Living Our Dream

Happy Birthday

Summerdale, AL

To celebrate Margery's birthday we decided to drive about half an hour south to Gulf Shores, AL to Mikee's Seafood Restaurant. Mikee's is part of the Shrimp Basket restaurant chain, but Mikee's maintains it's own unique name. They have a menu that is a little more extensive than the Shrimp Basket. Because Mikee's is near the beach, they are also a little higher priced than the Shrimp Basket.

Another difference between the menus at Mikee's and the Shrimp Basket is that the Shrimp Basket has all you can eat specials on certain days, but Mikee's has all you can eat clams, fried shrimp, catfish, and whitefish (mullet) every day. Even though Margery had fried clam strips about a week and a half ago at the Shrimp Basket in Foley, and, although it was a generous portion, it wasn't all you can eat so she didn't get enough. That's the reason we decided to go to Mikee's.

We tried to time our arrival at Mikee's for about 2:30 PM so we could order from the lunch menu because we were pretty sure the prices for dinners go up another $1 or $2 at 3:00. It was the Easter holiday weekend, so traffic on the way to Gulf Shores was much heavier than we expected. On top of that, Gracie, our GPS, had the wrong address. She had Mikee's on West 2nd Avenue and it's really on East 2nd. Fortunately, we still arrived before the switch to the dinner menu, but just barely.

Lunches range from burgers for about $6 to po' boys for $8-9, and other lunch entrees for $9-14. Entrees include hush puppies, corn fritters and 2 sides. All you can eat clams (in the distance in the photo below) are $13. Paul had jumbo shrimp (not all you can eat) for $11. We both had marinated cabbage (sweet and sour cole slaw) and new potatoes for our sides.

Everything was yummy. Margery had several additional servings of clams.

After eating, we went a little out of our way going back to the motor home to take the Foley Beach Expressway to avoid the traffic we hit on State Route 59 on the way down to Gulf Shores. The toll for the bridge across the canal that forms the Intracoastal Waterway is a little steep at $3.50, but it was worth it to save a good bit of time after the frustration of all the red lights and back-ups we hit on the way south. One reason we didn't want to waste too much time on the way back is we were planning to attend Good Friday services that evening, and we wanted a little time for our food to settle and to change clothes before heading out to church.

We were pleased to know that the church we attend when we're in this area, Church on the Eastern Shore, had a Good Friday service...fairly unusual for a contemporary church. The service included communion, and it was a welcomed opportunity to join with other believers to remember and reflect on Christ's sacrifice for each of us.

After church we went back to the motor home and enjoyed a piece of fudge cake we picked up at Walmart the day before for Margery's birthday. The lid was very difficult to remove from the plastic container the cake came in. Paul really didn't want anything bad to happen to the cake, but he grabbed the camera so he could snap a picture just in case it did. Fortunately, Margery was eventually able to get the lid off without mishap.

All the Walmart bakeries seem to make the same items, and we had one of these cakes when we were back in Florida. Walmart makes a larger version, but for the two of us the small one is just about right giving us four generously-sized pieces. There are two layers of moist chocolate cake with plenty of rich, fudge icing.

The next photo shows the birthday girl doing the honors of cutting the cake.

Margery had a nice birthday. It wasn't anything fancy - just a good dinner out, some delicious cake, and calls from Paul's step mom and from our daughter Lora to wish Margery a happy birthday. For her birthday Margery also got a mechanical pencil with a wood barrel that J. Michael hand turned and a beaded bookmark that Lora made. We were also blessed by the Good Friday church service.

Our time in Summerdale is winding down, but we're planning for at least one more sightseeing outing, so look for our next post.

Pensacola, FL Part II: Pensacola Lighthouse

Summerdale, AL

Also located on the grounds of the Pensacola Naval Air Station a few hundred yards down the road from the Naval Aviation Museum is the Pensacola Lighthouse. You can see the lighthouse from the parking lot of the museum, so we headed on over there after we finished up at the museum. The photo below shows the Pensacola Lighthouse with the keeper's house, which is now a museum, in the foreground.

