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| Lily could not believe this was the potty!! |
Our Family
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Our Family Vacation to Dauphin Island: Historic Fort Gaines
I knew that the children, especially my oldest three, would enjoy visiting Historic Fort Gaines while we were on Dauphin Island. The fort's construction began in 1821 and is most known for the Battle of Mobile Bay and the phrase, "Damn the Torpedoes- Full Speed Ahead!" If you are interested in reading more about the fort's history click here. We went to the fort on a Wednesday because on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturdays there is a blacksmith there doing demonstrations and I thought that would be very interesting. What I didn't know, was that we also (in addition to a self guided tour of the fort) would also get to see (and hear) a demonstration of the fire arms and cannons that were used during that time period. Admission to the fort was $4 for 5-12 and $6 for 13 and up. We got there at 10 and it took a little over 2 hours to to go through the whole thing and see the gun, cannon, and blacksmith demonstrations. Honestly, it would have taken us longer to go through if it wasn't so hot and the baby wasn't getting cranky. We had to park the stroller and carry her because it was too hard to get it in and out of places. I also did not think to sunscreen and bug spray the children which I should have since most of it is outside. The gift shop and museum is indoors and air conditioned.
Monday, June 4, 2012
Our Family Vacation to Dauphin Island: The Estuarium
From the website " The
Estuarium is an exciting
educational facility highlighting the four key habitats of
coastal Alabama: the Mobile Tensaw River Delta, Mobile
Bay, the Barrier Islands and the Northern Gulf of
Mexico. It includes the 10,000 square foot Exhibit Hall and Living Marsh Boardwalk. This facility is a showcase
of the plants, animals, and other natural resources found in the
Estuary and its surrounding marine habitats.
Through beautiful visual exhibits and engaging interactive exhibits, the Estuarium will leave you with a broader understanding of the interactions that take place in Mobile Bay, the fourth largest estuary system in the United States. "
I had heard about the Estuarium from some friends that had been to Dauphin Island and it sounded like something my children would really enjoy. I thought the admission prices were very reasonable. Children under 5 were free, 5-18 were $6, and adults were $10. It was open from 9:00 am until 6:00 pm, and your admission was good for all day. We got there at 9:00 am and it took just under 2 hours to get through the entire place, including the outdoor boardwalk. There were plenty of sea creatures to see and two tables set up where the children could look and touch skeletons, shells, sting rays, and crabs. I thought the tank with the sea horses were really cool! One of the workers told me that many adults come through there amazed that sea horses are actually real and not just something out of fairy tales. It was a great two hours and we had a wonderful time! They enjoyed it so much that we went back at 4:00 and went through again since our admission was good for the whole day.
One thing to note (which is unfortunate) is that the Estuarium like many other facilities of its kind, comes from a completely evolutionary perspective. All of the signs around the building talk of millions of years. The lady who was showing the children sting rays and letting them hold and feed them told them that sting rays have been around for over 400 million years. The children just looked at me and shook their heads.
When we went back in the afternoon, the interactive tables did not have anyone working, so several of the most interesting (and fragile) items were put away, and you could not handle the sting rays or crabs. Christian was so cute because he there were a couple of fish he really, really wanted me to take pictures of that he thought I missed the first time. We got some decent pictures even though it is hard to convince fish to stand still.
Through beautiful visual exhibits and engaging interactive exhibits, the Estuarium will leave you with a broader understanding of the interactions that take place in Mobile Bay, the fourth largest estuary system in the United States. "
I had heard about the Estuarium from some friends that had been to Dauphin Island and it sounded like something my children would really enjoy. I thought the admission prices were very reasonable. Children under 5 were free, 5-18 were $6, and adults were $10. It was open from 9:00 am until 6:00 pm, and your admission was good for all day. We got there at 9:00 am and it took just under 2 hours to get through the entire place, including the outdoor boardwalk. There were plenty of sea creatures to see and two tables set up where the children could look and touch skeletons, shells, sting rays, and crabs. I thought the tank with the sea horses were really cool! One of the workers told me that many adults come through there amazed that sea horses are actually real and not just something out of fairy tales. It was a great two hours and we had a wonderful time! They enjoyed it so much that we went back at 4:00 and went through again since our admission was good for the whole day.
