Vacation Megapost!

Usually we do a few blog posts during our vacation but this year we lacked the motivation and content to make any posts the first couple of days of our trip.  So today you're getting the Cummings Family Vacation Megapost!

We kept an eye on the Gulf Shores weather all week before we left and knew that there was a good chance of rain but everything said it would be scattered thunderstorms which is not unusual for the beach.  Those scattered thunderstorms ended up banding together to deliver the second wettest day in Gulf Shores history!  I don't go to the beach for history, I go for sun!  Anyway, we made the most of it and ended up having a very enjoyable vacation.....even though it wasn't what we had planned.

Our first stop was Leatha's BBQ in Hattiesburg.  It's a little family run BBQ shack.  The food was really good but one of my favorite things was the bath towel they gave you for a napkin.  All BBQ and fish places should use those as napkins instead of the little worthless paper napkins that most use.

We had to get a picture of Matt sleeping in the car.  That NEVER happens! McKenzie could have been asleep, too, and just playing on her iPod Touch unconsciously.

Sadly, this is our "beach picture" this year.

The kids were so excited to go to the beach this year.  I hate it so much that it didn't work out.

 Maybe it wasn't a good idea for Matt to pretend to be Thor......the god of thunder.

Friday night's meal was at Lillian's in Perdido Key.

I had fettuccine alfredo with shrimp.

Betty had Lasagna.  She said it had too much meat.  Me: "Huh?"

Friday night, the storms started and we lost power to the condo about midnight.  Then, at 1 AM, the smoke alarm started chirping because the battery was low.  After that wonderful night's sleep, we woke up Saturday morning and we lost water to the condo!  Thankfully, it happened right after Betty got through getting ready!  If you know Betty, you know that she does not set foot in public without getting ready.  I guess we would've had to have put a bag on her head and lead her out of the condo like a hostage if the water had been a little earlier going out! 

This was Saturday morning.  It was windy and sprinkling a little bit.  Unfortunately, it was the prettiest weather of the next three days!

 Since the weather was so bad, we decided to go to the outlet mall in Foley.  Hey, it was already raining, why don't we make it worse!  Just kidding!  I LOVE outlet malls, Betty!  We told McKenzie she could get her ears pierced for her birthday present from us.  Notice the death grip she had on Betty in the picture above.

Lunch was at The Shrimp Basket.

I had grilled catfish.

Betty had steamed shrimp and said it was one of the best meals she's ever had at Gulf Shores.

 The whole time we were at the outlet mall it rained very hard.  On the way back to the condo we noticed the ditches were filling up and there were some businesses that were already in danger of having water come up to their door.  We knew it was getting bad.  When we got back to the condo, we saw a car that evidently had hydroplaned right in front of our condo and run off the road into about two feet of water.  We turned on the news when we got to our condo and saw that we were under a flash flood warning and they were saying there was a 100% chance for rain the rest of the evening and 100% chance for Sunday and Monday.  Since the beach was inaccessible and the outdoor and indoor pools were closed due to the weather and we were already having flash floods with two and half more days of rain coming, we decided that we should head for higher ground and hopefully sunnier weather......

.....right after we got some Krispy Kremes!

We drove on home Saturday night and switched gears and moved our vacation to Memphis.  We left Sunday morning and after eating lunch at The Arcade, headed to the Hilton on Poplar.  We checked in and headed straight for the pool!  The weather cooperated, giving us some actual sunshine, and we had a great time playing in the pool.

After swimming we at supper at Bahama Breeze.  We pretended we were still at the beach!  Ha!

After the requisite trip to Target, we stopped by Barnes and Noble.  Matt is not into Thomas the Train much anymore but he still likes to play with the train set at B&N.  

Back to the hotel and one last trip to the pool before bed!

No overnight trip to Memphis is complete without breakfast at Miss Polly's!

 We came back to the hotel after breakfast and squeezed in one last trip to the pool before we had to check out.  The kids had a great time and we actually got to enjoy some sun!  That was a gift from God because Memphis was surrounded by clouds Sunday and Monday......except for a little window above the Hilton on Poplar!  After checking out we went to the Wolfchase Mall for a little while.  As we left, God quit holding back and let loose on Memphis with heavy rain and wind.  It wasn't what we had planned, but we still had a great time!

I'll leave you with this picture of Matt at the mall.  He wanted to try on this suit coat and struck a pose and said, "Cool men like to dress like cool men!".  He's a nut.