The first lighthouse was built on Pensacola Bay in 1824. It was a 40-foot tower built on a bluff at the south entrance to the bay. By 1850, there were many complaints that the trees blocked the light and that the light was too dim. In 1856, construction of the current lighthouse was begun on the north side of the bay entrance about half a mile from the site of the first light. The first-order Fresnel lens of the new lighthouse was first lit on New Year's Day,  1859.

Pensacola Lighthouse is 159 feet tall, 30 feet in diameter at the base, and 15 feet across at the top. The lighthouse was originally all white, but in 1869, the top of the tower was painted black to stand out against possible clouds or fog in the daytime. The bottom third was left white to stand out against the trees. The next photo below is a little more distant shot that gives a better idea of the height of the lighthouse and a good view of the black and white paint scheme.

Just opposite the lighthouse is a path to the beach. Since we were already tired from walking all over the 150,000+ square feet of the Naval Aviation Museum, and since it was already mid afternoon, we decided to spend what little time and energy we had left walking to the beach instead of walking around the lighthouse museum. Not only that, but there was no way either of us had the stamina to climb to the top of the lighthouse. The next photo shows us on the boardwalk over the dunes.

As we found out when we visited Gulf Shores National Seashore last year, this area has some of the whitest sand in the world. The body of water is Pensacola Bay.

There were a few people off in the distance sitting on the beach, but we didn't see anyone swimming. Margery stuck her toe in the water, and it was COLD. Panama City, which is not too far from here, is a popular destination for spring breakers. Brrrrr! But we're guessing the college kids go there for the beach, the beer and the bikinis - not the swimming. If they swim, it's in the heated motel pool.

From the beach area, we could see how the black top of the lighthouse stands out against the clouds.

By the time we left the area of the lighthouse, we were both famished. We still had a drive of almost an hour back to the motor home, and on the way back, Margery announced she didn't feel like cooking. We remembered seeing a new Mexican restaurant called Los Cabos in Robertsdale, AL not too far from Rainbow Plantation. We noticed the restaurant was packed on Saturday when we passed by at lunch time, so we figured the food must be pretty good. We decided to stop there for an early dinner on our way back to Rainbow Plantation.

Los Cabos has only been open about a month. They're so new, they don't even have a website yet. Since is was only about 3:30 in the afternoon on a Monday, we had the place to ourselves. We started off with the traditional corn chips and salsa.

We were too late for the lunch specials, which range in price from about $5 to $6.25, so we ordered from the dinner menu. Dinners range in price from about $7 to $8.50 for combination platters to about $12 to $14 for fancier dinners like fajitas. Although some of the combo platters are served with refried beans and rice, we both opted to go with a triple combo without the side dishes. The triple combo, which was $7.95, included (left to right) a chili relleno, a beef burrito, and a chicken and cheese quesadilla. The generously-sized portions were more than we could eat. All three of the items in our combos were excellent, and we both thought the quesadilla was one of the best we have ever had.

With our bellies full, we headed back to the motor home. After we relax a bit, we'll be looking for more to do, so stay tuned.

Pensacola, FL Part I: Naval Aviation Museum

Summerdale, AL

We finally decided to take a day trip over to Pensacola, FL. We had a few errands to run while in Pensacola (Margery wanted to stop at Lens Crafters to get her glasses adjusted, and she also wanted to stop at Michael's to pick up some supplies for her cross stitching hobby), but our main reason for going was to visit the Naval Aviation Museum located at the Pensacola Naval Air Station.

We had heard a lot of good things about the Naval Aviation Museum from other RVers. There are over 150 beautifully restored aricraft on display; and best of all, admission to the museum is free. The free admission also includes guided tours conducted at various times throughout the day. In addition to the aircraft on display, there are available at extra charge several movies at the IMAX theater, flight simulators, cockpit trainers, and Top Gun combat simulators.

