The Grand Hotel - Part I

Last weekend we all went to the Grand Hotel in Fairhope, AL. For the official site (and pictures of the entire property) click here. Jason's company had a meeting there and since it is only an hour and a half away we all decided to go. Martin & Linda, the four of us, and Chuck, Amy & Hutson. I had heard a lot about it but had no idea how wonderful it is. I'm going to post a second post with pictures of the grounds and will explain a little more about the hotel there.

Friday night there was a cocktail party and the theme was tropical. They handed out straw hats and the kids really enjoyed them. They also had a guy playing a steel drum. It was pretty neat. The kids had a lot of fun dancing. Here are a few shots from that evening.

Hutson & Amy

The next morning, while the guys were at the last meeting, Linda, Amy and I took the kids to the fabulous pool. We really lucked out with the weather. It was absolutely beautiful.
Addie took a break to eat some Cheetos (her new favorite snack).

There was a dad hanging out with his son right by where we were sitting so Addie decided to be generous with her Cheetos. Here she is digging in her bag.

And giving them to this guy and his son, Gabe.

Gabe thought she was so nice to share her snack he paid her back by shooting her in the head with a water gun. Boys.

There is a fantastic water slide that Zachary REALLY enjoyed.

Jason enjoyed it as well.

Pop & AddieHutson

Pop with Zach AND Addie.

Grandmama even went down (with Zachary chasing her)!!!The neat hot tub.

Here is a picture of the entire water slide.

On Sunday morning while the kids swam with Pop & Grandmama, Jason and I got a croissant and ate it outside. There was a squirrel that was hanging around and we could not resist feeding him. He got so close.Cute little thing!
There were dragonflies every where. It was actually neat to see them flying all over the place. I think this one was waiting for some croissant.

Right where we were sitting there was a putting green that people could play for free. Hut is giving it a go before heading to the pool.Amy, Chuck & Hutson gave me this card for my birthday (which just happened to be that day!). I thought it was hilarious.

After we got packed up we stayed for the famous Champagne Brunch. It was wonderful. So much food and they had like a six man band playing. At one point they walked around and played 'Happy Birthday' to anyone who's birthday it was. It was really neat. On our way out Zachary spied some big suckers that he had to have. Which means Addie has to have one too. Here they are eating them on our way home.

I want to thank Martin & Linda for bringing all of us along. We had such a fun weekend. Scroll down a little more and you can see some other pictures from that weekend.

The Grand Hotel - Part II

Next to the Grand Hotel is a long line of beautiful homes. Most of them had piers/boat houses. A few had gorgeous ones. Some of the homes were absolutely stunning. HUGE, like 8,000 square feet. Although I didn't take any pictures of the houses I did take two of the neatest piers/boat houses. Here are a couple shots of the fantastic pool. There was a walk in area for the little ones with water shooting up. A waterfall, neat hot tub, and a big slide.This is by the entrance of the main club house where you checked in.There was an enormous spider that we had to walk by every time we went to the main club house.On Sunday Jason and I walked around a bit so I could take some pictures of the grounds. Here on the corner of the property we found a pavilion where they must have bands play.They have swings all over looking out at the water.You can't see it very well but they had a ping pong table and horse shoe pits.There were also hammocks all over the property.They provide kayaks for free. And they also have sailboats that you could ride on for free although someone that works there drives the boat.We saw a lot of people riding around on bikes. The property is huge. They are all free as well.They even had a huge yacht you could take out for free. Okay, not really. This is just some rich persons yacht that was docked near by.Here are some more random shots of the property.Hey look...I'm in a picture!!!
See if you can see the Blue Crab in this picture. Another picture of the huge yacht. There were ducks that live on the property.Here is the covered walkway that we would take from our building to the main club house.Here is our porch. They had rocking chairs on all of the porches/balconies.This is the view from our porch. They had free bait and a few rods out on that pier so you could fish. Martin, Zachary & Hutson caught some fish!Another view from our porch.Some more shots of the beautiful grounds.
What a wonderful place the Grand Hotel is. I cannot wait to take my parents some day. I also look forward to taking the kids back just for a weekend.