Building Barksdale: Vacation Recap

We are back from vacation and boy did we have a good time. I've been playing catch up all week trying to get my house in order after being gone for so long. On our vacation, we headed down to Orange Beach, Alabama. My in laws were kind enough to let us stay in their condo for a week. Huge money saver that we appreciate more than you can imagine. Especially when there are so many fun things to do in OBA.

Our trip sorta had a rocky start. Christopher hurt his leg playing softball a day before we left for vacation and lets just say it was more serious than we first thought. He spent the first two mornings of our vacation in the urgent care seeking treatment for what appeared to be a nasty infection. He was pretty bummed about not being able to get in the water for the week. Thankfully, it started to heal.

Our first night of vacation we met up with my brother, sister in law, and nephew for dinner at the Tin Top in Bon Secour. It seemed to be a local favorite and a little hidden gem.

We also ran into them one day during lunch at my new favorite place in OBA, The Gulf. I highly recommend this place. It has wonderful food and drinks in a relaxed beachy atmosphere. It's very casual and perfect for kids. They even welcomed our fur baby. We ate there 3 times during our vacation and every time we chose a different menu item. All delicious!!! The Gulf also offers some pretty ocean scenery that makes it hard to ignore all of the photo opps. Just take a look. I went a little crazy with my camera.

On Wednesday, our good friends Blake and Anna arrived. We took them to Shipps Harbour Grill. I believe I mentioned that place before in a previous blog post. It is very good. I finally got to try their sushi and it was on point. Their service could improve but the cuisine makes up for it in a major way. The staff is extremely nice but you can tell they are overwhelmed. I think being a waitress/server has to be a very hard job. Customer service is extremely important and I can only imagine the customers they encounter on a daily basis.

On Friday, we headed to the Eric Church concert. His concert was one of the primary reasons for booking our vacation when we did. He happens to be Christopher's favorite country performer. We have now seen him 3 times and every time he has put on a different show. The concert did not disappoint. There was no opening act so he created his own by playing acoustic versions of his songs. It was awesome. We have never heard him acoustically and it was a real treat. Christopher and I love to imagine that one day we will be friends with Eric. He seems like a cool guy. We are such dreamers.

Here are a few more photos captured during our trip

Saturday was our last day in OBA and was probably our favorite day out of our vacation. We got to tour the Turquoise which is the largest condo complex in OBA. We traveled all the way up to the 29th floor. Ahhhh.... Talk about a gorgeous view just as long as you didn't look down.

Then we met up with some friends for a ride on their boat. I have never been out on the ocean other than a dolphin cruise and I'm choosing not to count that. The boat was pretty awesome. We spent most of the day anchored at Robinson Island. It was so fun. We are so thankful to Kyle for inviting us out. We had a great time!

We ended the evening at Cobalt. I had never been there before and it was well worth the wait. The drinks, food and atmosphere is some of the best in OBA.

I can not wait for our next beach getaway. I seriously could live there. Although, Christopher seems to think we would take it for granted if we did live there. He is probably right, but I know there is still a lot more to be seen in the beautiful OBA.