Everything was perfect. The sand, the kayaks, the food, the water, the jellyfish, the seashells, the dolphins, the lost phone (ok maybe not that), the seagulls, the boat, the bikes, the bridges, the running, the house, the lack of bath towels in said house (ok maybe not that either), the overpriced souvenirs, the rain, the sun, and....the DONUTS.
Don’t forget the donuts!
It all started back in November the Noonan's texted us with a crazy good deal on blow-up kayaks. We had been talking about getting some kayaks at some point but the logistics of transporting them was a challenge. We decided that blow-up kayaks was the way to go and at $100 apiece for double kayaks we really couldn't go wrong! We ended up buying 3 of them for the kids for Christmas and the Noonans also bought 3. Since our kids are little and the weight limit was a whopping 350-400lbs we figured 3 would fit our entire family.
Then a few weeks later we got another text from the Noonans showing us an Airbnb rental for $80 a night the week after Christmas in Gulf Shores (Right next to Pensacola, Florida) that would fit both of our families.
SOLD!
For only $350 a family we could stay 5 nights in Pensacola, escape the cold of Illinois, and try out our new kayaks. We decided to keep it a secret from the kids (although some of the Noonan kids knew about the kayaks because they opened the Amazon boxes. Opps!). The kids knew that we were going somewhere but they didn't know where, although Haken read into enough clues to guess that it was somewhere on the Gulf Coast. On Christmas we had the kayaks set up in the basement and the life jackets all wrapped up under the tree. They were so excited and surprised on Christmas morning. However, we didn't tell them where we were going until we were just about there.
We decided to leave a day early because the weather was going to be nicer at the beginning of the week and we wanted as many beach days as possible. We got 2 hotel rooms in Atmore, Alabama with some hotel points which got us about 2 hours closer so we could hit the beach on Monday morning.
Unfortunately, we had a tragedy happen on our way out of town. The Noonan's dropped off their puppy Cricket at a friend's house to dog-sit him while we were gone and he ran away. They searched and searched until midnight (we had already left, hoping they would find him quickly and be right behind us) and finally found him on the side of the freeway the next morning. He was hit and killed by a car. Everyone was heartbroken. They had only had him since October. It was so sad and I felt bad that we weren't there to support them. However, in some ways, it was good for us to already be on our way to Florida so they would be motivated to still go on vacation with us and have time to heal. But wow. What a hard few days it was for them.
Atmore, Alabama
We drove through the night on Saturday night and we hadn't planned to go to church the next day but we were unable to check into our hotel until the afternoon. There happened to be a little branch in Atmore that started at 9am. So, we ate breakfast at a park with food that we had packed in the cooler, put on some clothes (sweatpants for me), and drove down to the church. The branch was so excited to have a huge family walk in. We almost doubled their congregation with just our family! We sat in the back row, but of course, we were noticed. More than once we heard "We hope you are moving here!" We would have tripled their primary! It was so good to be in person and we really felt loved. They even gave us some Christmas ornaments as a gift before we left. Southern hospitality!
We spent the rest of the day in the hotel resting and recovering from our drive.
The Noonan's drove through the night, rested for a few hours, and then we were on our way to Pensacola beach (after Shad got a new chain for his bike which had broken that morning as Haken went to go for a ride.)
Pensacola Beach
It was a beautiful day. A sunny 65-70 degrees. Not quite warm enough for me to want to get into the water, but the kids didn't seem to mind as long as they had warm sweats to put on afterwards. The sand was so so soft and looked a lot like fresh white snow. Gracie was in heaven collecting sand dollars and seashells. Tenny just sat on the beach enjoying the waves rushing up onto him. Some of the kids played football on the sand and others dug in the sand digging lakes for the babies to swim in. Benny's favorite activity was attracting the birds and throwing food at them. There really is something healing about the beach and we were happy to be there. We stayed until sunset and then had pizza that night at the house. It was a perfect day.
Biking Pensacola Beach
The next morning the adults (and Haken) got up early to bike to Pensacola Beach. This is what Haken had been looking forward to the whole trip. It took about 30 minutes on our bikes to actually get out to the beach from our house, but it was worth it. We rode up and over the bridge looking for dolphins and stopping to take pictures. Then with little traffic, we could ride right down the middle of the road along the beach. It felt like we were riding with snowdrifts on either side because the sand was so white. Unfortunately, we had to stop at a barrier on our way out to Gulf Islands National Shoreline. The hurricane a few months ago really wreaked havoc on that area and it was closed. We found out later from locals that people go past the barrier all the time and we were super bummed we didn't just do it.
The best part about that ride was the donut shop that we found on our way home.
BREEZE DONUTS.
Hands down. THE absolute best donuts we have ever had and some of them were as big as your face. Soft on the inside, crispy on the outside. We almost passed on them as the sign outside said "cash only" and we only had credit cards. Another customer told us they actually do take cards.
