Benton Family: July 1st-(Day 5 -Fresh Shrimp/Dauphin Island-Ferry Ride/Gulf Shores-Lunch @ The Hangout, Beach, Diner)

Thursday, October 16, 2025

July 1st-(Day 5 -Fresh Shrimp/Dauphin Island-Ferry Ride/Gulf Shores-Lunch @ The Hangout, Beach, Diner)

The fresh shrimp we bought at the grocery store, but unfortunately, we waited too long and they were slimy! So, we will have to do something else for dinner.

We ate breakfast and then headed off to Dauphin Island to catch the ferry over to Gulf Shores. It's a first come first come basis that you get to go over with your car! Fun, we haven't done that since Galveston and that was with a rental car.

We had to drive about an hour to the ferry!

Draw bridge!

Long bridge to go over to Dauphin Island!

We made it!

Cute little houses!

We got to the ferry area. 1st one in line! We have to wait about 45 mins! So, we walked around a little, not much but still explored.

Pretty marsh area. Time to get on the ferry. FYI 1st one on ferry, 1st one off! Nice.

See our spot we get to get off 1st!

In the car on the ferry about to leave!

Here we go. Looks like rain is about to happen again, lots of rain this vacay but we have had sunny days too, so we made the best of it! I had to get out of the car pretty quickly, started to feel motion sickness! Yuck.

Looking around. We ended up walking to the back of the ferry to get away from the loud motor plus more area to look out at. And we had about 30-45 min ferry ride.

Some people stayed in their car the whole time, ugh!

Can't believe she is 16! Time slow down!

Oil machine in ocean.

Saw some pelicans, but didn't see any dolphins which we were hoping for! Ella really wants to see Dolphins this trip.

Pelican flying! Cool.

Time to get off the ferry! It didn't rain on us, but it's about to pour. Some people came on feet with no car. There isn't much to do right off the ferry area, there is a fort but that's it. And they won't do the ferry if it's lightening or pouring down rain.

Mor cute shore houses!

We pulled into Gulf Shores and it started POURING!!! The restaurant we wanted to go to wasn't very big or a big area to stay to wait so we opted for the "The Hang Out" next door to it. It was huge.

Cool cup with pina colada and strawberry daiquiri on top, not very good. But it was only $7 with the cup. And I wanted to get Ella the cup.

Well they didn't have hot dogs, which Ella wanted so she wouldn't eat anything else! Ugh.

It wasn't raining as much so we decided to drive around a little to check it out. We want to go to the beach.

Huge water holes everywhere, they just let everything run into the water not sewers around here.

I love all these colorful houses! These would be fun to stay at on the beach.

Well, we got lucky!! The rain stopped and we got to go to the beach, at the state park! Yay! Adelyn wasn't thrilled but the rest of us were!

Nobody is here! Yes!

I mean perfect!!

The water is so beautiful compared to Mississippi! Ha. I still say Destin has the best clearest water, but this will do!

Beautiful!!

Gulf Shores 2025

Love this shot with the pelican!

Nick was in the water immediately!

The beaches by us have no waves, but these waves are amazing!!

Happy girl!

Writing our name in the sand.

The ocean/gulf just gives you a calmness you can't have anywhere else.

The pier is the state park, you have to pay to walk on it. Then they have some food up there too.

She didn't want to get here feet wet.

I could take pictures of the waves and beach all day!

Got me some water time too!

We left after about an hour.

Once we got back to the car Nick figured out he didn't put his wallet into the bag I had and we lost it. He went back, then I went back to the beach and it was no where to be found! Ugh!! Then I went up on the pier to see if someone had turned it in. Oh my gosh luck has it they did! And they didn't steal the $1,200 that was inside either! Wow!

We decided we had to get Ella some food before driving about the 2 hrs. We stopped at the cute diner.