One thing to note (which is unfortunate) is that the Estuarium like many other facilities of its kind, comes from a completely evolutionary perspective. All of the signs around the building talk of millions of years. The lady who was showing the children sting rays and letting them hold and feed them told them that sting rays have been around for over 400 million years. The children just looked at me and shook their heads.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Our Family Vacation to Dauphin Island: The Beach
Beach houses on Dauphin Island are a lot less expensive than in the surrounding areas (gulf shores, Fort Morgan.) That was one of the main reasons we chose Dauphin Island for our vacation. The other big reason though was the desire to get away from everything. We didn't want to take a vacation that we felt like we had to run and do a million different things. We didn't want to have to fight through crowds of people. We didn't want to spend hours everyday in the car tying to get a few blocks down the road. We wanted a nice, relaxing family vacation. We wanted to spend time with our children and enjoy our every minute of our time together. We wanted to sit on the beach for hours, swim, find seashells, and build sand castles. The beach at Dauphin Island exceeded my expectations for all of these things. Our beach house was on the Mississippi Sound with the gulf a short walk across the street. Being on the Sound was perfect for us because the water is shallow and there are not huge waves. It was a short stroll out the back door and down to the beach. We took our chairs, umbrellas, and sand toys down in the mornings and brought them up at night. We were the only people out on the beach for miles! There were houses on both sides of us, but the two houses on our right were empty and the people in the two houses closest to us on our left went out every morning in their boats and kayaks and were never even on the beach with us. We swam, and played, and built sand castles for hours every day! The children caught hermit crabs (which by the way provided quite a bit of entertainment) every day and let them go every night. We watched birds catching fish and sailboats going by. It was the most beautiful, peaceful time at the beach we have ever had, and we have been to different beaches (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Texas) many times.
We took a walk one night and decided to see what the beach was like on the gulf side. It was much deeper and the waves were rougher. The older children really liked it, but the little ones (and mom) liked the calmer waters much better.
We didn't spend all of our time on the beach. We did explore the island including the Estuarium and Historic Fort Gaines ( I wrote separate posts on those two places.) We had to put Emelia down for naps in the afternoon and even Lily fell asleep several times. The older children watched movies, did puzzles, played board games, and read books in the afternoons and at night before bed.
Tomorrow's blog post will be about our visit to the Estuarium.
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| Alex is holding a shark head that washed up on the beach |
We took a walk one night and decided to see what the beach was like on the gulf side. It was much deeper and the waves were rougher. The older children really liked it, but the little ones (and mom) liked the calmer waters much better.
We didn't spend all of our time on the beach. We did explore the island including the Estuarium and Historic Fort Gaines ( I wrote separate posts on those two places.) We had to put Emelia down for naps in the afternoon and even Lily fell asleep several times. The older children watched movies, did puzzles, played board games, and read books in the afternoons and at night before bed.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Our Family Vacation to Dauphin Island: Arriving at the Beach House
A few months ago, I received a very unusual text from my husband. It was unusual because it was just not like him at all (not that I am complaining!) His text said something like this, "We need a salt water vacation this year. Can you make it happen?" My answer was a very loud "YES" and I quickly finished up some schoolwork with the children and began doing research. After asking a couple of friends and searching the internet for a few hours, I found the perfect beach house for us on Dauphin Island and booked it by the end of the day. The children started the countdown and we began finalizing our game plan on when to leave and how far to drive, where to eat, and where to spend the night.
Finally the week we were supposed to leave arrived. You might imagine it is a lot of work packing for 9 people, cleaning the house, and preparing various dogs, chickens, and a rabbit to be ok while we were gone for a week. Art took a half day of work on Friday and while he was at work in the morning, the children and I finished up some last minute things and prepared lunch. We headed out by 11:00 and we were on vacation!