From an area behind the museum you can also watch the Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Squadron practice most Tuesday and Wednesday mornings from spring through fall. The Blue Angles spend winter in El Centro, CA. The practice and show schedules are on the Blue Angles website. There are also autograph sessions with the pilots after practice. Unfortunately for us, the practice sessions start at 8:30 AM so we didn't even try to make it.

The museum was originally proposed in 1955 as a means to help educate flight students at the air station about the history of Naval aviation. After setbacks, the museum finally opened in 1963 in an old wood-frame building constructed during WWII. The growing collection of aircraft quickly overwhelmed the restoration and display capacity of the museum, so a tax-exempt association was created for private fund raising. A new building that was designed for modular additions was completed and dedicated in 1975. The museum has undergone several phases of expansion, the most recent of which was the opening of Hangar Bay One on Nov. 10, 2010. It was completed in time for the 100th anniversary of Naval flight to be celebrated in 2011.

Outside the entrance of the museum is an F-14A Tomcat fighter jet. This particular plane is the fifth F-14 ever produced by Grumman and was more or less a prototype. It is the first F-14 ever to be put on display. Tom Cruise and the other pilots depicted in the movie Top Gun flew F-14s similar to the one on display at the museum.

Inside the lobby there were numerous scale models of aircraft carriers. Margery is checking out the one of the USS Ronald Reagan. Christened in 2001, the Ronald Reagan is the newest carrier in the fleet. The Ronald Reagan is 1,092 feet long, towers 20 stories above the water, and has a crew of about 6,000. She is currently off the coast of Japan assisting in relief efforts following the recent earthquake and tsunami. One reason for that is the ship can make up to 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day from seawater.

When we checked at the desk, we found we had arrived between tours. Even though we would certainly have learned a lot on a guided tour, we decided not to wait for the next one and just proceeded on our own. We started off in the South Wing with displays of uniforms like the khaki work uniform and leather flight jacket from 1918-1919 in the photo below.

The South Wing contains early aircraft from before WWI until the beginning of WWII. The large plane with yellow wings in the distance in the photo below was interesting. It is the NC-4 Navy/Curtiss flying boat. In 1919, it became the first plane to fly across the Atlantic. The NC-4 is huge for the time it was built. The wingspan is almost 126 feet, 32 feet more than a Boeing 737. It was powered by four water-cooled, V-12 piston engines that produced 400 hp each. The transatlantic trip took 19 days and included numerous stops for refueling, for repairs, to allow the crew of 6 to rest, and to wait out bad weather. Charles Lindburgh didn't make his solo, non-stop transatlantic flight until 1927.

Next, we headed to the WWII area where Paul posed by a P-40 fighter.

The West Wing had many WWII aircraft including the ones in the photo below that were displayed on a simulated aircraft carrier flight deck. Notice the folding wings.

The newest wing of the museum, Hangar Bay One, contains post-WWII aircraft including quite a few helicopters. In the next photo, Margery is checking out a Sikorsky HO3S helicopter, also known as a Dragonfly. The Dragonfly, which was introduced in 1945, was used by the Navy and Coast Guard primarily for search and rescue.

They also had a cockpit from a helicopter that you could climb into. Sooo many levers, switches, dials and knobs...

In the atrium between the two main buildings of the museum are four Blue Angel A-4 Skyhawks once used by the Blue Angels. The Blue Angles currently fly F/A-18 Hornets.

They also had some Blue Angel cockpits to try out. Getting in wasn't too bad, but getting out was a bit harder. Who knew the cockpits were so narrow? Gravity helps you get in, but you're on your own getting out.

After we toured the main floor, we went up to the mezzanine where we could see the floor displays from overhead and where we could see the planes that were hanging from the ceiling at eye level. The mezzanine is also where most of the flight simulators are located. Neither one of us does very well going up and down and 'round and 'round, so we passed on the simulators.

