On day 6 we rented bikes! At Gulf State Park there are some amazing bike trails that we wanted to check out! Chris and I don’t have bikes, but luckily we usually travel with Logan’s because he likes to ride around the campsite. We were able to rent bikes for us and a pull-behind-cart for the little ones.
The last time I was on a bike was a year ago when we were at Palo Duro with my family. I went off road biking with my brother Spencer and managed to fall off into a patch of cacti, so I was a little bit nervous. Luckily, the trails at this park were mostly paved or a wooden board walk that goes over the marshy areas.
It was a beautiful morning for a ride!
This thing was so cool!
The spooky scary Spanish moss was a big hit with the kids. We had fun making up spooky stories!
We came across a fun little playground.
We kept riding for a while and came across the forest pavilion where we stopped for lunch.
*insert Lion King song here*
We had hoped to see one of the resident alligators on our ride, but we couldn’t find them. Maybe next time! The kids got tired and hot after a couple of hours so we went back to the trailer. I decided to use that time to go on a ride by myself. I had been meaning to fit in a little alone time and self care on our trip, so this was perfect–hooray! On my ride it started raining. I was working really hard to find gratitude and enjoy the rain. I stopped at a little shelter along the trail to get out of the rain and have some quiet, alone time in nature. Maybe work on my meditation skills? I was trying to find a bright side and not feel pissy. As I was sitting there, I started getting attacked by some kind of flying monster that was biting me and leaving huge itchy welts all over my legs. I had to leave the shelter and go back into the rain. Thanks a lot, Universe. Now I was having to ride hard on super sore legs to escape the biting monsters. I dug deep and decided to see this as the Universe telling me that I needed to be in the rain. Rain is cleansing, right? I wound up laughing hard at myself and actually enjoying the rainy ride around the park. And right about the time that I started laughing and enjoying myself… and cut out the negativity and pissiness… it stopped raining. Funny how that works!
It really was a beautiful view. This State Park is definitely going down in my favorites list!
Back at the trailer, we rested because we had planned to spend the evening at the beach.
I love when I find photos that the kids have taken. That’s me hiding in the bottom bunk reading a book for book club.
We went down to the beach right before sunset. There was hardly anyone there and it was perfect. The water had been green and full of a slimy seaweed (I think it’s called June Grass after doing some googling around), but on this evening, the water was mostly clear! The waves were also not as rough as they had been in the previous few days. This was our first time to Gulf Shores, so we weren’t sure if this is how the beach here is normally or if it was a product of all the storms that had been popping up. We were just happy to have one beach day without seaweed and rough waves!
Lorelei was still not a fan of the ocean.
We worked on getting Lorelei closer to the water.
And it worked! She sat next to the water and played with Atticus for a while. She even helped collect sea shells from the water.
My sweet big guy was so tired. He played for a while and then needed to sit out to rest. That morning bike ride really wore him out!
I love the beach so much. It really is one of my favorite places to be. The smells, the sounds of the waves crashing, the feeling of the sand. Ahhhh! I need to go back!
The little ones had a blast finding tiny clams in the sand. We found out the next day at the nature center that they are called coquinas, or bean clams.
We ended our day with the most beautiful sunset. I love how the dunes are silhouetted against the colorful sky.
