A Little Florida Trip

So, we took a little trip to visit my Dear SIL in Florida. We planned a couple of stops along the way. One was the Unclaimed Baggage Store. Did you know that all unclaimed baggage lost on airlines is shipped to Scottsboro, Alabama? It is and it's in this store. 

 Think of the biggest Goodwill or Thrift store you can imagine....this is that! It's Huge! Not only do they have lost baggage, they also have unclaimed shipments. There are multiple floors and more than one building.

 Up here are the electronics and spoting good types of things.

 And of course so many clothes.  Prices were a lot like most Goodwill/Thrift stores- pretty inexpensive and kind of expensive for the designer labels things.. And Shoes! OMG! SO many shoes!!

 Look! Wouldn't you be just broken hearted that you lost your burgundy velvet super hi heeled shoes?

I tool a photo of this sink in the ladies room at the baggage store....It's a grate! Anyways, on ward we go! To Muscle Shoals AL.

 You've heard of Muscle Shoals...like the MoTown of the South!

 It's s tiny little recording studio that had it's hayday in the 70's & 80s.

Some fantastic musicians lent their special talents to some great music in the day.  And on we go!

Oh before we went on we had Alabama Bar B Que last night for supper.

 It was very good-we ate at a little local bar- see the sides listed on the bottom of the menu?

They had some local fellas playing guitar and trying to sing. It was a little unfortunate that the basketball playoffs were  playing on the TV behind them....especially when the Men's "let us help you be more manly" commercials came on!!LOL!

Anyways, on we go....to Anniston AL.  Hubs was stationed at Fort McClellen, right up the road, so he thought we could do a drive by to see how things had changed in the last 50 years or so.....

 Fort McClellen was decommissioned a few years ago....Nothing was the same except for the entrance guard gate-which is mostly decorative now.

And the golf course-Hubs had helped work on it back then, was still in use-it used to be for Officers only, now the community takes care of it. SO Onward we go!

To Dear Sister in Law Piney's home. Piney is just absolutely the best. She had plans for us! Her son Joey, took Uncle Danny out fishing! Yes, the boat is the Dirty Hooker.

 Here's Joey after they got back and had cleaned up. It was a windy day and they only caught a few little fish-no keepers though.
Meanwhile-Piney took me and her grand daughter Jocelyn out and about the town of Crestview.

 We went to the Antique mall-right next to an ice Cream parlor-Oh my! Was that ever some good ice cream!!!

 The mall was set up with lots of different booths with lots of great stuff to see. ANd best of all Piney took me to two really nice fabric shops!!!

 

First was Margie's. What a cute store-and I'm glad Piney knew where to go-it's a little tricky to find! I got a few pieces of fabric-Had to get the FL fabric for my stash! Then we went to A Quilter's Place. Another cute shop! They had the V & Co ombre fabric I had been looking for for awhile! YAY!!! I was lax at taking pictures...bad Bonnie!

 The next outing was the Gulfarium. It's a Marine Adventure Park. It was a pretty nice day-a little cloudy, but still nice to my way of thinking!

 We looked at the dolphins and the other critters.

 Piney had thought I would enjoy "swimming with the dolphins"....she was wrong. I would not enjoy being in a pool with animals that are actually meant to be free and not around people. Lucky for her, Jocelyn was totally up for it.

 See the dolphins doing tricks for their trainers?

 Lots of underwater critters and they alos have above ground critters too-alligators and stuff like that.

 But here's where I wanted to be! AT LAST!!!!!

 Beach TIME!!!!As you can see, the beach is pretty empty-it was only about 55 and very overcast.

 The boardwalk was pretty empty too.

 Ahhhh, the sounds of the waves!!!

 There were a few surfers.

 And since we are right next to Pensecola and the Air base, a zillion different kinds of air craft fly over all day long.

 So nice to be on the beach.

 I didn't go swimming the water was pretty cold.

 But I was so happy to have some beach time!!

 

I just dug a little hole and settled in with my book and had the best time!

 Awww, bye bye beach!

 So on the way back to Piney's Hubs wanted to get some fresh shrimp to take home.

 This shop get their seafood fresh off the boats at the back door!

 Very nice people here and the loaded the cooler with ice for free!

 We got there right at the end of the day and Hubs was very pleased with the shrimp.

 

In Piney's yard there are lots of pine trees that have these HUGE pine cones. I asked her if I could pick some up to take home and she said sure! She makes wreaths and stuff out of them too!

 I came across this trespasser in her yard when I was out there.

 Here's a picture of the view from her back deck. Her hubs, Greg, has had good luck fishing in their pond.

 And here's the front of their house.

 And here's the downpour that came later in the day!!!

Glad I got my pine cones before that rain came!!

And on our last night we took everyone out for a nice mexican supper! L-R Joey, his wife Amanda, Me, Piney and Hubs.
All in all a really great vacation. The weather was kind of so-so, but it wasn't snowing until we were almost to the Iowa state line!