Dauphin Island March 15-20, 2015

Don and I finally found a window of good weather to meet on Dauphin Island after trying since January. The island is very laid back, not commercialized at all like Gulf Shores that is just across Mobile Bay, and the people are very nice — even teenagers said “hi” to us when we were out biking around the island. Only bad aspect was the biting insects which were fierce and plentiful. The mosquitoes, sand fleas, and biting gnats feasted on me while Don didn’t so much as a bite.

I dosed Ellie on arthritis medication so she was able to go on walks and a daily beach visit to retrieve her toy from the water — she had a good time and nobody thought she was a 10-year-old dog.

The campground has sites pretty packed together but we lucked out and the site on the door site of the camper only had someone on it one night. The camper was well shaded in the afternoon so we never turned on the air conditioning.

Ellie

Enjoying the water and retrieving – as always… First camping trip without Nikki. She was missed.

Dauphin Island

Fort Gaines and kayaking.

Dauphin Island Sea Lab

The Sea Lab on the island has an estuarium, inside exhibit, and a tank with sharks and rays.

Ferry Dauphin Island to Fort Morgan

Ellie would have been allowed out of the vehicle, but one look at the slippery deck and I didn’t want to risk her not being to get traction for the jump back in. She was a bit freaked by the engine noise anyway. We had 3 laughing gulls hitch a ride. They would have gone unnoticed except when the ferry was approaching Fort Morgan they started laughing hysterically.