The Beach - The End

We had a great time at the beach.  When we got home I put together a little video of our trip.  

Team Smith takes Orange Beach

Hope you enjoy it!  

More Beach

After a morning on the beach it was a bit rainy in the afternoon so we did a little shopping. 

Gulf Shores has a couple of funny tourist shops that we visited. 

Had to get our picture in the shark's mouth.  Looks like he lost a tooth or two on the family before us! 

After looking through the shop and a few of the Surf Style locations that are there, we came away official Pet Owners!!  

We bought two hermit crabs!! 

Meet Rocky

And Adrian!

Later that afternoon we took another bold step . . . 

And dropped a small fortune at the Dairy Queen.  

Several of the kids had never been there.  Jon mentioned several weeks before that he wanted to go to DQ and get that thing that you can hang upside down - The Blizzard Treat!!

When Matthew got his, the spoon was in the ice cream. 

 He squealed and tried to drink through the spoon - he thought it was a straw!! 

So good!  We all got stuffed. 

Brian and I were wishing it was August 1938 - we would have definitely stopped by.  

Grampa . . . 

You're older than the Dilly Bar!!!  

That evening after dinner we went back out to the water.

The sky was so pretty - and we saw a rainbow (hard to see but in the center of the photo).

We took a walk down the beach.

Matthew made hand

and feet prints.

Brian had the idea to pick up some glow bracelets at the store - so we brought them with us on our walk. 

Coolest family on the beach that night!! 

Beach ~ Day ?

By about now we didn't know what day it was!  Brian and I had gotten a bit too much sun the day before so we decided to take a day-trip to Florida to see what was going on there. 

We headed for the 

National Naval Aviation Museum

which was just across the border not far from where we were staying.

As we approached the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, I snapped a photo of the entrance gate.  The very stern, sun-glassed officer at the gate asked me if I had taken any photos.  I admitted to taking one and he kindly asked me to delete it.  Ha! 

However, we were able to take pictures at the museum, whew!!

We arrived just in time to board the trolley for the outside tour of aircraft. 

We had an extremely knowledgeable guide who described each of the planes and helicopters that we were seeing. 

I got to sit with these two characters. 

A sampling of some of the aircraft on site: 

Because of the Sequester, the Blue Angels have not been practicing regularly but we were lucky enough to catch them fly by on one of their rare flights.

Then we headed inside to see the museum.

 There were lots of things to see and touch. 

 And lots of ship models to look at. 

This one had a list of fun things to look for - like someone peeling potatoes and the ship canine.

 Miniature sailors.

There were also lots of cockpits to sit in.

He loves his job!

We've got enough people to run the guns!

 Brian!!

There was a small ship to climb on for the little kids.

Then we headed to the Imax theater to watch a movie.

We drove back to the beach and played a game of Clue - Beach Edition that we had purchased while there.

And, after dinner, we went back to play in the ocean for awhile.

After the nightly shower (aka OFF WITH THE SAND) Peter played his new Spidey memory game.