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We enjoyed a wonderful time at my happy place…the beach this past week! There is something so relaxing and rejunivating when you are sitting in the sand with the salty sea water spraying your face. It truly is my happy place to take a step away from our normal lives and just get away. I thought I would take this opportunity while it is fresh on my mind to recap our trip and share some of the things we did! If you are anything like me, you will research before you head out to the beach so I will share our insights!
This is the first time that it has been just me and the teenage boy going to my happy place…the beach! And although I was a little nervous, mainly because a friend said we would get bored, it was an amazing fun filled week! Don’t get me wrong, we love having friends go with us, but this was also nice because we didn’t have to worry about others wanting to do what we wanted to do or waiting for people to get ready to go to dinner! This was nice! Really nice. Since it was just the two of us I decided to split our drive to the beach into two days. I don’t know that this was necessary but we had fun along the way and it gave us a chance to see a few things we wouldn’t have if we were driving straight through in one day.
We stopped at Buccees on our way out of Texas. It is sort of one of those things that get our vacation started. Had every intention of buying an RTIC cup but they didn’t have the size/color combo that I wanted. So on the road we went.
We stopped in Monroe, LA at the Duck Commander Headquarters since we have not ever done this before! It literally is a building that says, Duck Commander.
Glad we were able to check this off our list! Speaking of lists, we played some fun car games along the way! We found a fun, find the car and license plate game on Pinterest. I was surprised it kept the teenage boys attention but it did! I highly recommend it if you are even the least bit competitive! It rally was a lot of fun and helped pass the time!
We spent the night in Vicksburg, LA at a La Quinta right off the highway. We got a great rate by using booking.com and it was very convenient to food and getting back on the highway. The hotel was a little noisy, I got to listen to the TV of the people next door all night long and then them arguing the next morning. Beside that, the beds were comfy and the hotel staff was very friendly. We had breakfast at the all American staple, Cracker Barrel which I don’t recommend. The service was beyond slow and the food was not up to par compared to our local CB.
After breakfast we went to the Vicksburg National Military Park. The teenage boy had been there before with a school trip but it was my first time! Wish we could have spent more time here but we were anxious to get on our way to my happy place…the beach!
We hit some pretty major traffic in Mobile, AL so we detoured off and made a stop at the USS Alabama! Apparently it is the Alabama Attraction of the Year! Although pricy, $14 per person, with my AAA discount, it was well worth the self guided tour of this massive battle ship! Made me think of my grandfather and great uncle who both proudly served in the Army Airforce during WWII.
Traffic was still a beating as we used AppleMaps to guide us along our way to the beach. Frustrated, we switched to GoogleMaps and found that app was a lot better at diverting you around traffic! A plus was the pleasant, “welcome to Florida” message when we crossed the state line! In preparing for our week at the beach I decided to use Walmart Grocery Pick Up service! This was by far the smartest thing I have stumbled upon! Talk about genius! We placed our order before we left TX and set a pick up time close to our checkin time for the condo. We simply called when we were about 15 minutes away and our groceries were waiting for us at the PickUp area!
When we arrived I noticed that the parking lot at Walmart was completely FULL! If I had not used this amazing service there is no telling how long it would have taken me to get our groceries! Seriously, it would have been well over an hour based on the amount of people! If you have not tried this out, I encourage you to try it out! You can receive $10 off your first order by clicking here. I even decided to go ahead and place my order for when we arrive back home so that I don’t have to shop after driving all day! Love, love, love this program! I think it will help me meal plan and save some money too!
That is as much as I will bore you with for Days 1 and 2 from our trip to my happy place…the beach! More to come so check back in soon to see all the fun things we did in Florida!