Crico's Pizza & Subs Review

Well, I moved down here from New York and have yet to find anything similar to a New York sub or pizza. Crico's subs are amazing. They're perfect and EXACTLY like the ones up north, anyone who hasn't tried it has to. It's not optional, you can't die happy until you had one.
   Now onto their pizza...it's no different than pizza hut. I cannot find a NY pizza for the life of me, everybody down here says Mellow Mushroom, or Papa Rocco's...um no. Papa Rocco's? I can make that in my oven from the frozen section at WalMart. The ingredients are not fresh, the crust is sooo thin, just no. Don't even eat it. Mellow Mushroom? It's decent, but nothing like I'm used to. Everyone tells me to try Old World Bakery, that'll be my next try and I'll let you know how that goes.
   But to sum this all up, try Crico's subs! Especially the meatball sub, it's phenomenal. For those of you who aren't sure where Crico's is, it's right next to Shrimp Basket on Hwy 59 almost to the beach by the souvenir shops with the big shark!

XOXO - Melody Rose

Brent Burns Concert & Going to The Hangout Consumed My Night.

At 6pm next to the Gulf Shores Library they had Brent Burns (a local trop-rock singer) playing along with the famous Sunny Jim for free. Sunny Jim has won a few awards and is pretty good on them steel drums. But this trop-rock thing wasn't really my style so off the The Hangout I went.
   The hangout had a band called The Rez playing on their main stage when I arrived around 8pm they were pretty good, but the only song I recognized was Billy Jean. But they were VERY interactive with audience and were just a good time, I got up and danced and all that good stuff. There were some pretty cute guys there too I must say. 11pm rolled around and The Rez ended for the night and Foxy Iguanas took the stage on the other side of The Hangout by the mermaid bar. Now I love Foxy Iguanas the singer and a seriously amazing voice I love em. They play Tom Petty, Sublime, Lynard Skynard, just everything. They're the only band around here I can say I really actually like listening to.
   The people there were pretty cool, nobody was walking around drunk and lost or stupid. Everybody was just a good time, usually I can't go out without wanting to knock a guy out, or smack some chick. But tonight was pretty chill.
   Before 11pm people under 21 are allowed to be there, on the dance floor around 9pm I saw a mom, a dad, and a little boy. I felt so bad for this little boy, his daddy was breaking it down and his mom was trying to get him to join them, he got so embarrassed he ran away from them lol.
   The hangout is definitely kid friendly, and after 11 it's a really cool place to chill, dance, and have a cold drink.

XOXO - Melody Rose

@ The Hangout :)

How to Relieve Pain from Jellyfish Sting

There's been a ton of jellyfish out there in our gulf lately attacking the hell outta us. Being a local I'm pretty used to it, last week I was in there and got stung 10 times but I stayed in the water having a good time (honestly I can't resist playing in the water with big waves and dangerous currents, I find it fun.)

   Anyways, here's what ya gotta do to relieve the stinging itchy pain once one attacks you, get a credit card, if one isn't available get a somewhat large shell or a large-ish piece of a broken shell, then scrape the area where the jellyfish got you, (this removes any tentacles that could still be on you that cause pain) after that mix salt water with meat tenderizer. Yes, meat tenderizer. Rub this mixture on the sting and it will stop the stinging pain. DO NOT put fresh water on it. Don't do it at all. Fresh water makes the pain even worse. Most of the time I don't realize I was stung until I get home and shower and feel intense stinging from the fresh water. But yeah, no fresh water for about 30 minutes after the sting.

   Note: If you are stung by a man-o-war (pretty blue and purple jellyfish, absolutely gorgeous) go to lifeguard or call 911 immediately, these jellyfish could cause upset stomach and heart issues. But the regular pinkish/clearish jellys are okay, just a little painful. You'll live...hopefully :)

XOXO - Melody Rose

Wildfire Update 6/30

The rain the day before yesterday wasn't enough to help the fire that went from 700 acres to 1,000 acres in one day yesterday. The smoke was horrible last night, the smoke was smelling up my whole house because of the direction the wind was blowing plus the rain made the fire smokier.
   Gov. Bentley came to town yesterday and arrived around 3pm to fly over the fire and assess how closely the fire is burning to homes and businesses such as The Wharf and the somewhat new restaurant EAT.
   At this time helicopters are what's helping firefighters battle this fire. Yesterday the firefighters brought in a ch47b chinook (a helicopter used for dumping massive amounts of water.) These are helping them contain the fire, at this time they claim to have the fire 95% contained, yet it keeps doubling in size every day, literally.
   This fire is effecting some businesses along Canal Rd. Businesses such as EAT almost had to evacuate in the beginning, but now they are just keeping an eye on the fire, firefighters are protecting these businesses. Though the restaurant EAT was closed down from the beginning of the fire, and just opened back up today, the smoke was too much for them to stay open.
    Aside from the smoke effecting our town economically, it's suffering environmentally. Wildfires are very capable of putting plants of the verge of extinct. They can and usually destroy animal's habitats, and animal habitats are VITALLY important to the world. Though a lot of you don't care about animals, the environment, ect, I do. A lot. We're gonna be the reason the world comes to an end, it'll be man made and a lot of people don't realize that we can stop it. But I don't mean to get off topic, wildfires also release carbon dioxide which is horrible for the atmosphere.
    That's all the info for now, there will be another update tomorrow, thanks for reading!! : )

XOXO - Melody Rose

Workers Cleaning Tarballs from Oil Spill in Fort Morgan

As some of you know, Fort Morgan is just to the west of Gulf shores with beautiful peaceful beaches and houses. Because me and my mama clean condos we were on Fort Morgan today to clean a house as we saw what looked like BP workers or city workers with nets cleaning up tarballs. We haven't seen this since last summer. I assumed they'd start doing this again because everyone says "Oh come on down the oil is gone!" (yeah yeah okay. liars.) Though the worst of it IS gone, there are still smallish tarballs on the beaches. Thankfully enough tourists have complained about it and now they're cleaning them up :)

XOXO - Melody Rose

Wildfire Update 6/28

Today there was a lot of smoke from the controlled burns the firefighters preformed. They did a controlled burn to burn out the fuel of the fire. It's been raining for about an hour now which would leave some to think that it'll make the fire burn out, but no. Sources say it's actually making the firefighter's controlled burn fail, but more updates on this will be posted tomorrow.
   So I love how people such us Meyer's Real Estate, the Alabama Gulf Coast Facebook page, and others are telling tourists that it's fine to come on down with the fire, it's all good. No, it's not all good. A lot of the condos are relevantly near the fire, and tourists who are here now have complained about the smoke. One night a boy had even woken up his father saying he smells smoke in their condo, the dad got up and panicked then soon found out that it was the smell of smoke from the fire. Another tourist is also HIGHLY allergic to smoke, but decided to still come down with the fire here because they had told them it's fine to come on down.
    Basically, if smoke is going to bother you, and views of a big ol fire from your condo would bother you, don't come until the firefighters get this under control. We want tourists to come, but we don't want them to come and not be able to enjoy the town and the beach as they normally would without a fire.

XOXO - Melody Rose

Don't go to Wal Mart for Boogie Boards

Naturally you would think WalMart would be the cheapest place to go for boogie boards, skim boards, or floats, right? WRONG. The cheapest place to go is the Surf Style shops. They have boogie boards for $3.99. A lot of people end up going to WalMart and paying $9.99 for them, save money and go to the souvenir/tourist shops. Oh and by the way, if you plan on going boogie boarding, make sure to take your sunglasses off. I know from my past mistake of leaving them on, you'll never find them again.

XOXO - Melody Rose

The Best Coconut Shrimp in GS - Bahama Bob's!

Bahama Bob's is right in the heart of Gulf Shores on West Beach Blvd (Turn right at the end of Hwy 59 south and it's about 1/2 mile on your left.)  It's one of the very few restaurants right on the beach. You can sit outside and have a beautiful view of the Gulf, or sit inside and enjoy the air conditioning. The waiters and waitresses are probably the kindest workers I've seen around here. It's a great place for the family as well.
   Lets talk about the coconut shrimp already! Now see, I don't like seafood (I know, I know, how can I not like seafood? lol) but my mama (known as Susan to everyone except me) LOVES it, as a matter of fact Bahama Bob's is her favorite restaurant. We've eaten at all kinds of restaurants and she said Bahama Bob's is the absolute BEST.
 
   Here's what she had to say about it:
Me: Why is Bahama Bob's your favorite restaurant in Gulf Shores?
Susan: First of all the name, okay. How do you top that? And then it's ocean front. I don't mind having to wait for a seat when you have to wait (dinner time is busy!) because you can go sit on the beach. The service is excellent, polite and fast.
Me: Why is their coconut shrimp the best?
Susan: It's cooked perfect with lots of fresh coconut and an excellent jezebell sauce. Their fries are great and there cole slaw is the best on the island as well as their hush puppies.

   So there ya go folks, if you're in Gulf Shores check out Bahama Bob's! If you aren't here but plan on coming down, plan on trying their coconut shrimp as well.

XOXO - Melody Rose

Review on Zooland Mini Golf!

Zooland Mini Golf is $5 all you can play, let's be serious, I couldn't pass that up! I haven't played mini golf since I was probably 5 years old, so my mama decided that on one of our very rare days off of work, we'd go play.  I can't even begin to tell you what a great time I had, at first I was nervous of looking stupid because I'm not very good, but the other players there were so nice. It wasn't too challenging, but it was really fun.
   So when you first walk up there's all kinds of decorative signs, one said "Beware of killer flamingos" with a pink flamingo on it. Another said "Yes I am a pirate, 200 years too late"  Ah, I love Jimmy Buffet. It was just so entertaining as soon and you walked in with all the signs. Then when you got up to the desk to pay the worker (who I believe was the owner) he was so nice and good to the customers.
   As far as getting ready to play, it was pretty simple, you grab you putter and a ball, then a score card and you're good to go.  I was pretty pleased to see they had pink (my favorite color) balls, they also had purple, orange, yellow, and black. Now, once you get going you'll see all kinds of cool statues of things like mermaids, gorillas, giraffes, tiki head type of things. It was just really cool. Each statue of an animal had a butt (obviously) and I made an effort to take a picture with each one even if it meant having the person behind me wait a minute lol :)
    Basically, Zooland Mini Golf is an awesome place for people of all ages. If I were you, I'd definitely have to check it out - oh and make sure to take pictures with all of the animal butts! :)

XOXO - Melody Rose

Wildfire at Gulf State Park

   So, I clean condos with my mama, we clean all around Gulf Shores and Orange Beach.  We were driving along West Beach Blvd, and we were looking at the Gulf, then looked to the front of us in the blue sky to see smoke.     
   Well of course we had to go drive and see what it was. While I'm driving my mom is looking up the news on her phone to see what this smoke is all about. I didn't get too far with the busy traffic before she told me it's a wildfire in the Gulf State Park. Immediately I was like oh-em-gee, we're all going to die, I started panicking because my house is just up Hwy 59 and for all I knew at that point it could have been going straight for my house with my adored cat in there. 
   Long story short, we gathered information to find that it had started in the campgrounds and it started off as 2 acres, and now is 400 acres. The first day of the fire (May 25) they evacuated sections of Orange Beach and power went out, they now are allowing people back and got the power back on the same day. Yesterday (May 26th) they almost had to evacuate some homes in the area, but they are doing their best to protect those houses.  Now, all while it keeps burning through more and more acres, they keep saying (and it's about the only thing they're saying) that they have it under control, they have it contained. Really guys? Really? Because if you did, it wouldn't keep on going full force now would it?
    At this point you're probably wondering what caused the fire in the first place?  Well, to be real, nobody has a for sure answer.  Lots of people have different ideas and assumptions, but police are investigating this.  Some say campers were cooking on a grill and dumped their coals in the grass.  Others say someone threw a cigarette butt. A few people are even saying someone was trying to set off fireworks.  Who really knows what's true, but all of these ideas are things that can start a wildfire, so people, please be careful.
   This fire has been burning for 3 days now, and so far it's crossed Canal Road in Orange Beach, headed for The Wharf and Sports Plex but luckily they're protecting it along with the homes in the area. They have brought out helicopters to fight the fire by dumping water on to it, lets hope they can get this contained and under control, though today they announced this is going to be a long battle against this fire.  
   That's all the info for now everyone, thanks for reading & check out the pics below of the fire. 

XOXO - Melody Rose