Thanksgiving in Gulf Shores

FaceTime with the family.

A cormorant drying his wings.

The Pensacola Lighthouse.

Someone took this picture of us on our way to Pensacola.

We saw dolphins we entered the intercoastal going to Gulf Shores. 

Our boater cards arrived!  Every looper (except us) had boater cards to give out when you met a looper - now, we have ours!

         Getting closer to the gulf heading under Interstate 65.

                      In the bay, on the way to Gulf Shores.

                                Passing Mobile, Alabama.

                                      The calmest water!
 So, we finally made it through the river and all of the locks.  It seemed like we would never get off that river! I was ready to see some warmer temperatures. At first, I thought it would be so cool to have a boat on Kentucky Lake and be able to cruise down to the gulf.  Maybe it would be better to have a boat at the gulf and drive down!

We hit Mobile Bay - it was sunny, warm and calm!  A beautiful day and seeing some Mobile, Alabama landscapes from the bay in our boat, was super cool! (I’m pretty sure it was Mobile - we saw some skyscrapers).   

Entering the bay, everything was going great, we were heading for the marina and then the motor stoped peeing - it’s always supposed to “pee” to cool the engine.  We ended up going into The Mariner Marina to dock. We were wanting to go to Dogriver Marina, but they had us sitting in the bay, trying to decide if they had space for us.  And I had been calling them for a couple of days now, trying to reserve a slip!  Im so thankful Mariner Marina let us stay at their marina. Turns out, there were a few complaints about Dogriver - our buddy boat even moved to our marina!  Staff at Grand Mariner were so helpful!  They looked at the motor, flushed some water through it and then decided to check the “pee” line. A simple paper clip did the trick!  It was just clogged up!  Now it pees like a Russian racehorse!

After a couple nights there, we headed to Gulf Shores, Alabama.  I Ubered to Wal-Mart while Jeff cleaned the boat.  We had dinner at LuLu’s that night with some Canadian loopers, Ray and Jane on Pura Vida, very nice couple.  We talked about celebrating Thanksgiving dinner.  Jane had a turkey roll and some cranberry sauce; sadly, the only thing remotely to a thanksgiving feast I had was a pecan pie (I picked that up at Walmart).  We were just going to eat chicken - I almost bought turkey TV dinners but decided that would be really bad!  We ended up having chicken fried chicken, mashed potatoes and mixed veggies for Thanksgiving - chickens are close enough to turkeys - right?  

We also enjoyed a FaceTime with Jeff’s family and our kids on Thanksgiving - all at the same time!  That was a little loud but oh so nice!  

After dinner, we headed to the Canadians for cocktails.  They had a beautiful, huge boat!  It was like sitting in someone’s living room. We also met a couple of other loopers, Malcom and Rachael, on Stay Cool.  We had a very nice time - perhaps a bit too much wine!

Tomorrow, we’re going to Pensacola. My niece and her husband are there, so we’re looking to spending some time with them.