The (Not So Typical) Gulf Coast Vacation

Eldon and I just got home from a wonderful vacation on the Gulf Coast.  We didn't want to do the whole "stay on the beach" touristy thing so we did some looking at vacation cottages online and found one that sounded promising.  

It was a darling little cottage on the Bon Secour River in Alabama which runs into the Bon Secour Bay in the Gulf of Mexico.  The cottage was located almost at the mouth of the Bay so it was definitely an ocean feel - a bit salty water, all the ocean birds and dolphins running up the river!  Probably the biggest draw for us was that it came with its own pier out into the water!

There was even a comfortable old wooden swing on the end of the pier.  (This is the only picture I have of it - maybe because I was always sitting there?)

Our cottage was located between two large seafood stores - Billy's and Aguila's.  So, that meant that every morning we sat and watched the shrimp boats come rolling in with their catch.  And then we watched them roll out in the evenings.

The shrimp boats are such neat boats.  

Eldon did a lot of fishing off the dock.  

We did a lot of crabbing off the dock.
(I've never had so much fun "fishing" as I did crabbing!)

The cottage we rented was absolutely perfect.  It looks small from the outside, but it was plenty roomy inside and so comfy.

There was no back porch and not much of a front porch.... but not needed anyway because the pier was our porch!  

The living room was very roomy.  

I loved the little kitchen and it had everything we needed for the week.  We saved money by cooking breakfast and supper and eating out for lunch!

I didn't take any pictures of the bedrooms but there were two bedrooms downstairs and an open loft with four twin beds upstairs.  

The little community of cottages (there are seven of them) share the pier.  But the whole week we were there using the pier every morning and evening we only had to "share" it once.  And that was lovely as the elderly neighbor lady was so very sweet.  The little neighborhood was extremely quiet as several of the cottages are vacation homes and were empty at the time we were there.  

You can check out this vacation cottage here.  If you are looking for an affordable vacation cottage just a very short drive to the Gulf Shores area, this is it!  

We had a lovely week.  I'll be sharing more about the area, a few things we did, places we went, and food we ate.  So check back in a few days for more on our vacation!