What we Ate in Orange Beach

I usually have a goal when I go to the beach to eat as much fresh seafood as I can possibly get my hands on...it's just makes sense dontcha think? With the plethora of amazing restaurants in and around the Orange Beach/Gulf Shores area, it's not hard to find something really delicious. The weather may have been lacking this past weekend, but the food certainly did not. We ate like kings! There was so much delicious food to talk about it, I decided to give the food from this past weekend it's very own post. To make things simple, we'll go in chronological order....

Friday Lunch - Wolf Bay Lodge

I was determinded to just take one trip...I think it's safe to say I beat the salad bar.

Eric and I took off mid morning so we were starving by the time we made it down to OB. Knowing that my BIL and SIL had dinner planned, but that it was several hours away still, we stopped in at one of Eric's favorite spots, the Wolf Bay Lodge. It has quite the history and has been in operation in Baldwin County for over 40 years. For as long as I've known Eric, he has raved about their Gumbo. Any time we go to the beach we have to at least stop to get a quart to take home. They also have a fantastic salad bar. It has your typical lettuce and fixins, but it also has pre-made salads: pasta salad, macaroni salad, artichoke salad, potato salad, tuna salad, broccoli salad. The pre-made salad bar is as big as the lettuce/fixin salad bar, and it has deviled eggs!

Friday Dinner 

My BIL and SIL cooked a fantastic shrimp dinner at the cottage on Friday as everyone came into town. We had Sauteed Shrimp and Gouda Grits, plus fried shrimp and green beans. It was absolutely delicious!

Saturday Brunch - Brick and Spoon 

Since it was so rainy on Saturday, we took our time getting up and going so it was 10AM before we made our way to Brick and Spoon for brunch. I've noticed this place from the road on the way to their house a dozen times and have always wanted to try it, but we've never made our way there until this past weekend. I was quite stoked about the Mimosas and the Bloody Marys so the food was just a bonus in my book. All I have to say is that I have to go back again because there were at least 3 things on the menu I really wanted to try. I ended up going with the Grown Up Grilled Cheese. It was smoked gouda cheese, monterrey jack cheese, fried egg, pecan smoked bacon, spring mix, and tomato (I left this off) on sourdough bread. The sandwich was paired with garlic truffle fries that basically melted in your mouth. It narrowly won over Breakfast Tacos made with a fried wonton shell, chorizo scrambled eggs, and mango salsa; and Crab Cake Benny - crab cakes, bacon braised spinach, poached eggs, and hollandaise...the decision was v-e-r-y tough. Eric went with the Shrimp and Grits and said they were good, but not as good as the ones he had in Key West like always. To which I said...order something else if no other shrimp and grits will ever compare!

Saturday Dinner - FloraBama

My mouth is watering just thinking about this burger

We were stuffed after brunch so we ended up eating a late dinner at the same place we spent the majoirty of our Sadtuday evening listening to music. I knew they had an extensive bar menu, but I did not realize they had a restaurant-ish set up as well....think bar food. I had a burger and it was one of the most delicious burgers I'd ever had....and not just because I'd already ordered a Bushwhacker. The meat was fantastic, but that bun....it was like a burger-sized Hawaiian Roll. I love all things Hawaiian Roll, so I was in heaven. Eric ordered the Oyster Sampler and ended up with 3 different oyster varieties that he said were delicious, too.

Sunday Morning - Hazel's Seafood Restaurant

Eric and I were up before everyone else on Sunday so we got dressed and headed over to another one of his favorite childhood beach restaurants, Hazel's. It's been there for 30 years and even has plaques on certain booths for the regulars. They have a fantastic and well-stocked breakfast buffet in the mornings, and we took full advantage of it.

Sunday Lupper - The Gulf

I mentioned this restaurant yesterday, but it honestly is one of my favorites...it's a fantastic combination of atmosphere and good seafood that's tough to beat. The restaurant part is made out of shipping containers and all of the seating is picnic tables, couches, and lawn furniture in the sand and a few places of sod. It's pet friendly, and super kid friendly...play in the sand and eat at the same time what?!?  It has two walk-up bars to get something to drink, and two different places to order food: one has seafood plates and sandwiches du jour, and the other is a taco bar and oyster station. I've done the plate and sandwich dujour route before and it's delicious, but the line can get a little long and then you have to wait for them to bring your food. If you have time to stay and relax, go for it because it's totally worth it. But if you're short on time like we were on Sunday, opt for the taco bar. THey had shrimp, mahi mahi, brisket, and chicken, plus some absolutely delicious toppings. I did shrimp tacos with pico, cheese, guac, cilantro lime sauce, pickled onions, cilantro, cabbage, and sauteed peppers and onions, and Eric got a mahi mahi bowl and a dozen oysters. Everything was super fresh and so full of flavor!

