Road tripping around the Gulf Coast makes a fantastic family vacation. Every family has to take a least one road trip. We have fond memories of road tripping to the Grand Canyon when we were little. Amazing that without technology, we kept ourselves amused for 8-hour stretches. Our mom would make travel kits for each one of us full of activity workbooks, games, cards and books. We would have contests to see if we could spot license plates from every state. These days we have amazing road trip tech. All we have to do for our children is pop in a DVD, charge up the iPod or play music or videos on our Nokia Lumia 928. However, we still make sure that we take frequent breaks from technology taking time to talk about our road trip, life, current events, play guessing games (animal, mineral or plant) and even tell jokes.
Road trip tech helps with night driving. Finally, steady video thanks to our Nokia Lumia 928
Leg two of our road trip was hitting Biloxi, MS and Mobile, AL. Unfortunately, we only had brief visits but we hope to back again soon to explore more.
Biloxi:
A favorite of Neil Simon, Biloxi has a tremendous amount of family friendly activities including great golf courses, hotels and beaches.
MGM’s Beau Rivage
We highly recommend a simple agenda~book a night at the Beau Rivage or an amazing rental from Dwellable.com, hit the beach for the afternoon, and then end the day with a Mississippi BBQ dinner at the Shed. Since we grew up in TN, we enjoy good BBQ and make sure to sample it all over the South. Each southern state has its own unique flavor and Mississippi favors hickory and brown sugar.
Trip Logistics:
- Beau Rivage: enjoy the MGM resort hotel for family golf vacations or an adult spa and gambling weekend
- Dwellable.com: has a full selection of rentals and B&Bs
- The Shed: experience a family friendly Mississippi BBQ and Blues joint
The Beach in Biloxi
Mobile AL:
A quaint city on the Alabama gulf coast, Mobile has a very similar architecture and vibe to New Orleans. It also has fantastic food and an exploding art scene. In fact, Mobile claims to be the birthplace of Mardi Gras in the U.S .and even boasts a Mardi Gras museum.
What an unique Mardi Gras Muséum!
While we stayed at the Courtyard Marriott in Mobile (a bit dated), we highly recommend:
- Renaissance Downtown Mobile: one of the big city towers. We had hoped to stay at the hotel but it sold out for a convention
- The Homewoods Suites by Hilton in Daphne: top floor rooms have water view and the children just loved the putting green outside
Great putting green practice for the kids
For dinner, we recommend hitting Spanish Fort on the causeway where we had fried food galore at Blue Gill but we hear rave reviews for its sister resturant Felix and of the course The Oyster House. The best part of Blue Gill for the kids was looking for alligators off the dock at dusk and admiring the beautiful night skyline of Mobile.
Where we looked for Alligators at Blue Gill
Beautiful Skyline of Downtown Mobile
While in Mobile you must visit some of the unique attractions on the Bay:
- USS Alabama battleship Park: check out exhibits from World War II to Iraqi Freedom, at one of America’s finest military parks
- The America Sport Art Museum: visit an art museum that your children will love~because it is all about sports! what more could a sports mom want!
- National Maritime Museum of The Gulf of Mexico: projected to open in late 2013 the museum is located one day’s drive from every major Gulf City and will celebrate all the natural resources of the Gulf Coast
More posts soon on the next leg of our road trip! We can’t wait to hear which town is your favorite!
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