Living Our Dream

Continuing to Eat Our Way Through Lower Alabama

Fairhope, AL - Events of Friday, April 22 to Tuesday, April 26, 2016

We still had more favorite favorite foods we wanted to eat before we left Lower Alabama. We were originally planning to go to The Gulf restaurant in Orange Beach on Friday to celebrate Margery's birthday, but the weather forecast for Friday changed from sunny to clouds with a chance of rain. Since all seating at The Gulf is outside, we decided to save The Gulf for Saturday, which was supposed to be sunny again.

Since we weren't going out to eat on Friday, we decided to go to Aquila Seafood in Bon Secour to get more shrimp to smoke for dinner that evening. If it did rain, we could always saute the shrimp in a pan with some butter and white wine instead of smoking it. The clouds cleared by mid-morning, and the weather on Friday turned out to be beautiful in spite of the earlier forecast for clouds all day, so we went ahead with our plans to smoke the shrimp. Paul used cherry wood, which has a light, sweet flavor that enhanced the shrimp nicely.

Shrimp ready to come out of the smoker

On our way back from picking up the shrimp earlier in the day, we stopped at the bakery in Walmart and bought a small, chocolate fudge cake as a birthday cake for Margery. The shrimp and the cake were both yummy!

On Saturday, we went to the Gulf to continue our celebration of Margery's birthday. The Gulf is constructed of stacked shipping containers and is located along Perdido Pass, which is the channel where the Perdido River flows into the Gulf of Mexico. As we said, all seating at The Gulf is outdoors. There are canopies to protect from the sun and light showers.

Outdoor seating at The Gulf

We had never been to The Gulf on a weekend before. Traffic was a little heavier getting there, and the restaurant was a bit more crowded than it usually is. We had to wait in line a few minutes to place our order at the counter, and it took a little longer for them to bring our food out. However, there is plenty of ambiance with the beach-like atmosphere, and there are a lot more boats going in and out of Perdido Pass to watch, so we didn't mind the wait.

Margery enjoying the atmosphere while waiting for our food

We even got to watch people parasailing along the beach on the other side of the pass.

Parasailing along the beach

The Gulf has burgers for $7.75 (cheese is $1.50 extra), fried grouper sandwiches for $12.75, and they usually have several other choices of entrees, sandwiches, salads and/or appetizers that vary by day or by season. We always have burgers, and we share an order of hand-cut fries ($4).

Paul with his burger

The food is a little expensive, but the burgers are excellent. You're also paying for the atmosphere, which feels like you're on a mini-vacation to a tropical island.

In addition to picnic tables where guests can eat, there are also lounge chairs on the beach and other types of casual seating that are well suited to relaxing and enjoying drinks and snacks.

Lounge chairs on the beach

Margery testing a unique lounge chair

After we ate, we hung around a few more minutes then headed back to Coastal Haven where we relaxed the rest of the weekend.

Not only did the clouds and chance of rain disappear from the forecast on Friday, but they were also gone for Monday. Therefore, we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and have lupper at Panini Pete's a second time. This time, Margery had a blue cheese burger, and Paul had a roast beef panini with Gorgonzola cheese, baby greens, tomato and onion confit.

Margery and Paul at Panini Pete's

Tuesday was another beautiful day, and we couldn't resist the temptation to go to Panini Pete's to enjoy beignets under the big, live oak tree out in the courtyard one more time. We hung around the rig the rest of the day and did some of our pre-departure chores. On Wednesday morning, we continued our trek northward. We'll tell you where we stopped in our next post.

Bog Blog

Fairhope, AL - Events of Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Weeks Bay is a small, secondary bay located on the eastern side of Mobile Bay. Weeks Bay National Estuarine Reserve is a field laboratory and research facility whose purpose is to study the Weeks Bay Estuary. An estuary is a unique aquatic habitat where fresh and salt water mix. Weeks Bay, which is fed by the Bon Secour and Fish Rivers, empties into Mobile Bay through a narrow opening.

Weeks Bay Reserve includes the Weeks Bay Pitcher Plant Bog, which is a bog with rare, carnivorous, pitcher plants. Pitcher plants have vertical, tubular leaves with downward-facing hairs inside that trap insects. The bottom of the tube contains liquid, which drowns the insect and dissolves nutrients contained in the insect's body so they can be absorbed by the plant.

