Tom's Hot Dogs 2011

We're hosting at St. Andrews State Park from March 1 til sometime in the fall so we will be here all summer.....yea!

Not much new to report....had a great week with three of the grand kids here in February. Check out the pictures on Facebook. Lately, there seems to be more time for a quick facebook post. We'll get some more pictures of the park soon and put them on here.

We moved to St. Andrews State Park on Feb. 15th. We are just 'camping' here for two weeks and will begin as Campground Hosts on March 1st. Samantha and her family are here for a week, so we've been busy doing stuff with them.

Here are a few quick pictures of the campground and a couple of the sites we have been in:

Site 25. We love this site. It is very large and just across the road from the Lagoon, with great views!

This is site 101, the most popular site (along with 102) in the campground. It's directly on the water.

Looking across the lagoon from site 101.

Despite Hurricanes and Oil Spills…………

The Alabama Gulf Coast is beautiful and full of life. We certainly did our part to help with the economic recovery. Thanks to us the local shrimp industry is thriving! We’ve been here for two months and are leaving this Tuesday. We’ve already made our reservation for next fall/winter, beginning in November for 5 months but able to make up to two changes so we can arrive any time after 11/1.

We’re moving 135 miles east to our fav, Panama City Beach (or PCB!). We’ll be at St. Andrews State Park for two weeks and our daughter, Samantha, is coming down on Thursday for 10 days! Her boys are out of school for a week for winter break and her hubby, Nate, is working on the remodel of the Sam's Club in PCB…..perfect timing for a great visit. Weather is supposed to be in the 70’s! Crossing fingers for that. We have a great water front site for part of the time and look forward to just watching the boys play.

Between Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, there are so many places to eat, we just had to save a few for next time. And such good deals $$ with their BOGO’s and Sr. Specials.

Welcome sign at LuLu's, owned by Lucy Buffet, sister to Jimmy Buffet.

Aerial view of LuLu's. That's all sand, where the kids can play with all kinds of beach toys.

Waiting on the Shrimps!

We're still at Gulf State Park, enjoying the area and eating way too much. The weather has been cooler than we expected and the wind blows all the time. Today has been very nice...low 60's and calm winds.

One sunny day, we took a road trip over to Florida to see Gulf Islands National Seashore. Gorgeous beaches for mile after mile. In some areas, the sand from the dunes was plowed off the road like the pictures of the snow storms from 'up north'.

Beautiful beaches along the National Seashore

We also went as far as Big Lagoon State Park near Pensacola. It was like most other Florida state park with lots underbrush between sites in the campground, but clear overhead for satellite reception in most areas. Not much beach to speak of...mostly grasses growing out into the bay.

Observation Tower in the park

Big Lagoon State Park

We usually eat out once a week to try some of the many restaurants in the area. Most of them have specials to attract the snow birds, which is a good thing for us, too! It doesn't look like the oil spill has had any impact on the folks from up north. The campgrounds here are FULL (Gulf S.P. has 496 site with 400 monthlies and no vacancies!) and the condos on the beach look like they are doing okay as well, from the number of cars there at night. Along with our 'chain' favorites...Longhorns, Zaxby's, Chick-fil-A, IHOP, Cracker Barrel, etc...we've covered quite a few in 2 months, LOL! :-)

Some of the restaurants we've tried include:

• Tacky Jack's - our favorite.
• Original Oyster House - great shrimp and BOGO deals!
• Desoto's Seafood Kitchen - shrimp was just okay...too greasy (won't go back)
• Shrimp Basket - there are a bunch of these around. Shrimp is okay.
• Lambert's Cafe - 'Home of the throwed rolls'...very good country cooking. Huge portions! And they really do throw you the rolls!
• Flora Bama - great sunsets, great burgers, and best of all...free drinks (w/coupons!)!

Also, Wintzell's Oyster House looks very good and has a BOGO for lunch that we will try one day this week. We went to Lulu's (Lucy Buffet's place) on New Year's Eve day, but the wait was 3 hours for lunch. We haven't been back yet but maybe next week?

Gulf State Park

We're back from Georgia, after taking the grand kids home. (Left Tuesday, came back today.....quick trip!)

One of the roads in the campground.

Looking the other way.

Us set up on site #250.

Looking across the lake to one of the huge condos on the beach (under construction).

Logan and the sea gulls on the beautiful beach!

