Beach Vacation Day 2: Souvenir shopping, Star Wars, and sandcastles.
It was raining pretty steadily when we woke up this morning, so we decided to postpone the beach and do some souvenir shopping browsing. Our hotel is just a block down from the main drag through Gulf Shores, which puts us within walking distance of a lot of shops. After the long drive here and back, neither one of us felt like driving just for this, and the streets here are all clogged up with pedestrians, anyway, even in the rain.
Our first stop was Souvenir City, whose entrance is through the jaws of this giant shark. The inside of it was really sprawling with rooms and rooms of every souvenir and momento you could think of. Even though I've really grown to hate materialism and buying stuff in recent years, I enjoyed walking and looking. Our family made a few trips to the beach in Galveston when we were kids, and a lot of the kitschy souvenirs hadn't changed at all. We saw the same carved coconut monkey heads that Adam had, and the same shark's-tooth necklaces that Ben had. We saw the same little seashell-covered box that Sara had, and the same seashell nightlight that I had (and used for a long time). There were still big fish tanks full of hermit crabs. I had a few of those as a kid, but they never lived for long. I bought just two little things, a refrigerator magnet and a Christmas tree ornament of a seahorse wearing a Santa hat.
Rows and rows of seashells for sale inside Souvenir City - no wonder there weren't any on the beach!
From Souvenir City, we walked to another tourist store, The Purple Octopus. It was more of the same as Souvenir City, plus a concessions area. Sara bought some fudge, and I wanted to try something new, so even though they had a big jar on the counter of big, juicy-looking pickles, I bought a pizza pretzel: a giant salted pretzel topped with pizza sauce, mozzarella, and pepperoni. It wasn't so great. :/ The guy working the concessions counter was lifeless and apathetic to a concerning degree. Sara said he looked "dead inside," but I think he was high.
Sights around Gulf Shores. I wish I had counted how many "no public restrooms" signs we saw - they were everywhere!
It was still raining when we left the Purple Octopus, so we walked across the street to a Dollar General to get some groceries. had forgotten to bring contact-lens solution, and Sara has stolen my Harry Potter baseball cap (my only hat) for this trip, so I bought both of those, a frozen pizza, and more soda. After that, we walked to a little Greek resteraunt, and Sara ate a big plate of gyros while I read old magazines that the resteraunt had out and listened to the kid and dad at the next table talk about Star Wars. The kid was asking his dad true/false questions about Star Wars, and I was tempted to but in and ask, "Didn't Obi-Wan say that the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view?"
Me inside the resteraunt. Star Wars kid and his dad behind me.
Me and a turtle statue on the boardwalk along the beach.
We walked back through town and along the beach to our hotel. We changed into our swimsuits and went back down to the beach for more swimming and floating. There was a pretty big thunderstorm going on north of us, but thankfully, it never actually reached the beach. I spent a lot of time floating in my inner tube, facing inland, and watching the really incredible lightning show. I wish I'd gotten pictures of it, but I barely trusted myself bringing my camera as close to the water as I did. The SD card I'm using goes all the way back to our trip to New York!
I love the big stupid grin on my face!!!
We admired the many amazing sandcastles that other vacationers had built, but our own attempts to build one didn't go so well...
Our first stop was Souvenir City, whose entrance is through the jaws of this giant shark. The inside of it was really sprawling with rooms and rooms of every souvenir and momento you could think of. Even though I've really grown to hate materialism and buying stuff in recent years, I enjoyed walking and looking. Our family made a few trips to the beach in Galveston when we were kids, and a lot of the kitschy souvenirs hadn't changed at all. We saw the same carved coconut monkey heads that Adam had, and the same shark's-tooth necklaces that Ben had. We saw the same little seashell-covered box that Sara had, and the same seashell nightlight that I had (and used for a long time). There were still big fish tanks full of hermit crabs. I had a few of those as a kid, but they never lived for long. I bought just two little things, a refrigerator magnet and a Christmas tree ornament of a seahorse wearing a Santa hat.
Rows and rows of seashells for sale inside Souvenir City - no wonder there weren't any on the beach!
From Souvenir City, we walked to another tourist store, The Purple Octopus. It was more of the same as Souvenir City, plus a concessions area. Sara bought some fudge, and I wanted to try something new, so even though they had a big jar on the counter of big, juicy-looking pickles, I bought a pizza pretzel: a giant salted pretzel topped with pizza sauce, mozzarella, and pepperoni. It wasn't so great. :/ The guy working the concessions counter was lifeless and apathetic to a concerning degree. Sara said he looked "dead inside," but I think he was high.
Sights around Gulf Shores. I wish I had counted how many "no public restrooms" signs we saw - they were everywhere!
It was still raining when we left the Purple Octopus, so we walked across the street to a Dollar General to get some groceries. had forgotten to bring contact-lens solution, and Sara has stolen my Harry Potter baseball cap (my only hat) for this trip, so I bought both of those, a frozen pizza, and more soda. After that, we walked to a little Greek resteraunt, and Sara ate a big plate of gyros while I read old magazines that the resteraunt had out and listened to the kid and dad at the next table talk about Star Wars. The kid was asking his dad true/false questions about Star Wars, and I was tempted to but in and ask, "Didn't Obi-Wan say that the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view?"
Me inside the resteraunt. Star Wars kid and his dad behind me.
Me and a turtle statue on the boardwalk along the beach.
We walked back through town and along the beach to our hotel. We changed into our swimsuits and went back down to the beach for more swimming and floating. There was a pretty big thunderstorm going on north of us, but thankfully, it never actually reached the beach. I spent a lot of time floating in my inner tube, facing inland, and watching the really incredible lightning show. I wish I'd gotten pictures of it, but I barely trusted myself bringing my camera as close to the water as I did. The SD card I'm using goes all the way back to our trip to New York!
I love the big stupid grin on my face!!!
We admired the many amazing sandcastles that other vacationers had built, but our own attempts to build one didn't go so well...