We went to the Weeks Bay Pitcher Plant Bog a couple of times before, and we decided we wanted to visit it again. After returning from our breakfast of beignets at Panini Pete's on Wednesday morning and relaxing a while around the 5th wheel, we stopped at Weeks Bay Pitcher Plant Bog on our way to Big Daddy's Grill for lupper.

Weeks Bay Pitcher Plant Bog

The Kurt G. Wintermeyer Trail is a boardwalk which encircles the bog and allows visitors to get a up-close view of the pitcher plants.

Kurt G. Wintermeyer Boardwalk

White-topped pitcher plants

More white-topped pitcher plants

White-topped pitcher plants are the predominant variety in the bog, although there is supposed to be another non-native type of pitcher plant that we didn't see.

The tubes are leaves, and there are also red, waxy flowers.

Red, waxy flower of a pitcher plant

Not only does the boardwalk traverse the bog, but there is also a branch that heads off through the pine woods and goes to the bank of the Fish River.

Boardwalk heading toward the woods and the Fish River

View of the Fish River looking upstream

In addition to pitcher plants, there are numerous types of other wild flowers that grow in the area, but most of those hadn't started blooming yet. The woods are also full of cinnamon ferns. Cinnamon ferns get their name from the upright, brown, spore-bearing fronds that look like cinnamon sticks.

Cinnamon ferns in the woods

Closer view of cinnamon ferns

On the way back to the truck, we stopped for a few more photos of pitcher plants as we passed through the bog.

Another view of pitcher plants on our way to the truck

Closer view of more pitcher plants

After we left the bog, we made the stop for lupper at Big Daddy's that we wrote about in our last post. We have more good eats planned, so stay tuned.

Good Eats in Lower Alabama

Fairhope, AL - Events of Monday, April 18 to Wednesday, April 20, 2016

After mostly relaxing over the weekend, we headed out on Monday to eat at one of our favorite restaurants in Lower Alabama - Panini Pete's. Panini Pete's has restaurants in downtown Mobile and in Destin, Florida, in addition to the original location we always go to in downtown Fairhope.

Panini Pete's is located behind a row of shops along one of the main streets of Fairhope. They have indoor seating plus outdoor seating in a courtyard called the French Quarter. The courtyard is shaded by a huge live oak tree. The surroundings are very pleasant so we always like to go on a nice day if possible so we can eat outside.

Outdoor seating at Panini Pete's

Panini Pete's has a selection of paninis that range in price from $7.75 to $10.50. They also have burgers for $7.50 to $8.75 and hot dogs for $4.75 to $5.50. All include your choice of house-made potato chips, shoestring fries or the side of the day which is usually a pasta salad. We both had our favorite - house-roasted turkey panini with fresh mozzarella, baby greens, garlic aioli, dijon, roasted peppers and balsamic vinaigrette on focaccia with shoestring fries. The price was the same ($8.00), but size had gotten a little smaller since the last time we had one. The good news is they were as delicious as always, and we still got plenty to eat.

Margery with her turkey panini

Fairhope is a picturesque, artsy town with lots of cafes, book shops and boutiques. We sometimes like to walk down the street or around the block after we eat just to enjoy the ambiance. There are also beautiful flowers planted at all the street corners.

Beautiful flowers planted along the street in Fairhope

After our short walk, we headed back to the 5th wheel for an evening of TV.

We had come up with a general plan to fit in opportunities to have most of our favorite foods while we were in Lower Alabama. The plan for Wednesday was to have lupper up the road from Coastal Haven at Big Daddy's Grill because we like their Philly cheese steaks, and the cheese steaks are Big Daddy's Wednesday lunch special. However, when we got up Wednesday morning, we found the weather forecast had changed overnight and was calling for a good bit of clouds and chances of rain for most of the rest of our stay after Wednesday. Therefore, even though we had already planned to go to Big Daddy's Grill for lupper, we made the decision to also go to Panini Pete's for beignets for breakfast on Wednesday morning. Very seldom do we go out to eat two days in a row, much less twice in one day, but we really like eating out in the courtyard at Panini Pete's so we made an exception because it was starting to look like we might run out of nice days.

We had two orders of beignets. Panini Pete's serves their beignets with lemon, which when squeezed onto the beignets, combines with the powdered sugar to create a hint of lemonade flavor. Yum! We always ask for extra lemon.

Panini Pete's beignets with lemon

Later in the afternoon, we stopped at Big Daddy's Grill for lupper as planned.

Big Daddy's Grill

Big Daddy's has a deck overlooking the Fish River so Big daddy's is another place we like to go on a nice day so we can eat outside.

