Mading family National Park Trip

Gulf Shores, AL, was a blast. We would definitely recommend Gulf Shores State Park to anyone venturing into this part of the country. The state park is huge with miles of trails, a pool, pickleball/tennis courts, nature center, lakes, dog park, and it is minutes from the beach. We stayed for 3 nights and it wasn’t long enough. We saw alligators, a large turtle, a salamander, and frogs. The kids and I went to a class about the history of pirates in the gulf area. The kids rode 6 miles on their bikes yesterday. It felt like we were riding through a rainforest and we were pleasantly surprised with how few bugs were around. We went to Orange Beach on 2 different days. The kids built sand castles and found lots of sea shells. We ate at a restaurant called “Doc’s Seafood & Steaks”, the shrimp was delish! We were all sad to leave. Today, we made it to St. Andrew’s State Park on Panama Beach in FL. Our campsite is right next to the “grand lagoon” in St. Andrew’s Bay. Unfortunately, due to rip tides there is no swimming at the beach. Tomorrow, we are hoping to go on a dolphin cruise. While we are seeing some amazing areas, life on the road is not all puppy dogs and rainbows. I think it is safe to say we are pretty sick of being in close quarters and this humidity is tough! Cheers!