The drive went fairly well the first day. We decided we would drive halfway and had made hotel reservations at the Hampton Inn in Clinton MS. Our family is too large for one room, so I of course had to book two. The rooms had a king size bed along with a fold out couch. I though that Lily and Chelsea could have the couch in my room, and Christian, Emelia, and I would have the bed. Then Art and Anthony could have the bed in the 2nd room and Nick and Alex the couch. Well Christian (5) did not want to sleep with "the girls" and really wanted to be in the boys room, so he squeezed in with Art and Anthony. The hotel was very nice. It was clean and the staff was very friendly and helpful. It had a nice outdoor pool and a good continental breakfast. I thought it was reasonably priced (around $80 per room.) As soon as we checked in, I got online and ordered pizza from Pizza Hut and it was to the room in less than 30 minutes. We had a good night sleep and were loaded up and ready to go by 9:30 the next morning.
The drive the second day was a little harder. There was a lot more traffic and very few places to stop. We had to drive all the way to Mobile before we could stop for lunch, and by then Emelia was getting very, very cranky. I was never so glad to see a McDonald's in my life! We were only about 40 minutes from the island and there was a Walmart behind the McDonalds, so we picked up all of our groceries for the week and had a good long break from the van. The girls fell asleep as soon as we started driving and before long we were at the rental place picking up the keys to our house!
We rented a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house right on the beach facing the sound. I chose this house because it was a perfect fit for us with one bedroom having 2 sets of bunkbeds for the boys, a king size bed in the 2nd room for Chelsea and Lily to share, and a king size bed in the master for Art, Emmie, and I and it was on the beach! The description said that the waters on this side of the island were calmer and more shallow which is perfect for families with small children. In case you are wondering, we rented from Dauphin Island Real Estate. We were thrilled with the house! We unpacked and headed out to our own private beach!
My next post will be about the beach!
Finally the week we were supposed to leave arrived. You might imagine it is a lot of work packing for 9 people, cleaning the house, and preparing various dogs, chickens, and a rabbit to be ok while we were gone for a week. Art took a half day of work on Friday and while he was at work in the morning, the children and I finished up some last minute things and prepared lunch. We headed out by 11:00 and we were on vacation!
The drive went fairly well the first day. We decided we would drive halfway and had made hotel reservations at the Hampton Inn in Clinton MS. Our family is too large for one room, so I of course had to book two. The rooms had a king size bed along with a fold out couch. I though that Lily and Chelsea could have the couch in my room, and Christian, Emelia, and I would have the bed. Then Art and Anthony could have the bed in the 2nd room and Nick and Alex the couch. Well Christian (5) did not want to sleep with "the girls" and really wanted to be in the boys room, so he squeezed in with Art and Anthony. The hotel was very nice. It was clean and the staff was very friendly and helpful. It had a nice outdoor pool and a good continental breakfast. I thought it was reasonably priced (around $80 per room.) As soon as we checked in, I got online and ordered pizza from Pizza Hut and it was to the room in less than 30 minutes. We had a good night sleep and were loaded up and ready to go by 9:30 the next morning.
The drive the second day was a little harder. There was a lot more traffic and very few places to stop. We had to drive all the way to Mobile before we could stop for lunch, and by then Emelia was getting very, very cranky. I was never so glad to see a McDonald's in my life! We were only about 40 minutes from the island and there was a Walmart behind the McDonalds, so we picked up all of our groceries for the week and had a good long break from the van. The girls fell asleep as soon as we started driving and before long we were at the rental place picking up the keys to our house!
We rented a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house right on the beach facing the sound. I chose this house because it was a perfect fit for us with one bedroom having 2 sets of bunkbeds for the boys, a king size bed in the 2nd room for Chelsea and Lily to share, and a king size bed in the master for Art, Emmie, and I and it was on the beach! The description said that the waters on this side of the island were calmer and more shallow which is perfect for families with small children. In case you are wondering, we rented from Dauphin Island Real Estate. We were thrilled with the house! We unpacked and headed out to our own private beach!
My next post will be about the beach!
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