Gulf State Park, Ala. — How we vacation can be peculiar. We want to leave home, yet when choosing a place to stay, we look for places like home.Home has luxuries and amenities that we've grown to enjoy, including enough bedrooms (and, yes, even bathrooms) for all those gathered.
If we're lucky, sometimes we find that spot, with a spacious kitchen, living space and separate dining space, a deck and screened porch.
When vacationing with our grandsons along Alabama's Gulf Coast, we found our home in a rustic, Southern setting.
At Gulf State Park, we overnighted in one of the newly built cottages. Like the other 10 cottages surrounding ours, it had a full kitchen (stocked with quality cookware and standard-size appliances), three bedrooms (each with a queen-size bed), three baths (one attached to each bedroom), two screened porches, a wraparound deck, cable television — and view across placid Lake Shelby to the coastal skyline.
The living room, with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a television, had a large storage cabinet. Had I not been traveling with a 3-year-old, it would never have occurred to me that the cabinet could serve as a child's respite for an afternoon nap. Be advised, however, that the haven can be short-lived if your older brother discovers where you have taken refuge with your beloved, tattered pillow and blanket.
But, not to worry, the cabinet has room enough for two if you're small enough and want a napmate.
Built in 2006, the cottages in Gulf Shores boost the overnight accommodations at Gulf State Park, which has 20 modern cabins and 496 improved campground sites with modern bathhouses.
Two brick chimneys near the cottages are reminders of the power of Mother Nature.
Hurricanes Frederic, Ivan and Katrina, in turn, stomped across the coastline, tossing toilets and appliances into vacant lots, ripping roofs from buildings and toppling walls. Once the winds had blown to sea, locals scratched their heads and wondered when — or if — rebuilding would come.
Click here to read the full article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