The Naval Aviation Museum was very interesting, and we can only imagine how thrilling it must be if you were once a military pilot. We overheard one visitor in Hangar Bay One telling his family about his days in the Navy when he flew an F-14 Tomcat. After the museum, we had more to see in Pensacola, so stay tuned.

Hickory House BBQ

Summerdale, AL

We had a little cloudy weather and a brief shower while much of the rest of the South had severe storms and tornados. Our weather radio went off a couple of times, but the really bad weather stayed well north of us.

By the time the weather cleared, it was the weekend, so we decided to postpone our sightseeing again. In the meantime, we remembered passing a little barbecue joint north of Rainbow Plantation shortly after we got off the interstate on our way to Summerdale. We were both kind of hungry for barbecue, so we did an internet search and found out the place was called Hickory House BBQ.

Margery had a little trouble finding some of the produce she needed the last time we stopped at Walmart, and we also remembered passing a large farm market in the vicinity of Hickory House. So we decided to drive north on Saturday afternoon to check out the farm market, then stop for a late lunch at Hickory House.

Burris Farm Market is located in Loxley, AL. They have a large selection of all kinds of produce, but one of the main items featured at this time of year is strawberries.

The strawberries looked gorgeous and smelled delicious, but, unfortunately, we just bought ice cream the last time we went grocery shopping, and it was chocolate. We like tp have our strawberries over vanilla ice cream, so we decided one dessert at a time in the motor home was enough. However, we now have a good excuse to finish up the chocolate ice cream so we can get some vanilla and some strawberries before we leave the area.

In addition to produce, cut flowers and live plants, Burris has a bakery and a deli at the back of the store.

Margery needed some limes for fish tacos she is planning to make soon.

We also got some red cabbage for the fish tacos, plus an eggplant and some jalapeños for other recipes.

Hickory House BBQ is just a few miles south of Burris Farm Market in Robertsdale. The place is small and doesn't look like much from the outside, but there was a steady stream of customers the whole time we were there even though it was mid afternoon.

They had a cow, a chicken and a flying pig outside to symbolize their main menu items.

Hickory House has beef brisket, pulled pork or barbecued chicken sandwiches for $3.99 and baskets with sandwiches and two sides for $6.99. They have a rib basket for $7.99, a Cowboy Up basket (extra-large brisket sandwich with 2 sides) for $8.99, and a Big Boy basket (half-pound pulled pork sandwich with 2 sides) for $8.99. They also have platters that range in price from $8.99 for brisket, pork or chicken to $18.99 for a full rack of ribs.

Margery had a brisket sandwich basket with slaw and potato salad, and Paul had a pulled pork sandwich basket with slaw and new potatoes.

Both the brisket and pork were tender and moist, but not real smokey. On the table in the photo below you can see the IBC Root Beer container which held 5 different barbecue sauces. The sauces were all thick and rich. Margery liked the original, and Paul liked the hickory sauce. The sides were also delish.

On our way out, Hickory House gave us dessert samplers to take home with us. Each sampler had small portions of peanut butter pie, ooey-gooey lemon bar, chocolate cake and spring fluff. The samplers really hit the spot for a little something sweet when we got back to the motor home. After another day or two of relaxation, we finally got out for a little sightseeing. We'll tell you all about it in our next post.

Panini Pete's

Summerdale, AL

After a few days, the hot, humid weather we had been experiencing when we first arrived in Summerdale gave way to beautiful, clear, sunny weather with highs around 80º and humidity below 30%. That was a good excuse to try out the new chairs we bought when we went back to Camping World the other day to trade in our old batteries.

Our old chairs were typical high-backed recliners similar to what many RVers have. The old chairs were in pretty good shape for being almost 10 years old, and except for a metal bar that sometimes hit you wrong behind the thighs, they were also relatively comfortable. The main problem with the old chairs was the fact they were so big and heavy. That made them difficult to get in and out of the storage compartment as well as move them around, so we rarely used them.