Bless him.
Needless to say, we spent way more money than we should have on donuts during our trip. But it was absolutely worth it. Every ride included a donut (or two) and we bought another $30 worth of donuts to eat on our way home.
Deadman's Island ("Deadphone" Island)
The next day was kayaking day. We started at Wayside Park in Gulf Breeze. They had a public dock with a park for the kids to play at while the guys blew up all of the kayaks. That was quite the job but it got easier as they did each one and figured it out. All 6 kayaks were out on the water with all 15 of us inside of them. It was incredible!
Finn and Jack were on their own and handled it really well. Liam and Haken zoomed past everyone. Laney and Eliza had Ruby (who hated all of the water dripping on her from the paddles but eventually got over it.) Gracie had a baby with her and Shad. Monica and James took the other baby and I had Benny. We kayaked out to Deadman's Island. It was just a .5 mile through a private canal. A really easy paddle for our first time out.
The Island was fun to explore. It was named Deadman's island because back in the 1800's it was a quarantine space for sailors suffering from yellow fever. It used to be much bigger and have a hospital of sorts on it but it has eroded away. We walked along the shoreline. It had a lot of debris from the recent hurricanes. Haken picked up a brick for his collection (shhhh!).
It was all great until we went to leave and I realized I didn't have my phone in my lifejacket pocket anymore. I had talked to my brother, put it into my pocket, and the next thing I know it was gone. I was sure I dropped it in the water when I was getting kids in and out of the kayak but it was nowhere to be found. I was glad that I needed a new phone anyway but I was sad that I would have to replace my driver's license and credit cards. No phone for the rest of the trip...until...I checked my Facebook messages 2 days later and had a random message from someone I didn't know. They said they had found my wallet and phone on the shore of the island and they were locals there in Gulf Shores where we were staying! The phone was a goner, but the cards were still intact! People are SO GOOD, God answers prayers, and Facebook is good for something. So needless to say, I did have to get a new phone but not all new cards. Phew!
Anyway.... Tenny was in my boat on the way back and he fell asleep on the way back (too many days without a nap. Poor babies.) I just paddled around until there was enough room on the dock for me to come in. Tenny woke up and was fresh as a daisy, excited to still be on the water. He LOVED sitting on the front of the boat and "driving" it.
Destin
Wednesday was probably one of the highlights of the trip. We started the day with a great explore run with a few morning sprinkles and a rainbow.
Then we jumped in the car and drove to Destin. A few weeks prior we rented a pontoon boat in Destin as recommended by our friends the Bairds who go there often. The weather at first looked iffy but it turned out to be a perfect day! Technically we were only supposed to have 12 on the boat at a time (per coastguard rules) and not 15, but we decided to do it anyway. Logistically it would have been so hard to leave a few of us on the beach trading off the whole day. Plus, we had a lot of babies, so really they only counted as 1/2 right? I don't think I could have pried Tenny off of that boat at all anyway. He wanted to drive it the entire time.
We ate lunch on the boat, explored around for a bit, and then we went out to crab island and spend a few hours there. You can walk clear out and the water was still only up to our knees.
It was still cold, but bearable. We had "quicksand races," seeing how fast you could bury your feet.
Haken and Lima caught 7 dead jellyfish and put them in a cooler that had once been owned by "RJ" that they found on the shore.
Gracie collected seashells. It was a perfect place for pictures. The water was a clear beautiful blue.
We spent some more time exploring Destin and following dolphins. We followed one for a good 30 minutes.
He kept popping up to say hello and the kids loved it. By this time the babies were pretty exhausted from being out all day and Tenny was lulled to sleep by the boat.
I was surprised by how fast the pontoon boats went. I was glad that we packed extra warm clothes for everyone because the waves really crashed up onto the boat and got everyone wet. It was pretty chilly and some of them were miserable for a little while and then got over it or found some means of keeping themselves dry and warm.
One funny story... While the kids and I were waiting for the dads to drop off the pontoon boat rental we decided to play in the sand on the beach. Benny had to go pee so bad. We had taught him just to go in the water so he ran down to the water in this very public beach (which actually wasn't very crowded) and was going to relieve himself. I looked out onto the canal (which was actually very crowded with boats) and realized that he would be giving anyone on the water a show. Of course, just as I get down there to stop him one of those little "tiki hut" bar boats happens to go by. They saw what he was just about to and me on his heels. They all laughed as I quickly turned him around and waved as he started peeing. I shouted "sorry! I hope all of the mom's out there understand!"
