Orange Beach, Alabama – Part 2

Spread the love

Today I have even more photos for you… as in around 78 or so. I’m sorry. Alabama was so awesome and it was totally worth the trip. I’d recommend it to anyone for a relaxing time. If you haven’t read Orange Beach Part 1, I would. I’ll try not to let this post drag on, but we’ll see what happens. I’m sorry if it does. And if nothing else, enjoy the photos!!

When hubby was in Mobile the few weeks before, they informed him that this is one of the wettest cities in the country. It gets moisture off the Gulf, etc. I’m pretty sure it rained almost every day we were down here. Never for very long and really only enough to make it humid.

Waking up every morning to the sound of thunder was beautiful. It was also fun to see the storms move across the sky. We were greeted with a rainbow Monday morning. It was beautiful. And of course, you know pictures don’t do rainbows justice, unfortunately. It always takes tweaking in photoshop to get those vibrant rainbows caught on film (or digital…).

The other fun thing to watch was all of the boats zooming out of the rainstorms. Case in point here. Every morning.

The Southern Grind

The Wharf
4751 Main Dr #116
Orange Beach, AL

When we decided that we were going on vacation to Orange Beach Alabama, I went on the hunt for blogs. I’d heard about Gulf Shores but not as much about Orange Beach. From what I gathered, Gulf Shores seems to be more the hang out town while Orange Beach is more the water sports town.

One of the blogs I found suggested The Southern Grind for coffee, breakfast, lunch, dinner, desserts, and coffee. I love a good coffee shop. It was even more exciting that it was a local establishment. There are multiple locations. The one they suggested was the other location. This particular one happened to be at The Wharf. We were also told to check The Wharf. Early in the morning, not much was open at The Wharf. But breakfast and coffee were what we were after.

Thoughts. This was THE. BEST. Mocha Frappuccino. It was a little pricy, but I really wanted to have one of these every day from this place. We didn’t though. This was our only trip here while in Orange Beach because like I mentioned, It was a bit pricy. Very good though.

This was Biscuits and Gravy. (Normally 2) One buttermilk biscuit and country pepper gravy.

This is the Jalapeño Potato Scramble. 3 eggs scrambled with cheddar cheese, jalapeños, and seasoned potatoes, mixed with bacon, with a side of toast and salsa.

Belgian Waffle with Fresh Strawberries and cream. Served with powdered sugar and raspberry drizzle and a side of bacon.

The Ocean

I swear the views from our balcony were amazing. 

Hubby wasn’t always for taking Abug down to the ocean every day, but if daddy wouldn’t, mommy would. Abug and mommy LOVE the ocean. The worst part was coming back up hand having sand everywhere. No matter how much you washed off with the sand shower, you still had sand in places you weren’t sure you wanted them. The little didn’t care one bit. I need to be freer like her!!

And just like that, an afternoon storm blew through. As you can see in the above picture just to the right of the photo it coming in. We got soaked. Oh wait, we were already soaked… but we really needed to go in and dry off and grab lunch.

My little unicorn.

The Gulf

27500 Perdido Beach Blvd
Orange Beach, AL 

The Gulf was one of those restaurants we read we should visit. It was interesting. They had one place to order one cuisine, then a bar, then another side to order different cuisine. It was Tacos on one side and sandwiches on the other. We went to the sandwich side.

Once we ordered, it was time to find a seat. We looked hard to find one out of the sun. So your choices were all picnic tables. Then there were some with umbrellas while others didn’t have umbrellas. You could hear storms all around us, yet the sun was hot right where we were. It was so interesting.

And the views. I can’t even begin to tell you about the gorgeous views. 

The little has gained my love of photography. I gave her the Nikon I have that is water/shockproof because she shouldn’t be able to hurt it. If anyone could, it would have been me. I love that camera, but I use others so it was sitting around. Perfect for her.

Nothing like good ol’ Southern Sweet Tea.

