and swimming and laying out and were out all day. 

Matt even brought an aquarium and a bubbler so the girls could watch the fish they caught before throwing them back. There was a crane that had been lingering that Katie was fascinated by and it would let her get pretty close. But after it started using the aquarium as its personal grocery store, 


we allowed Gypsy to chase him and she mostly kept him away. Katie was so funny when she yelled, “I thought we were friends!” 🤣

Tuesday was a rainy day, and we only went out about an hour that morning and spent the rest of the day watching movies and reading before going to dinner that night. I thought the kids would be disappointed but they enjoyed their private rooms with a nice view. Kinda nice they are getting older and can appreciate that. Wednesday wasn’t rainy but the wind was INSANE. Matt said it was blowing 25 but if you’d asked me I’d have said at least 60, lol. You couldn’t even be out there without sand hitting you and our beach was non existent from the storm surge from the system off the coast. 

These were taken during low tide. That house isn’t supposed to be over the water! 

And I stole this one from Facebook but this was Orange Beach. 

So instead of being lazy again, we decided to check out the Estuarium and go to lunch. 

But of course we still got back in time for a nap. (I think I did that everyday too.) And the kids took advantage of the pool.

They were saying it was definitely different from a big family trip where it’s go, go, go! But they liked the easy going beach time too. That makes in more likely they’ll get to come again next time. 😉

The wind died down enough for us to enjoy it again for the last day. We were very glad we picked the bay so they could swim because there’s no way they would have been able to in the Gulf and the wind was better on that side too. We may have not gone out at all if we’d been over there.

Even Gyp was glad to not be cooped up and ran up and down the beach chasing that crane for hours. She truly looked liked a “rat dog” and really surprised us that she is also a beach dog. We thought she’d hate the sand but the only part she hated was the bath that came after. Because you know I can’t have that in my bed! The girls and I did some souvenir shopping that evening before our last night dinner of steak, mashed potatoes, bacon wrapped green beans and rolls. It was a great trip and I love the memories we made ❤️

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