Off-island Adventure

It was a beautiful day in southern Alabama today. I think temps were in the mid-70s when Mike went out to do something to the car. That something required putting the top down. When the neighbor suggested we should go for a ride, Mike actually said, “You’re right!” He then came inside and asked if Belle and I wanted to go for a ride.

You don’t often have to ask me twice, especially if I get to see new stuff. That’s how we ended up eating linner (late lunch/early dinner) in Fairhope on Alabama’s Eastern Shore. I’d read that Fairhope was a nice place to visit and an even nicer place to live. It actually sits on a bluff overlooking Mobile Bay and was hilly.

The biggest hill we’ve seen for awhile is the bridge going from Dauphin Island to the mainland. I’d been meaning to get a picture of that and was happy I could do so today.

We had no idea it was supposed to rain, and were happy to see we’d be on the eastern side of the storms for a good while.

We headed north toward Mobile then east across the delta at the top of the bay and south down the Eastern Shore to Fairhope.

As native Marylanders, it’s really weird to hear an area in Alabama referred to as the Eastern Shore. In Maryland, the state is sorta split in half by the Chesapeake Bay, so it makes sense to have an Eastern Shore. Only a tiny little piece of Alabama, the foot, is split by Mobile Bay into “shores.” Most of the state of Alabama lies to the north, and there’s quite a bit of Alabama to the east of the Eastern Shore, too. Anyhoo…

We ate at a place called the Dragonfly Foodbar in downtown Fairhope. We needed a place with outdoor seating to accommodate Belle, with good food and beer for us. I found the place on Yelp! as Hubby drove. It was described as Mexican Asian fusion. We each had a firecracker shrimp taco (spicy breaded fried shrimp and cabbage). Hubby also had a duck taco and fish of the day taco (Gulf Porgy). I also had a Wagyu beef slider and a fried oyster taco. The oyster one was my favorite. Mike drank a white ale from Iceland and I had a Southern Pecan nut brown ale. Both were delicious.

After dinner, we stopped at the bayside town park for a few pics before heading home. We did hit a bit of rain on the way back, but it wasn’t too bad. We even got to see a double rainbow and lovely sunset.

 

 

 

The shot of the pelican was my favorite capture from the park in Fairhope. I love this next pic, too.

Our pretty little girl is really getting old. She is 14.5 now. She doesn’t like to walk much anymore, so car rides are about as exciting as things get for her. She doesn’t like being left home alone, so we almost always take her with us if we are going to be gone for very long. She really enjoys rides with the top down, which we did on the way to Fairhope.

Going off-island together was a nice change of pace. It’s hard to believe we’ve only got a couple of weeks left here. We’ve been so busy enjoying the leisurely island life that we haven’t explored a whole lot in the area.

We have been to Bayou La Batre and the Mobile suburbs a few times (that’s what we call civilization). And one day for something to do I drove Belle to Biloxi so she could say she’s been to Mississippi, state #16 for our elderly pup. 😊

I guess I’m going to have to sort through some pics and bring y’all up to speed on our adventures, including not one, but two visits with some blogger friends y’all will recognize. Maybe tomorrow…