Needless to say, we left that afternoon in quite the food coma, but oh so satsified! It's a good thing we have an extra hour of daylight in the afternoons now because yours truly will need that extra sunlight for a few pavement sessions this week to work all of that weekend deliciousness.

Weekend Recap: Beach Anyone?

Hello Gulf ....it's me....I've missed you!

Earlier last week I was looking forward to a relaxing weekend at home. With all of the dance competitions in March and April I was pretty stoked to have some time to just chill.  But for anyone who knows Eric and I, you know that we have very little chill to our weekends. A weekend at home still usually means cooking out at least one night with friends. So despite the fact I was looking forward to doing very little last weekend, I was stoked when he told me on Wednesday that his brother and his wife had invited us down to the beach for the weekend so the boys could try to get a tuna trip in. Because I am living breathing human being I said heck yes I'm in for the beach and spend ing some time with my BIL, SIL, and nephew! We hadn't seen them since Christmas and I was starting to go through withdrawals.  I took a Personal Day on Friday and we were on our way by lunchtime!

What is it about those waves that is just sooooo relaxing?

Much to the boys' dismay, it started raining around 1pm Friday and didn't stop until late Saturday night, so we had to get a bit creative with our day on Saturday. The boys headed to Bass Pro and the girls + nephew passed some time at The Wharf doing a little retail therapy. We ended our Saturday with a little live music at the FloraBama which is always fun! The weather did a complete 180 on Sunday and we woke up to the prettiest blue skies I've seen in a while. The guys headed out to do a little in-shore fishing while we headed to the beach. We ended up staying at their beach cottage with two other couples so we had a private beach access about 200 yards from the house....it was fantastic!

Some of the cottages in the development

Their cottage and our home sweet home for the weekend

We vegged on the beach for a few hours among all of the springbreakers, and got a big old slap-you-in-the-face reality check when a nearby springbreaker asked if their music was bothering us. There's nothing like being reminded that you are no longer the "young/cool kids" at the beach by a 20 year old just trying to be polite. We told them it wasn't bothering us at all because we are all so old we're deaf  they had a speaker hooked up to a phone playing a fantastic variety of 80s and 90s music that we enjoyed immensely. I guess the stroller and one small beer cooler gave us away..surely it wasn't our pasty white complexions that screamed I work all day long so I never get to spend random weekdays basking in the sun on a chic college green. Surely not.

We don't look that old, do we?

Because the weather was so nice and we really really REALLY didn't want to go home, we headed over to The Gulfhttps://www.facebook.com/thegulfal for lunch. It is probably one of my favorite restaurants in Orange Beach and one of the only restaurants on the beach there. It's made completely out of shipping containers and all of seating is on picnic tables and lounge chairs and outdoor couches in the sand...and the food is fantastic! I highly recommend it. We hit the road around 3pm and made it back home just after dark...because it doesn't get dark until 7pm now!!!!!

At the Gulf...with the most precious little family enjoying the day!

The best part? I don't have to blame my post-weekend fatigue on the beach....I get to use Daylight Savings as my excuse! I've made it up and out of the house 2 days in a row and had my little booty in bed early every night but I just know that it's going to sneak up on me in a day or so. Bring on the coffee!

Weekend Recap: Inspire Dance Competition

To say that I woke up with my little booty dragging on Monday is a total and complete understatement. I really really really REALLY wanted to roll over and go back to sleep as the sound of my alarm clock assaulted my ears at 5:30 this morning. The reason for my exhaustion, despite the 2 hour nap I accidentally took Sunday afternoon, was a fantastic jam packed weekend doing something I absolutely love to do! SO what the heck was it?!?!

My excitement level on Saturday morning...post coffee of course =)

...and for the record I was parked in the Walmart parking lot when I snapped this!

I spent the majority of my weekend living the dance competition life with our wonderfully talented dance team at our first competition of 2016 and boy was it a fun one! The dancing started at 9AM Saturday morning and it was an hour away from the house so I was on the road early to get there on time. We spent the morning watching our youngest dance teammers rock their very first competition.

The girls totally blew us away and were rewarded for their performances. Our Mini Trio not only scored high enough to earn Platinum Elite recognition, they also won a Judges Award for Most Entertaining Act of the morning, invitations to a Summer Dance Intensive in New York, and got 1st Overall for Petite Recreational Duo/Trios. Our Junior Trio also did exceptionally well, receiving a Platinum ranking score, and 1st Overall for Junior Recreational Duos/Trios. We rounded off the morning with one of our JR dancers receiving Platinum and 4th Overall for her solo. To say we were proud of all of them is an understatement.

Our girls with their awards and the minis on stage!