View of the Fish River from Big Daddy's deck

We both had the Philly cheese steak sandwich. Margery had onion rings for her side, and Paul had sweet potato fries. The Philly cheese steak special with one side and a soft drink is $7 on Wednesdays. The regular price is $10, which includes a side, but does not include a drink.

Paul with his Philly cheese steak and sweet potato fries

As we left the restaurant, we noticed three ducks hanging around the entrance. They waddled along side us quacking apparently looking for a handout. After a short distance, they gave up and went back to the entrance to wait for the next customers who were leaving and who might have some leftovers they were willing to share.

Ducks hanging around Big Daddy's

Between our breakfast at Panini Pete's and our lupper at Big daddy's, we did a little sightseeing. We'll tell you about it in our next post.

Lower Alabama

Fairhope, AL - Events of Thursday, April 14 to Sunday, April 17, 2016

On Thursday morning, we hitched up the 5th wheel, left Blueberry Hill behind and headed north and west toward Lower Alabama. We had a drive of a little over 4 hours to our overnight stop at Beaver Lake Campground in Quincy, Florida. Quincy is located a few miles west of Tallahassee.

We stayed at Beaver Lake on our way from Alabama to Florida last fall, and it's not what you would call a destination campground. It is basically a row of a dozen or so campsites in a field behind a Marathon gas station. The check-in is inside the gas station. The good news is the price is reasonable (around $20 at the Passport America rate), it has full hook-ups with 30/50-amp electric, it is conveniently located right off the interstate exit and almost all the sites are pull-throughs.

The bad news is the sites are very close together with side-by-side hookups and there is some traffic noise from I-10. Also, the ground can accumulate quite a few puddles if it's been raining like it was when we arrived on Thursday afternoon.

The other bad news is the lady in the gas station who does the campground check-in is strictly business and not very friendly. Check-in time at Beaver Lake is 2 p.m., and it is reportedly strictly enforced. We read reviews where people who arrived early were made to stand there and wait until exactly 2:00 before they could even begin the check-in process. We took our time leaving Blueberry Hill in the morning to be sure we arrived in Quincy after 2:00. Being forewarned about check-in also helps. Margery tried to be as pleasant as possible without going overboard by being too jolly, and she actually managed to almost get a smile out of the lady at the check-in.

Closeup of our site at Beaver Lake CG

When we stopped here in the fall, there were only a couple of RVs in the campground. This time, however, they were almost completely full by early evening.

View of the row closely-spaced sites at Beaver Lake CG

On Friday morning, we got a fairly early start on the second leg of the journey to Lower Alabama. Not only did we have a drive of less than 4 hours, but we gained an hour going into Central Time so we arrived around noon.

Up until last fall we always stayed at Escapees Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale; but on our last stop we waited until the last minute to make reservations and couldn't find a site at Rainbow Plantation where we were sure we could get satellite reception. Therefore, we stayed at Coastal Haven RV Park located a few miles away in Fairhope because Coastal Haven is more open with only a few trees. We liked Coastal Haven so much we decided to stay there again. Not only is it a nice campground, it is closer to Walmart, closer to the church we attend when we're in Lower Alabama and closer to several of our favorite restaurants.

Coastal Haven has paved roads, and the large sites have paved pads and patios with well-manicured grass between the sites. There are about 50 back-in sites and about a dozen pull-throughs. All sites have full hookups with 20/30/50-amp electric. There is free cable and free Wi-fi that was pretty fast and pretty reliable, and there is a good Verizon 4G signal in the area. The daily rate at Coastal Haven is $42. With a weekly rate of $146 (which is what we paid) and a monthly rate of $442, the average nightly cost for longer stays is pretty reasonable.

Our site at Coastal Haven

View down the road at Coastal Haven

We like coming to Lower Alabama because we have a lot of favorite things to eat here. One of our favorite things is the fresh shrimp that is available in the little fishing village of Bon Secour located a few miles south of Fairhope. We planned to have fresh shrimp at least once while we were in Lower Alabama and to take a bunch with us in the freezer. However, cleaning it all at once is a real chore, so we decided to buy and clean the shrimp in a couple of batches. On Saturday, we headed to Aquila Seafood to get the first batch of shrimp for the freezer.

Aquila Seafood

Bagging our shrimp

There are usually a number of fishing boats docked behind Aquila. This time was no exception, so after we got our shrimp and put it into the cooler, we snapped some photos of one of the picturesque boats.