Gulf Shores, AL

Yesterday we returned to Gulf Shores after spending Christmas at my daughter’s house near Douglasville, Ga. There was a white Christmas in Atlanta for the first time in 128 years! It was beautiful to look at but I didn’t leave the house from Christmas Eve until Tuesday morning! We brought 2 of the grand kids back with us to spend the week….Kyle and Logan.

Today was sunny and windy. We went to the beach after lunch and stayed about 2 hours, then the wind picked up and the clouds covered the sun….brrrrrrrrrrrr. Hopefully, the weather will warm up a little in the next few days and the wind will calm down.



The campground here, Gulf State Park, is level and all the roads are paved so the boys can ride their bikes and new razor scooters all over. The sites are the largest we’ve seen anywhere and are concrete and level. The area where the hookups are located is also concrete and lighted. The laundry room is large and there is a camp store, activity room and very large swimming pool for summer use. Everything is new, of course, and the beach pavilion, pier and parking areas are all very nice. The State Park also has two more beach locations in the town of Orange Beach which are smaller than the 2 mile beach inside the park boundaries.
The city of Gulf Shores has a very nice, very large, public beach with 2 restaurants adjacent.

Beachcombers

I'm definitely getting some pictures of the campground tomorrow. There are 496 sites and most are full!

Merry Christmas!

Snow on the beast on Christmas Day, 2010....

Just starting and still going a few hours later!

Winter Wonderland!

Christmas Eve 2010

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

Beaches

Finally a beach day! Weather was nice with clear blue skies. Still a little windy and the high was only 60 or 61, but it felt good in the sun. We spent about 2 hours on the beach. Tomorrow is supposed to be a little warmer and more so on Tuesday.

Even though the camp ground is almost full, the condos along the beach look almost empty.
Guess the "snow-birds" are all campers! =)

There is still plenty of clean up activity on the beach. It looks like they are about finished with the major cleaning. Large equipment scoops up the sand and dumps it in a "sifter" type thing that spits out any 'tar balls'. They were way down the beach from us and it was perfectly clear all around where we were. We walked about 100 yards down the beach and saw only 2 small 'tar balls', smaller than a quarter. There were still a group of workers walking along the beach, searching for more.

Small 'tar ball' on the beach.

Gulf Shores

We arrived in Gulf Shores on Wednesday afternoon and were greeted by these ominous clouds. The sun had just gone below the edge of the cloud layer. This was beautiful, the way the front was advancing all across the horizon. I'd never seen anything quite like it.
We were able to arrive at Gulf State Park and get set up just before dark. The front had totally covered the area but it never did rain....just very windy all night.

This morning we were greeted by 61 degrees and sunshine. The picture is of the new beach pavilion, looking out our window and across the lake toward the beach.

By late morning, the clouds had returned. The Gulf looked more like the Atlantic!

Lunch was at Tacky Jack's. We shared "Mexican Garbage" to go with our beer (Sam) and Margarita (me)!

After lunch, we explored Gulf Shores and Orange Beach to locate the essentials: Walmart, Publix, Lulu's and other favorites. Tomorrow is supposed to be 70 so maybe a good day to walk the beach before the forecasted rain on Saturday & Sunday.

Good weather for a road trip

Saturday, December 11th

The sun was shinning and the temp was to be in the 60's so we decided to ride up to Fanning Springs to their annual Christmas festival. There was a craft show with the usual crafty items and a surprisingly large antique car show.

This '55 Crown Vic was my favorite. The pictures just don't show how beautiful this car was!

This '57 Bell Air was also a favorite.

And a few others we liked.

And something we've not seen before.........along with pony rides at the festival, there were elephant rides.

After the car show and a walk through the craft area, we went across the street to the state park. Fanning Springs just became a state park in 1997, so one of the youngest of Florida's parks. As usual, the springs are 72 degrees year-round and there were a few brave swimmers while we were there. The water actually felt like bath water - but the air temp was about 65.

This was one of the most scenic springs we've visited. Steps and a ramp lead down from the concession area to the springs and the large swimming area.

Across the way is a picnic pavilion and meeting room, available to rent. The water in the Suwanee River and the springs is low this time of year. From the pictures, you can tell it would be about 10' higher in spring and summer.

The water in the distance is the swift moving Suwanee River

The sign for the Suwanee River on US 19/98


River and bridge seen from the state park


The old trellis from the original bridge was saved and is a monument in the park

We didn't see any manatees but Ranger Andy Moody said there were three in the springs the night before.