2017 - April

April 1^st we moved to Foley, Alabama, just north of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. 

Our first stop was the Foley Alabama Train Museum and the Holmes Medical Museum in Foley.  The train was the most awesome model setup we have ever seen. 

The Holmes Medical Museum is housed in Baldwin County’s first hospital, which served the South Baldwin area from 1936-1958. It was interesting seeing all the old style medical instruments and snake oils so to speak.

Our Fig Tree friends, Denise and Daniel from Quebec decided to come to Alabama on there way home.  They were with us for 2 weeks.  We had a great time seeing the sights and eating a lot of seafood along the way.

We had a fun dinner at Lambert’s Café, home of the throwing roll restaurant.  It was lots of fun with good country cooking.

We spent a day exploring Fairhope.  A town full of history, unique shops and restaurants, very nice downtown to stroll through.  It sits on the east side of Mobile Bay with a very nice pier to walk out on. 

We went to the Strawberry Festival in Loxely.  One of the nicest festivals we have been to with 175 arts and crafts vendors and good music all day. 

Jerry had his fill of Crawfish and Royal Red Shrimp at the Undertow Bar and Grill all you can eat weekend treat.  Best deal in town!!

We took the Mobile Bay car ferry over to Dauphin Island and spent a few hours exploring. 

We spent a day at the Pensacola National Naval Aviation Museum.  The home of the Blue Angel’s training flights.  We enjoyed a show by the French National Team along with the Blue Angels practice show.  It was 3 hours of front row thrilling flying without all the crowds and traffic you normally have to go through for an air show of this scale. 

A visit to Gulf Shores wouldn’t be complete without a day at the beach.  The weather was great, the sand white and soft and a few good games of Bocci Ball. 

We took the Calm Water Dolphin and Nature Cruise on the back bay.  There was a “live bait” boat with their nets out, the pelicans and dolphins followed the boat waiting for the live bait to slip through.  There were several dolphin families to watch.

The next festival was the Zydeco & Crawfish Festival.  Our first time to hear Zydeco music, it was fun but after a while all started to sound the same.  Lots of people enjoying the Crawfish.

We had Easter Dinner at the RV Park with friends we met line dancing and at the Walk-Fit sessions in the park. 

A fun lunch stop we couldn’t pass up was the Road Kill Café, open 10:30 to 12:30 or until the food runs out.  It was a unique experience of buffet proportions.

We spent a whole day at Battleship Park in Mobile, AL.  The USS Alabama (Battleship) and the USS Drum (submarine) are on display along with quite a selection of planes and helicopters.  We had a great day with very sore feet at the end of the 7 hr day after.  We spent 7 hours on the USS Alabama exploring top to bottom.  Great history lessons on board.

USS Drum Submarine

Our dinner stop was at the Derailed Diner in the Oasis Travel Center along 1-10, if you are ever going by it is well worth the stop.  It was a very unique place with home cooking and service.

We had a wonderful 37^th Wedding Anniversary celebration day with Denise and Daniel.  They started our day by serving us homemade waffles and omelets, everything was delicious.  We had a relaxing day floating on tubes in the lazy river then a wonderful dinner at Jesse’s Restaurant in Magnolia Springs.  The dinner totally awesome, shrimp and grits were great.  A day we won’t forget. 

We went to lunch at The Gulf in Orange Beach.  It is a cargo container restaurant on the beach, great views

Spent one last day on the beach at Orange Beach. Great weather and beautiful white sand.

 

We visited the Pensacola area taking in one more visit to the National Navy Aviation Museum, the Pensacola Lighthouse and a stop at Pensacola Beach. 

 We met Fig Tree friends Richard and Melanie at the Irish McGuire’s Restaurant in Pensacola for dinner.  A very unique Irish dining experience and if you are ever in the area it’s a lot of fun and great food.  It was great to catch up with Richard and Melanie.