After getting the kids some fast food to eat in the car (since they don't quite appreciate the good stuff yet) the adults found a great place to eat called "The Back Porch." We couldn't leave Destin without getting some seafood! We did order a crab sandwich for Haken and he gladly waited since he DOES appreciate good food. We let the kids watch a movie in the big van with their teenage babysitters and we had a quick bite by the ocean. It was a perfect day to end our day in Destin! We sat right by the window and could see the waves crashing in.
Fort Picken's
It started as a beautiful New Years' Eve ride out to Fort Pickens. We knew that there was a storm coming in that day but we were hopeful that we could fit in a bike ride before it came in. The ride was beautiful with sandbanks on either side of the road.
Fort Picken's was pretty cool too and we immediately decided we needed to bring the kids back to see it. We explored around a little bit before heading back.
Just as we were leaving it started to sprinkle. I don't mind running in the rain, I don't even mind biking in a little bit of rain but that morning we got dumped on! It was like we had taken a shower with our bikes when we were done. I've never ridden in anything like that. I could hardly keep my eyes open because the wind and rain were hitting us so hard. Luckily it was warm rain so we didn't freeze! We joked that it wouldn't be an after Christmas vacation with the Noonans if we didn't have some adventure in the rain. Last year we ran in the pouring rain in Georgia. We definitely don't let a little rain hold us back and we totally deserved the donuts on our way home that morning.
When we got back to Pensacola the rain had pretty much stopped but it looked a little hairy all the way back from Fort Picken's. In some ways, it was a lot of fun and other times I felt so vulnerable. Every time a car passed I prayed that they could see us through the rain. Haken had the ride of his life and enjoyed every minute of it. He zoomed down the road and I didn't see him until the end.
Later that day the clouds parted and we were able to go explore Fort Picken's with the kids. They had a lot of fun going into and on top of the building, checking out the huge cannons, and climbing all of the stairs.
We took our annual Noonanderson picture there.
New Years Eve
We spent the night in the Airbnb eating lots of crap and reminiscing about the last year. We watched our year in review video (which even included pictures of our trip) and hung out. We intended to play games but I think everyone was so beat from playing hard every day. It poured outside on new years eve, which was fine with us since we didn't have anywhere to go anyway. We did stay up until midnight but it was a little bit anticlimactic as the TV stations were all off from each other by a few minutes.
So long 2020!
New Years Day
New years day was pretty rainy to start out, but we knew that the clouds would be clearing up later so we planned to hit the beach one more time with the kayaks. We did a little bit of souvenir shopping and then we went on the bayside since it would be safer and easier to kayak. I kayaked the shoreline for about an hour with the twins. The kids played on the beach playground and in the sand. Liam and Haken made it their mission to catch a seagull as James had promised them that if they did he would buy them a pizza. It took a lot of crackers as bait and Liam laying in the sand but they finally caught one and I caught it on camera. The poor bird, he was scared to death.
We stayed until sunset and enjoyed our last night there. It was a perfect way to end our perfect beach vacation.
After the kids were all settled the adults went on a date to "The Frisky Dolphin" in Pensacola. I tried oysters for the first time and they were pretty good. But anything that was baked with that much cheese and bacon can't be all that bad. Shad got his crab legs too! We were lucky because that night they had a huge fireworks show just across the street and we had a view from our table! I bet the fireworks got delayed because of the rain on New Years Eve. It was a pretty incredible show!
Bridge Bike ride and Donuts
We had to fit one more bike ride in before we left. We debated on going back to Pensacola and riding past the barricades to the Gulf shores national shoreline but decided to go on a 2-mile bridge called the Pensacola Bay Bridge instead. We probably should have taken the barricades route. The bridge was a lot busier than we had anticipated and it was still dark with only a small shoulder to ride on. Being the naive bike rider that I am I felt totally fine, but everyone else was nervous the whole 2 miles. It was a little better on the way back but I think our favorite part of the ride was the marshlands we rode out to. I'm just glad we all came out ok from that ride.
Before checking out of our Airbnb we had to introduce the kids to the Breeze donuts we had all week on our rides. Three big boxes of donuts did the trick with a few leftovers. They were SO good. I could not stop eating them and the kids all agreed!
Ride home
We had planned on stopping on the way home to see some black history sites in Birmingham, AL but by the time we got there, it was getting dark. We stopped really quick at a park that had some black history statues to let the kids stretch but didn't stay long. One lady that we ran into couldn't believe that we had this many kids and had to take a picture with all of them. We really are a freak show everywhere we go apparently!
It was a pretty rainy drive home and when we hit Illinois it switched over to snow. We came home to a beautiful winter wonderland with a few inches of snow. I am glad that we got to have a little getaway and escape the midwest winter. We would love to go back to the Gulf again. There was so much more we could have done but it was a pretty perfect vacation and the kids were troopers. Even the babies who missed their naps almost every day.
The good news is that we have sand in every crevice of our van still to help us always remember the fun times we had in the Gulf.