We have been looking at new chairs off and on for at least a year now but haven't been able to make up our minds about what we wanted. Some of the newer, extra-wide recliners are very comfortable and some even have aluminum frames making them lighter than our old chairs. Unfortunately, since they are wider, we don't have room to store them.

When we went to Camping World to return our old batteries, Margery finally made a command decision and announced she was buying a high-backed folding chair with aluminum frame and adjustable back. Paul didn't want to be left out, so tried the chair Margery had picked out and decided to follow suit.

The new chairs are surprisingly comfortable.

The big advantage to the new chairs is their light weight. They weigh less than 8 pounds each as opposed to our old chairs that weighed 24 pounds each. That is a total weight savings of over 30 pounds. The new chairs are a shorter and narrower than our old chairs when folded, and the new chairs are a lot thinner. That means we have room to store the chairs in a different compartment that has easier access than where we had to store the old chairs. In addition to being lighter and easier to handle, they will also be more convenient to get to.

We probably should have taken advantage of the gorgeous weather to do some sightseeing, but most of what we plan to see during this stop in Summerdale is about an hour away in Pensacola, FL, which means we'll probably end up taking one or two day trips over that direction. Paul is feeling a lot better after having had a chest cold, but he's still not 100% and didn't feel up to a full day of sightseeing. Therefore, we decided to head out to do a little shopping and save the sightseeing for a few more days. Paul stayed in the car and read while Margery looked for her summer tops in Kohl's. She didn't find any new tops, but she used a coupon and sale prices to get some new "unmentionables" at a great price.

After Kohl's and a couple of other stops, we drove back to Rainbow Plantation through Fairhope so we could stop at Panini Pete's for a late lunch. Panini Pete's was featured on the Food Network TV program Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (Triple D).

Panini Pete's is only open for breakfast and lunch. For lunch, they have an assortment of burgers; hot dogs; and, of course, their specialty - paninis. They make their own mozzerella cheese on site, they roast their own beef and turkey, and they bake their own focaccia. The burgers and paninis range in price from about $7.50 to $9.00 and include your choice of homemade fries, homemade potato chips or the side of the day. The dogs are a little less expensive.

Panini Pete's is a little hard to find because it's located in a small courtyard called the French Quarter located behind a row of stores along the main street in Fairhope. The walkway back to Panini Pete's is at the left of the photo below.

There is a sign for Panini Pete's at the end of the walkway; but if you don't know where the restaurant is located, you won't know where to park so you probably won't see the sign. We had the location programmed into our GPS, so we stopped at just the right place. The GPS isn't always perfect, but this time it was right on. Another good thing is there is plenty of free parking in downtown Fairhope.

The walkway back to the courtyard is nicely landscaped and very inviting.

There is seating inside the restaurant...

...but since it was a nice day, we opted for a table in the courtyard.

We both wanted to try the roasted turkey because of the way they showed it being cooked on the TV program. They rub boneless turkey breast with thyme, sage and other herbs. Then they roll up the the breast, wrap it in three layers of aluminum foil, and deep fry it. The foil keeps the oil out and seals the moisture in as the turkey cooks quickly in the hot oil.

The turkey panini is served on homemade focaccia with Dijon, garlic aioli (homemade mayonnaise), roasted red peppers, homemade mozzarella, baby greens, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. We both had homemade potato chips for our side.

The thinly-sliced turkey was tender, flavorful, and moist; the mozzarella was soft and creamy; and the focaccia was light and perfectly toasted. We've had paninis that were toasted so hard the roof of your mouth was raw by the time you were done eating. Not so with these. The whole sandwich was to-die-for. We can't wait to go back.

After lunch, we made our way back to the motor home where we relaxed for the rest of the day. There was a chance of rain predicted for the following few days, but we plan to look for some new adventures when the weather clears so stay tuned.