I went with a bacon cheeseburger. Can’t go wrong there. I wasn’t extremely hungry, but I wanted something yet. I love a good bacon cheeseburger and this one didn’t disappoint.

We got a side of fries for everyone to share. Again, we weren’t really hungry.

I much preferred the Hummus with Pita Chips. This is really funny because hummus is made with chickpeas and I’m not huge on stuff like that. I sure do like hummus though and this was good. And those pita chips!

Big Mike’s Steakhouse

25638 Canal Rd
Orange Beach, AL

Of all the cuisines in the area, I almost laughed when hubby said he wanted steak. He’s a huge fish person and all that fresh fish… and he wanted steak. Later he fessed up saying he knew I wasn’t as keen on seafood and so he thought he’d find something more my speed. haha! For the record, I don’t complain and usually find something everywhere we go.

That butter was so dang yummy!

Chophouse Steak. Our hand-pattied, house-ground, Certified Angus Beef steak trimmings, seasoned & grilled. Served with choice of gravy, caramelized onions & sauteed mushrooms and a Baked Potato with just butter.

Ribeye cooked rare. The marbling in our 16oz. Certified Angus Beef Ribeye makes this our most flavorful steak with a twice-baked potato casserole. There was a note on the menu that said, “We do not recommend or guarantee steaks cooked past medium.”

Chicken tenders and french fries.

Chuck Wagon Cheese Fries. Crispy, golden hand-cut French fries topped with ground Angus beef con queso, green onion, bacon crumbles & Ranch dressing.
Add jalapeños.

And to finish dinner off, some Häagen Dazs Ice Cream. Are you starting to see a trend… we might like ice cream…

I still haven’t gotten a sunset picture at this point.

Next Day

The next morning this was the sight off to our right.

Off to our left.

And off in front. Why did it matter? Because we were going Parasailing of course.

Starbucks

Palm Point Shopping Plaza
25773 Perdido Beach Blvd
Orange Beach, AL

We watched the weather and looked up the weather forecast. We were pretty sure we’d be okay. We even called the place we were going parasailing at. Then hubby and I quickly loaded up in the truck and ran down the road to grab breakfast while my MIL and Abug got up and got dressed.

I know Starbucks really isn’t a huge deal since they are everywhere… but here’s the thing… We have a couple here in fact, but we tend to save getting a Starbucks for vacation and or special occasions. So that means, we typically don’t get them, or at least not very often.

Like I mentioned before, I love a good Mocha Frappuccino.

 

And their Lemon Poundcake… have you ever tried it? It’s amazing… that is if you like lemon…

Parasail Sky Surfer

27200 Perdido Beach Blvd
Orange Beach, AL

We made one more phone call to them before we headed out. They had asked us to just in case they had to call the day. Told us if they had to call it, they would schedule us another day or else reimburse us. On our last phone call, they said they were still planning on heading out. They’d been watching the radar.

We weren’t really sure where we were going. Turns out it wasn’t all that far from our hotel. Mile maybe at most. It was a little weird to get to because you felt like you were almost driving into the tullys once you got in the parking lot area for all the different things located right there.

Then once we parked, we got to walk down this long walkway surrounded by marsh on each side. I’m really curious to know how deep it was, but it couldn’t be that deep because, at the end of the dock, it said no diving. Diving as in jumping in, not Scuba diving… just so we’re clear.

We sat and waited for a long time. At first, we were the only group to show up and we were afraid still they wouldn’t go out. We weren’t really sure what to expect. 

At first, my MIL said she wasn’t doing this. She was just going to be a boat passenger. We were like, well either you have to do it, or else Abug will go twice. By the way, she’d never done it either so we weren’t sure what to expect with the little’s reaction.

I’m pretty sure my MIL had fun and was glad she did it. Will she do it again… well, that’s a good question that I’m not sure I know the answer to, although I think it might be a no… We’ll see.

