Trip to Alamaba..Part 2--Secion A.

Okay, so first things first...I totally lied.

I thought I'd be able to put my *vacation* portion of this trip into one post, and I was completely wrong.

New plan of action: I'll be posing day 1, day 2, and then day three (New Orleans)!

So, to pick up where we left off...It's Tuesday morning. My Aunt has just picked me up from a 14 hour flight. I've had *roughly* an hour of sleep. Basically I've been up since 7AM Monday morning. I'm extremely tired, but so excited at the same time. It's a weird feeling.

I landed in Pensacola, Florida which is an hour outside of where my Aunt used to live. We took the long way home so I could check stuff out! During which I contemplated taking a couple of hours to catch up on some beauty sleep (turns out after you fly for 14 hours, you need a little bit of that). It was a raging battle in my head, I was exhausted, but as soon as I reminded myself where I was, and how little time I had, there was no way I could lay down and take a nap!

Our first stop was at a place called "Flora-Bama". It's smack dab on the border of Florida and Alabama.

We bought some scratch lottery tickets, and won a dollar. Bought another one, won another dollar. Bought another one, won another dollar. Rinse and repeat about 6 times, seriously. Then finally, on our last one..we won 10 dollars! Sweet, got our 10 back, and bailed.

*Bailed* to inside of the bar.

It was on our first stop that I saw one of the coolest things on this trip. It's a freakin' Lobster getter, claw machine!!! You know the claw machines where you spend 15 dollars trying to win a 35 cent stuffed animal? Yeah..it was one of those, except for your prize was a lobster. A lobster!! Seriously?! Hello, how awesome is that?! It's really a shame that (it wasn't the season/right day/perfect time) all of the lobsters were sleeping in the corner, and I wasn't able to catch one!

The picture below is in the parking lot of Flora-Bama. You can see the Welcome to Alabama sign, and in the picture to the left, you can sort of see our rental van.

Oh, and in case you don't happen to notice...you can see the *beautiful* bright blue skies. Man, it's so hard for me to look at these pictures. I thought I'd get a vacation fix and be good for awhile, but no. It was more like a vacation tease, and I'm ready to go back..right now. Please.

The inside of Flora-Bama sort of reminded me of Coyote Ugly in Vegas, and the only reason I say that is because of the bras hanging from the ceiling! It looks like there have been some hoppin times in this place. I can't wait to go back and see what it's like on a weekend in the summertime!!

Prepare yourself for my beach ramble..

Lately, everything I hear about the beach is mostly talk. Meaning, it's been a really, really long time since I've actually been to the beach to experience it myself. So, naturally, I thought it was *so* overrated.

People would say they could spend hours on the beach, I think..."ugh..doing what? Boring."

Then they'd say they'd go to the beach any day of the week, and that they missed the beach. I mostly just let it go in one ear and out the other. No big deal, it's just water, and some sand.

And then...we walked out the back doors of Flora-Bama, and there she was.

Lookin' all sexy and stuff. The water was so beautiful, and the white sand was soooo soft. I instantly took my shoes off, and ran to the water.

I know you're thinking "It's the middle of winter, she's crazy!"

You are right. But I didn't care. I. absolutely. loved. the. beach. And yes, I could have stayed there for a lifetime and never got sick of it.

The water was freezing, but I still stood in it until my Aunt was halfway up to the car. (the skies are so deceiving!! It was cold the whole time I was there!--of course they were having a cold front. The one time I vacation there!)

I was blown away by the sand. It was so, so, so soft, and beautiful!! In fact, I brought some home...and out of all of my luggage, it was the sand that I was constantly protecting!

I love the beach. I miss the beach. I want to go back to the beach. It's so not overrated, it's basically the greatest thing, ever.

The drive through Gulf Shores, Alabama was so pretty!! I *never ever ever ever* pictured Alabama to look the way that it did. It's more like Florida, really. I pictured it to look sort of HIC-y. I pictured people missing their front left tooth, and saying thing like "Welcome to Aleh-*beyam* ah" while they were chewing on a piece of cornstalk.

Apparently I was slightly wrong.

If you're like me, you're facsinated by the landscape.

If you're like me, you've never seen houses on stilts before.

If you're like me, you're pretty sheltered, and you thought the white stuff in the picture above was snow.

Apparently it's white sand. But it looks *just* like snow! Crazy!

If you can look at these pictures, and not want to go on a vacation, there might be something wrong.

If you've been reading my blog for awhile..you know that I love (have an obsession) with palm trees. To me, they scream vacation. I don't live in an area where I see them on a daily basis, so when I do get to see them, I like to take excessive photos. They are so pretty!!

This next picture is my absolute favorite!!! How dreamy and catalog like does this place look?!?!

It's called LuLu's. This is where we ate on our way to the house on the first day. I loved every second of this place. It was absolutely adorable, plus the beach sand had somehow made its way to this place. More on that later. I totally played in the sand.

We got some grub at Lulu's, played in the sand, ate the most magificent Key Lime Pie I ever have and will eat, choked down the hottest pepperoncini's We ever have and will ever eat, and then it was on to Fairhope!

Fairhope is a small town in "low-uh" Alabama. It reminds me of Oakley mixed with Sugarhouse. Two small towns that I've lived in. It's really pretty, and *full* of trees. It's green all over, and there's water within a mile almost everywhere. The people there are super friendly, and it's true...in the South, everyone calls everyone "Sugar, Honey, Babe, Dear" They also say ya'll like no one's business. Even the man at the fast food restaurant said "Is there anything else I can get for ya'll?" I got a kick out of it, every time!

My Aunt took me to the Fairhope Pier before going and seeing where she lived, and I decided that I really, really, really wanted to go back there and take pictures of the sunset on the water.

I also decided that since we were so close to the water, I wanted to fish that night. I was soooo anxious to fish in Alabama. I wanted to catch a fish that I'd never seen before, and I also wanted to catch a monster. Not asking for much. More on fishing later, though.

The sunset did not disappoint! I wish I would have showered a little quicker, though!! We should have been there about 5 minutes sooner, but we caught the end of it. It was perfect.

Next (yes, this is still my first night) we went to a local bar, and I had a couple glasses of wine. We hung out with some friends, and met with some of the family. I had to catch one more picture of the sunset as we were walking up to the bar (which just happened to be walking distance from the water) because I couldn't get over it. I couldn't believe I was in such a beautiful place, and I was so excited to explore the next day!!

Before calling it a night (which if you look in the picture below, you will see that I lasted until a little after 9PM) we went to a Sports Bar a few minutes away from my Aunt's house, and ate *All you can eat crab for 19.99.*

Let me say that one more time...

*All. You. Can. Eat. Crab.*

Let me show you a picture..

Okay, that still doesn't do it justice, but I feel a little better. I cannot even put into words how yummy the crab was. I can tell you that the rest of the trip (and even once I got back into SLC) I was hinting at doing the "crab deal" for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Because, I could definitely do that.

We got home and hung out with the fam (Sandra, Marge, Carol, and Randy) for a little bit, which by the way I loved, Marge's house was so homey, and Carol/Randy live accross the street so they were there most of the time. It was so nice to relax and visit them in their hometown. It was great to hear stories, and then meet the people in those stories. We talked about old times, and plans for tomorrow!

Then, it was finally time for bed. At that point, it wasn't a matter of *wanting* to go to bed. It was a matter of not being able to stand up anymore--eyes shutting by themselves--turning down fishing--*needing* to go to bed.

Tomorrow we had a big day planned!!