Beach trip to Gulf of Mexico.................................

Recently we were pleasantly surprised when a cousin Wendell, who I have been corresponding with, offered his condominium on the Gulf of Mexico to us for a week. I have two cousins and their husbands, my husband and myself, who get together about once a month for a meal, either in our homes, or at a restaurant. We make an annual trip somewhere each spring.

One of the couples, Shirley and Ed were unable to go but the other couple, Mary Jo and Bobby were ready to go. Edward, my husband, had an early dentist appointment on Monday morning. We went in separate vehicles because we were attending a meeting further up in Alabama the latter part of the week. We traveled along together communicating by cell phone.

We arrived at Orange Beach, Alabama about sundown and quickly found the highrise, and highrise it was! So much of Orange Beach and Gulf Shores was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Much has been rebuilt but the rubble of earlier establishments is evident.

Our's is the one on the left.......

It is the ideal location. Corner, ground floor, door opening out to the pool, and just beyond, the most beautiful white sugary-sandy beach imaginable!



Beautiful white beach.........
Pool

Mary Jo and Bobby

For our first fresh seafood meal we found 'Bubba's Seafood Restaurant' nearby. The food was delicious and the atmosphere 'beachy'.

Betty and Edward

This particular building had major damage form the hurricane and was under renovation for many months. Newly redecorated, it is beautiful and so chic. The livingroom is painted terracotta red with cream leather sofas, red and cream ticking club chair, pickled-white TV armoirie and wicker tables.

Mary Jo and Bobby

Betty and Edward

The dining room is a lovely mustard-gold color with a large glass top table with two white stone monkeys back to back for a base. Six burgundy, blue, cream striped chairs are very comfortable. A dark metal chandelier lights the area and a full wall of mirrors gives the impression of a much larger area.

We stayed in the master bedroom suite painted khaki color with doors opening out to the patio and pool. A king size bed was very comfortable.

There were two other bedrooms and bath, and kitchen with every convenience. These bedrooms were painted in shades of green and accented with tangerine hue acessories. In one of the bedrooms a humongous sailfish hung on the wall. Someone commented that Wendell probably caught it. Later, curiosity killed the cat, I thumped it and discovered it was metal!

It really does look real............

Since the weather was absolutely perfect, we went to Mobile to Bellingrath Gardens on Tuesday. Actually, it is at Theodore, AL. It is sixty-five acres of beautifully landscaped grounds.

On another posting, I'll show pictures and tell you more.

We came back to Fairhope and spent sometime shopping. How patient our husbands were!

We had so many people to recommend 'Lambert's Cafe' that we chose to eat there. It is famous for 'throwed rolls.' After ordering, servers will come around with many pots and pans of vegetables, apple butter, sorghum syrup, etc. One server pushes a cart with homemade rolls and hollers out, "Homemade rolls, anyone?" If you raise your hand, he will throw you one, sometimes across the room, and I saw only one dropped. If you like down home cooking and a laid back atmosphere then you'll enjoy eating here. If you want a more formal setting, then this woudn't be your cup of tea. One thing, you certainly will not leave hungry!

On Wednesday morning, Mary Jo and I went for an early morning walk on the beach. It was beautiful but breezy. One lady was out feeding cereral to a congregation of seabirds. Some were out fishing, others collecting shells, etc.

Hungry birds...........Wonder which cereal they prefer?


Click to enlarge

This was one of my favorite pictures .........

This didn't leave any doubt about smoking....

We rode along the beach looking at the brightly colored houses, amused at some of the names: Old Folks Home, Ours and Theirs, Sis's, and many others that escapes my mind.. We went to Foly, AL to shop. There are several antique and collectible shops there. At one really interesting shop, the lady clerk, asked where we lived and she has two friends that live in one of the towns near me.

Arriving back at Orange Beach late that afternoon, for our evening meal we ate at 'The Original Oyster Restaurant'. After a wait we were seated at a table next to the water. The food and service was exellent.

We thoroughly enjoyed our meal here..........

Thursday morning, we cleaned the condo and packed anad left about 10:00am. We stopped at a few other shops and I found a beautiful quilt to take to the cabin and two Lochs of Scoltand, Lake Oich plates that I have twelve place settings of, but now that we have fourteen in the family, I needed two more plates.

The vintage white cake stand and blue and white cup-teapot I found a few days later...


We were unaware of the tornadoes in Alabama and later in Georgia. We ate lunch together in Pennsacola, Glorida and while we were there, Mary Jo's daughter, Joy, in TN called and encouraged us to get back on the road. We parted company and headed north into Alabama.

Listening to the radio, we learned of the terrible collapse of the school in Enterprise, AL where eight students were killed. We began to experience very hard rain and wind. We were in the area not too far from the counties affected. We finally had to pull into a rest area and wait until the weather calmed down.

We have friends who live eighteen miles from Enterprise. Our daughter Amy and family, lived near there several years ago.

We finally got to Tallasee, AL about 6:00 that evening and checked into the most marvelous victorian hotel, the Talisi Hotel. It is like stepping back in time, to a much gentler time......

That's a story for another posting............To be continued.