One of the fishing boats docked behind Aquila Seafood

After we got back to the 5th wheel, we cleaned the shrimp and popped it into the freezer then we relaxed the rest of the afternoon. After church on Sunday, we made a quick stop at Sam's Club, then relaxed some more.

As we said, we like Lower Alabama because we have a lot of favorite eateries here. We had stops at a number of them planned for the following week, so stay tuned.

 

 

Florida Wrap-up

Bushnell, FL - Events of Wednesday, April 6 to Wednesday, April 13, 2016

As our time in Florida neared its end, we tried to make time to relax a bit in preparation for the upcoming travel days, which always feel rather hectic. We also made time to visit some of our favorite eateries before we hit the road. Last Wednesday, we had some errands to run down south of Lakeland, FL, so we stopped at Parksdale Market in Plant City on the way back. Parksdale Market is famous for their strawberry shortcake, strawberry sundaes and strawberry milkshakes.

Parkesdale Market

We both had strawberry sundae boats ($4.00, up from $3.75 last year). The sundaes are made with soft-serve ice cream and are overflowing with strawberries topped with real whipped cream.

Strawberry sundae boats

Parksdale has picnic tables set up among the many beautiful plants and flowers they have for sale.

Margery digging into her sundae

The market also has a nice variety of reasonably priced produce. We got some spinach, a tomato, an eggplant and some cauliflower.

Produce at Parksdale Market

Since we changed our residency to Florida earlier this year and since it has been quite some time since we last updated our wills, we decided it would be a good time to do so. A couple of weeks ago when we had our initial appointment with an attorney, we were intrigued with the quaint downtown area of New Port Richey where the attorney's office is located. Therefore, when we headed there last Thursday to sign our new wills, we left early for our appointment so we could walk around town a little bit beforehand.

Port Richey was settled in the late 1800s near the mouth of the Pithlachascotee River (called the "Cotie" River for short and also sometimes called the "Cootie" River by locals). By the early 1900s, an area to the south of Port Richey was being developed. The new town, which was called New Port Richey, got its own post office in 1915. Today, the downtown area retains many Spanish Revival buildings that were built during the land boom of the 1920s.

Spanish Revival-style buildings in downtown New Port Richey

There are numerous murals all over the downtown area. The 3-dimensional appearance of the speedboat in the mural in the next photo was enhanced so much by the fact the bow of the boat was painted on the corner of a building, you almost had to walk over to touch it so see that it was painted on flat surfaces.

Speedboat mural on the corner of a building

When New Port Richey was first incorporated in 1924, real estate developer George Sims donated to the city a tract of land along the banks of the Pithlachascotee River called Enchantment Park. One of the first things the new town council did was to rename it Sims Park. Sims Park has a boat launch, boat slips, walking paths and an amphitheater. Every April the park hosts the 9-day Chasco Fiesta, which is a revival of a festival originally held in 1922 to raise money for the library. The festival features a street parade, a boat parade, carnival rides, food, entertainment, a car show, a craft show and more. The park was set up for the Chasco Fiesta when we were there, but the festival is only open in the evenings on weekdays.

View of the Pithlachascotee River from Sims Park

After we signed our new wills, we headed to Pancho's Villa to meet Donna and Tony, who are our neighbors in Blueberry Hill, and their friends, Sy and Judy, who have a park model on the street behind Tony and Donna. The special of the day was a chimichanga for $8.95, and that's what everyone had. The food was great, and so was the company.

Donna, Margery, Paul, Tony, Sy and Judy at Pancho's Villa

We normally don't go out to eat on weekends, but we were running out of time in Florida so we took a drive to Crystal River on Saturday afternoon to have clams one last time at Dan's Clam Stand. Dan's has restaurants in both Homosassa Springs and Crystal River. The one in Crystal River gets better reviews for some reason so that's the one we went to.

Dan's Clam Stand in Crystal River

We both had fresh clam strip baskets ($9.99). Margery had slaw and onion rings for her sides, and Paul had slaw and fries. Everything was yummy!

Paul at Dan's Clam stand

On Monday, we went to Beef O'Brady's in Bushnell for Burger Monday with Pat and Mike. The burgers were good as usual, and we had a nice time visiting with Pat and Mike.

Mike, Pat, Margery and Paul at Beef O'Brady's

We spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday preparing for our planned Thursday departure. We'll tell you where we headed in our next post.