Gulf Trip

Last weekend we took advantage of Chris’ Good Friday holiday from work and headed down to Mobile/Gulf Shores, AL. This was just a scouting trip to check out the sights and see if we might want to come back one summer and rent a condo on the beach for a week. We had several previous trips planned which always got interrupted by hurricanes or Baby Denbow (C&J’s Mexico cruise 2007). This time the weather was clear, but cold, only in the 60’s!!

Friday we headed to the USS Alabama Battleship in Mobile. Just a word of advice, if you ever decide to visit, don’t wear flip flops. If was hard to climb up and down all the steep ladders between floors when your shoes were always falling off.

I was bored out of my mind, but tried to be a trooper, even when I bonked my head climbing up the ladder to one of the upper decks. Chris says it’s because the opening was just barely larger than my ginormous head. Real funny. But I think Chris enjoyed himself. While we were planning our trip I kept referring to the Battleship as a Battlestar, which Chris also pounced on. “What Battlestar would that be, the Galatica?” While we were roaming around the ship there were several large displays of Battlestars.. ha ha, I did see a Battlestar in Mobile.

After the Battleship we went to Ed’s Seafood Shack in Spanish Fort, AL for some fresh gulf shrimp. I don’t think I’ve ever seen bigger fried shrimp- at least three bites a piece. Food was good, not as good as the shrimp in Savannah, but we still enjoyed ourselves. After lunch we went to Dauphin Island, then Bayou La Batre (which you will remember was where Bubba was from in Forrest Gump). When we pulled in Bayou La Batre the town was dead, I mean no one on the streets. We could tell on the way that there was a fire close by. Later that evening we learned that arsonists have been setting parts of town on fire for several days and the town had been evacuated. Here’s a shot of the shrimping boats- can’t you just see Forrest Gump floating by:

We finally headed back to Mobile to crash for the night and woke up bright and early for the outlet shops in Foley, AL and finally Gulf Shores. The water and beaches were very pretty, nice white powder sand, clear blue/green water. Almost couldn’t believe you were in Alabama, until you went into a restaurant and saw all the rednecks.. this is the Redneck Riviera after all. After lunch at the Original Oyster House and a quick tour of town, we headed into FL to score some bootleg FL liquor. Alabama has very strict liquor laws so several brands of beer that Chris enjoys, like Kalik, aren’t available. We toured Pensacola then headed back to AL and the short trip home.

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