Thankfully the schedule worked out so that we had a break between the morning and evening sessions and all the girls, plus their families packed up and headed for some lunch because the girls had worked up quite an appetite! After lunch it was back to competition, but this time for the older girls, our "Veterans" if you will. They turned in two stellar routines in jazz and tap that earned Platinum/3rd Overall and Platinum Elite/2nd Overall, respectively, and our tap number won a Judges' Award for Showmanship. We left the auditorium that night exhausted but very excited!

Thankfully we'd decided to stay overnight at a hotel instead of heading home since we had to be back and ready to dance at 8AM the following morning. We rounded out the weekend with 4 fantastic solos and our tap trio earning all Platinum and Platinum Elites, along with Teen Recreational Solo 4th and 5th place Overall Awards; Senior Recreational Solo 2nd and 4th place Overall Awards; Teen Recreational Duo/Trio 2nd Place Overall, Judges' Technique, Personality; and Best of Broadway Awards; another round of invitations to the NYC Summer Dance Intensive; and a Hollywood Summer Tour Scholarship.

So yeah it wasn't a bad 24 hours for us! It was a great way to kick off our season and I can't wait to continue what we started in a couple of weeks at the next one!

I got home Sunday around noon and did everything in my power to do as little as possible. The boys got a couple of walks, groceries were bought for the week, and an accidental 2 hour nap was indulged in. I didn't even realize I was that tired until sat down to watch Saturday night's SNL episode and woke up to a fishing show at 5pm. Whoops! I'm pretty sure I would have been useless at doing anything else so it worked for me, and isn't that the point of Sundays anyway?

These two certainly agree!

Weekend Recap: Cookouts, Fish, and Roses

Yes it really was that beautiful here this weekend. 

Shorts and flip flops were worn and I was a happy girl!

I'm not going to just come out and say that 2016 is flying by so far but um, Hello March, where did you come from? I mean I'm glad to see you and everything but geez that was fast! We haven't even been that busy yet this year....I just looked at my calendar and I think I have maybe 2 unplanned weekends in the next 2 months, but they're all chock full of fun stuff so I can't wait!!!

What is it about this time of year that makes me feel like I have to have something to do with my weekends? Oh yeah, that's right....this time of year is also prime fishing season for Eric. The time of year that makes his little heart go pitter-patter in anticipation of a big ole crappy biting the other end of his fishing rod, and the time of year I get photo after photo that looks like this:

He doesn't get much sleep this time of year but he's happy as a clam and we eat some really delicious fish!

Since it was so pretty around here I had one mission this weekend: stay outside as much as humanly possible. I am proud to report: Mission Accomplished. We cooked out Friday and Saturday nights with friends, stuffing ourselves silly and spending the evening around a fire because it did get a little chilly at night. I didn't even care that my hair smelled like a campfire all weekend. It was nothing a little dry shampoo and BBW spray couldn't fix.

I'm so excited that Friday night cookouts are about to really get started again! We kicked off the season with some ginormous shrimp kabobs. I found these puppies malamutes at Costco (where else?!) and they were fantastic!

My big project for Sunday was the beginning of flower garden prep. Eric cut back all of the shrubs and bushes and mowed the yard on Friday, which besides making the yard look fantastic made my dead gardens stand out like a sore thumb. I spent the better part of Sunday weeding and pruning, but most importantly pulling up a giant unruly rose bush that has been a literal thorn in my side since we moved in. It was pretty the first couple of years, but since I know nothing about rose care, it started to get quite gangly. Then it started getting spots and then parts of it started randomly dying, so by the time I went to remove it this year the branches were occupying a nearly 6'x8' space beside the house. I felt like Price Phillip trying to cut through the roses bushes to get to Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty. Ok so it wasn't quite that bad, but it was a bit treacherous, and that &#($ bush made sure to get a couple of last pricks in as I pulled it out. But I won the battle and the rose bush is no more. I was going to immediately replace it with another rose bush Eric's Grandma gave me for my birthday, but I think I am going to just let that space breathe for a little while. I fertilized and tilled the dirt and left it empty for now.

Clockwise from top left: 1)Before;  2) After;  3) I'm not saying that the roots were well established but Peanut fit inside the hole that was left when I dug it up; 4) The last battle scars I will ever get from that bush.

The pups weren't complaining about the copious amount of time they got to spend outside either. They got to play and run and sniff to their little puppy hearts' content....so much so that they crashed Sunday night...they slept right through the Oscars....just like their Daddy. I was the only one dumb enough to stay up for the entire show, but I was NOT missing out on Leonardo DiCaprio receiving his Oscar.....no way no how.  Lucky for me yesterday was Leap Day so I am going to blame that and not the late ending Oscars for turning me into a zombie yesterday. =)

 If you need me I'll be daydreaming about relaxing outside in a hammock all afternoon as I gaze out my window.