On the other hand, the little had a blast. Because we were racing a storm that was blowing in, they didn’t dunk us like the previous ones that hubby and I have been on. Probably a good thing because I’m not sure the little would have liked that too well. But she had a blast and has asked multiple times to do it again.

Fun photo props. They did an SD card that you paid for all the photos taken. It was one price for one group, a little more for 2, etc. Since we had 2 groups go up, we paid for the 2 :). 

As we were coming in, we were trying to be a storm. It didn’t happen. We all got soaked. Did it matter? Not one bit! It felt wonderful. We went back to the hotel, got dried off and headed out for some grub.

Tacky Jacks

27206 Safe Harbor Dr
Orange Beach, AL

On the blogpost I mentioned above, I saw we needed to visit Tacky Jacks. Now I think they went to the one in Gulf Shores while we went to Orange Beach. As I said, the cities are right there by each other, you basically drive out of one into the other… but we stayed to the Orange Beach location.

Hubby got the Seafood Gumbo. I can tell you I wasn’t really in the mood to try it, so I didn’t.

Gator Bites. ½ Pound of Gator Tails! Deep-Fried or Blackened. We went Deep-Fried.

I conned the little into trying them. She told me they were chicken and I just didn’t correct her. Bad mommy… But she tried it. She’s at that picky age and gosh it’s about to do me in. She wasn’t a fan, but she tried them!

Shrimp PoBoy with French Fries.

Chicken Wrap. Shrimp or Chicken. Deep-Fried, Tossed in your choice of Buffalo Sauce or Firecracker Sauce, Rolled in a Flour Tortilla with Ranch, Lettuce, Tomato & Cheese, Served with Fries & Chips.

And Chicken Strips with Chips. I’ll give you 2 guesses as to whose plate this was, but you’ll probably only need one.

After lunch

It was time to hit the sand. We came on vacation to relax, yes, but why sleep in a hotel room when you could sleep or play in the sand. We rented 2 lounge chairs with an umbrella for the week. We had a set dollar amount for each day and the more days, the cheaper the days became. It was nice to have, although only hubby and my MIL used them. I left my towel and shoes there and off to the water I went. There were some serious sandcastles to be built. Or maybe holes dug in the sand… writing in the sand possibly. Or just burying myself in it. It didn’t matter. 

There’s something so relaxing about sand and saltwater.

Later in the afternoon after we were all sunned out, it was time to head back to the room. I was one of the last ones to get showered. When I came out, I saw hubby doing this. The way the air whipped around the hotel, it took the bubbles all the way down to the pool. We had people looking everywhere for the bubbles. Best $5 bubble machine I ever bought. Abug wasn’t as happy about sharing her bubble machine with daddy. Daddy, on the other hand, had a blast with it.

Ole Franco’s Italian Restaurant

25241 Perdido Beach Blvd
Orange Beach, AL

Earlier in the day when we went for breakfast, I saw this Italian restaurant. I love Italian. Pasta is my kryptonite… almost. So I asked if we could go there. At first, I was a little worried about our service, but it got better as the night progressed.

This was an interesting bread, but very good.

Beach Hair, don’t care.

The Salad had an Italian vinegarette. It was really good. The most interesting part though is the cheese almost seemed like feta.

Tenderloin Piccata. Tender pork carefully breaded and pan sautéed with white wine, fresh lemon, parsley, and capers.

This was a special. It was pork medallions served with mashed potatoes and asparagus.

Hubby and I are also a sucker for Tiramisu. Ladyfingers dipped in espresso and layered with mascarpone cream.

The little got ice cream with chocolate sauce. She was happy.

2 thoughts on “Orange Beach, Alabama – Part 2

  1. Looks like an amazing vacation!! All your food pics always make me so hungry lol. Those chuck wagon cheese fries… YUMM!!!!

    I wrote a big long comment on your post from a few days ago and then it failed to post. 🙁 I was too lazy to go back and write it again, but I’m out here reading!! Just wanted to let you know! 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *