A Grand Weekend

The last weekend in August, my Mom, sister, and I took a long weekend and went to Point Clear, AL to visit the Marriott Grand.  We had so much fun!

On the drive down, we stopped at a rest area to have a picnic.  Mom and Sarah worked hard the few days before preparing chicken salad, potato salad, and other yummy foods. 

When we arrived at The Grand, Sarah immediately said, "This is the nicest hotel I've ever been to."  I would have to agree!

The grounds of The Grand were beautiful!  We had so much fun walking around and taking pictures.  The trees were absolutely beautiful and very unique.

 

The Grand is located on Mobile Bay.  We enjoyed riding bikes on the trail along the bay, and we even got to kayak.

 

On the grounds of  The Grand, there are tons of activities!  We played horseshoes and croquet and rode bikes.  They also have High Tea every afternoon at 4pm.  When you pay for your room, you are charged a resort fee which is 10% of your room cost.  This resort fee allows you to take advantage of all the activities without having to pay.  It is really a good deal considering it covered three people in our case.

There is also an original Civil War cannon that they fire every night.

 

The pool at The Grand is definitely the coolest pool I have ever experienced.  Unfortunately, I was unable to get any pictures, so a photo from their website will have to suffice.

Notice the small rock formation in the middle of the pool.  On the other side of these, there is a jacuzzi that has two waterfalls.  It is definitely the fanciest jacuzzi I've ever seen!  There is also an adult only pool that is a salt water pool.

The workout facility is also incredibly nice.  I wish I had access to something that nice all the time!

Marriott has built a condo building about 1 mile from the resort so you can purchase one and "extend your stay"  They have built a country club type place to go with the condo.  As a resort guest you get access to the country club.  We ate dinner there one night, and it was really good!  We did not actually use the pool but we explored it.  The jacuzzi there is just as nice with two waterfalls.  They also have an adult only lap pool.

Overall, we were all very impressed with The Grand and would love to go back.  One of the benefits of working at UAB and being part of Alabama Teachers Retirement is you get discounts to several hotels across the state.  The Grand is included, and we paid over 50% less for the room that we  were in!  Hopefully we will be able to take advantage of this benefit again sometime soon!