01/05/2012
Christmas/New Years Vacation 2011/2012 Summer House A105 Orange Beach
We arrived at Pensacola airport after a short 4 hour trip from Milwaukee WI. We flew Air Tran for the first time and were pleased at how easy the connections where (no long walks through the airport). Our connecting flight in Atlanta was only 3 gates away. Although we arrived at 10:30 PM the energy level was high. The boys were surprised to see PALM TREES! They thought palm trees were only in Florida (not Alabama). I reminded them that Orange Beach is only 5 minutes from Florida.
We had 1 goal for this trip (ok, more than one)... but the biggest one was to swim everyday and go to the beach every day. At Summer House, the ground floor unit made it extremely easy to accomplish that goal. Just walk out the glass slider and you are at the pool and beach. The wide beach sand is nothing like I have seen before. No rocks, no stinky seaweed, no yucky debris...just pure sugar white sand, Very WIDE too. Plenty of room to run play football and of course make sand castles. The sand is much different than Wisconsin, it has the consistency of sugar. My 9 year old immediately took the wake boarding challenge (yep, it's December, didn't stop him).
My 6 year old set out for a mission to collect seashells. He made me a very creative shell necklace and was proud of his discoveries. December 29th, Andrew swam in the outdoor pool. It does take some guts to swim outdoors this time of year but he couldn't resist the "cool pool!". Every day we did some kind of activity on the beach including "come back ball"...my little guy was so amazed his ball always came back to shore no matter how far he threw it. The beach is a great place to fly kites (which we did multiple times). Paddle ball, football, wave jumping, fishing, and 'bugging' are fun on the beach too. Bugging is when you take a long tube and plunge it into the sand in hopes to find fishing bait (like shrimp). We found that upper 60's and low 70's is perfect weather and plan to vacation around this time in the future. No sunscreen mess, no sunburn worries, no hot and stickiness - overall more comfortable.
OK. Here comes the fishing story. On day 2 we ventured down the road 2 miles to the Perdido Pass FREE fishing area, a place where many locals like to fish, right off shore. The moon and the stars were aligned just perfect. Andrew struggled to control the fish while his father held him securely behind the safety rail. Grandpa (ran) for the net and Andrew hung on as the fish almost won the battle. The contest ended as the 25 inch Red Fish succumbed to the efforts of son, father and “pappy.” A few minutes later, Justin hauled in a 19 inch JUMBO Sheepshead.
The thrilling day ended as we caught another Sheepshead which we ate for dinner that night. The flavor was outstanding (fried it in a pan with a local secret batter). The local fisherman could not believe our good luck. We decided to mount the other two trophies. Our bait was live shrimp. It's funny that the fish eat the exact same shrimp that we do (expensive appetites!).
We waited for the weather to get raining or chilly but that never happened...regardless we still wanted to head out to "The Wharf" to see what that is all about. Immediately Justin spotted "LASOR TAG" and Andrew saw the extra large Ferris wheel. I'm not too crazy about guns but I was talked into playing laser tag, Bazooka Ball, and Mission Impossible. It was a blast and good exercise too. We all left with beet red faces and wet shirts.
Other things we did besides our daily beach and swimming is we went to "The Track" and "Adventure Island". The Track is in Gulf Shores and has go carts for all ages (drivable ones). Justin was tall enough for the main track and Andrew drove his own cart on the rookie track. Because the prices were reasonable, we made two trips to The Track. Adventure Island is in Orange Beach and less than a mile from our beautiful Summer House condo. This indoor arcade is jammed packed with everything you can imagine. The simulated roller coaster was a hit. Outdoors the boys got drenched on the bumper boats. We also made cotton candy...mechanical machine.
FOOD!!! Our favorite restaurant is "Tacky Jacks" in Orange Beach. The restaurant is on a pier overlooking the bay waters. There is an observation deck above the eating area with outdoor and indoor seating. The fish tacos are outstanding. We also enjoyed The Hangout, Rafters, Franco’s Italian Restaurant, Hazels, Pancake house, Waffle House, and Yogurt Plus.
On our last day we took the boys to the Florida/Alabama border and had a snack at "FloraBama". This nightclub is on the beach and we saw the most beautiful sunset. We ate their famous fish bites and had $1 refillable sodas. It was fun running back and forth saying "I'm in Florida.....now I'm in Alabama"...
It was a great Christmas/New Years vacation for the Johnson Family.
