For our winter get-away this year we drove to Gulf Shores, Alabama. Our rented cottage was out a ways on the Fort Morgan Peninsula.
Driftwood Cottage
The cottage was within easy walking distance to the beach. Its finest asset was the screened-in porch. We ate several meals out there listening to the sound of the waves. I also dried my collected shells and read my book in the porch sunshine. Alas, this strange winter’s icy fingertip even reached us there in southern Alabama. One night we had a low of 25 degrees; a cold wind limited outdoor and porch time towards the end of our stay. However, we did have several warm pretty days.
There was a nice boardwalk thru some trees to the beach path.
Pastel colors dominated on the beach homes.
Our view of the beach was very limited as we were several blocks back from the water. The crow’s nest deck accessible by a ladder-like stairway gave a better view and would be nice in warmer months. I only climbed up there twice to try to photograph the sunset.
One of our days was bookended with a colorful sunrise and a pretty sunset.
Sunrise
Sunset
We were fortunate that Monday February 16th’s evening rain stopped by morning, but Mardi Gras was extremely cold. We braved the chill bundled in our winter coats and gloves to see the Gulf Shores Mardi Gras parade. Many of the small communities in the counties near Mobile have their own parades. Mobile considers itself the heart/home of Mardi Gras. It has parades for over 2 weeks. The local television stations air the parades on February 17th throughout the entire day. The floats in Gulf Shores were not very elaborate; sometimes a boat being towed with some streamers or an old car had people tossing the goodies. We caught some beads and moon pies, but then decided to leave early to get some beignets and café au lait at a nearby café to warm up.
The restaurants and some homes have Mardi Gras decorations: pine trees or wreaths in purple, gold, and green, the official colors.
These wreaths were for sale in the beignet café.
My sister came from Charlotte to spend a few days with us. She had never been to Florida and wanted to tour the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, about an hour away. We took one of the guided tours and paid to see an IMAX movie mostly about the Blue Angels.
One disappointment was that the ferry between Fort Morgan and Dauphin Island was under repair and not running while we were in Alabama. We took the longer drive around to Bellingrath Gardens south of Mobile. Mostly camellias and kale and daffodils blooming. The azaleas were a few weeks out, still in buds. We toured the home as well. Mr. Bellingrath, who made part of his fortune as the distributor for Coca Cola in southern Alabama and Mobile, was quite advanced in the facilities he put in his 1935 home: pink toilets and sinks in the baths, large industrial sized stainless steel refrigerators, two large industrial dish washers. The house was full of china and porcelain knick knacks supposedly purchased by his wife from local citizens during the Depression to provide living funds for those hurting. She also purchased French and other European porcelain objet de arts from dealers. We had watched Downton Abbey where Moseley was given the job of polishing the silver. The Bellingraths had just as much silver and china as the Granthams.
The conservatory had lovely flowers.
Our first full day in Gulf Shores, my husband and I walked the Pine Trail of the Bon Secour Wildlife Refuge. It was a warm lovely day; the first part of the trail goes through oak and pine forest to a lookout. The second part takes you out through the dunes to the Gulf of Mexico. Climbing up the dunes and back down was harder.
Rather strange vegetation called reindeer lichen
We made another jaunt towards Mobile to tour the USS Alabama. It also included an airplane pavilion.
This battleship shares a name in common with several earlier ships whose history is told in the displays. She has the big guns needed as she fought in the Pacific in World War II.
The aircraft in the separate building had historic importance to Alabama, such as a Tuskegee Airmen plane.
There are also some aircraft in the grassy park.
One warm day we headed east again toward Florida. We walked the beaches of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, specifically Johnson Beach on Perdido Key. I found some of my best shells on this beach, a razor clam shell and several small sand dollars.
Our last outing was to the town of Fairhope on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. It has a very good art center and shops and restaurants. We especially liked R Bistro for lunch. Fairhope’s old town is quaint and the town makes an effort to plant flowers along the streets. Lots of free parking.
The daffodils and tulips almost made me forget about the blizzard we had missed and accumulating snow back home. There is a long pier that juts into the bay, but it was too windy the day we visited. Our drive to Fairhope took us through some countryside where we saw many pecan groves.
We had thought about visiting Fort Morgan at the end of the peninsula and not far from our cottage, but the cold wind stopped us. We had earlier seen some of the ruins from the road. That and the ferry were two attractions we missed. We ate shrimp several times, once with grits. I had tasty fish tacos at the Sassy Bass down the highway from our cottage.
I must finish with the pink chair. Since we were on a peninsula, any time we drove to and from the cottage from our outings or grocery shopping or to the library in Gulf Shores, we passed a chair on the side of the road not far from the turnoff for our cottage. It became my emblem for our stay in Alabama. I never saw anybody sitting in it, but if they had, they had a great view of Bon Secour Bay.
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