Brrr it's cold

We came south to enjoy some warm weather and sunshine....well today it rained off and on all day and was in the high 40's and 50's.  I knew it might rain and we bought rain jackets. The cold weather was a surprise.  At the last minute I stuck in one of my fleece shirts that I have lived in this winter.  We enjoyed a nice breakfast in the hotel - their specialty is cinnamon rolls and they are indeed very good.  Scrambled eggs and a cinnamon roll.  Enjoyed watching kids make pancakes in the pancake machine!  The Mardi Gras Museum Jane wanted to visit in Mobile was closed on Sunday so we decided to spend the cold rainy day at the shopping outlet mall in Foley.  Jane had a list and remarkably found nearly everything on it!  Ben said I will just sit in the van and read.  No photos on a rainy day!

We headed back to the hotel (Jane put on her fleece) and after a short stop headed for Mikee's Seafood for a late bite to eat.  Jane had Fried Green Tomatoes and Ben had Potato Skins.  The food was OK but the service was very slow.  Maybe because of all the excitement just as we were arriving.  As we were walking up to the door of the restaurant a couple came running out yelling obscenities at each other.  If we had not moved to the side they would have run us down.  The staff was in a frenze.  Getting a license tag number and calling the police.  Seems the folks had left without paying their bill - it was a group of 8 and the couple we saw were the last ones to leave.  We were seated promptly but waited at least 10 minutes for a menu and then 15-20 for our order.  The place was busy but not that busy!

Grey Sky, Van and a Palm Tree - way in distance the gulf!

It was so dreary and cold we did not even want to drive around to sites - so we just went back  to the hotel and watched a movie. About 6:00 we got up enough energy to go out for some dinner.  It would have been a good time to order in!  Sunday night and many of the restaurants were closed so we headed to a cheery 50's Diner - The Skyline.  It had a big menu of about everything you could want.  No seafood tonight - Ben had french toast and ham and Jane had meatloaf and green beans.  Both were good and seemed to hit the spot on a cold night.  We were complaining about the temperature in the 50's until we saw it was going to be 30 at home! They had an inch of snow on Mt. Leconte in the Smokies!  Guess it is Redbud winter since the redbud was ready to pop before we left.

Really great looking cakes!

Diner doors and me in reflection

Back to the hotel and another movie or some shows...we miss our Brit Box and Netflix!

Successful day of shopping and rest!  I did manage a couple photos but still nothing much to photograph!

Saturday - Traveling South to Alabama

We were up, ate breakfast and headed south on I 85.  The trip was uneventful.  We listened to a Brad Thor adventure and the miles clipped by.  All the trees are green now and it is nice and warm - in 70's with lots of sunshine.  Nice!

We got a slight hint that there might be a few other people going south to the beach when we reached the exit to turn onto the Beach Expressway - a 4 lane road headed south to Orange Beach from I 85.

About 70 miles further south we headed into Foley - the outlet capitol of this area - looking for a place to eat a shrimp po'boy.  Well we found it - the #1 restaurant in Foley was River Grill #2.  It was definitely a local, real place.  We ordered a Shrimp Po'Boy and a Crawfish Pistol.  With every order you also got some Swamp Soup.  The Po'Boy was great.  The Crawfish Pistol a local thing - it was some dough stuffed with crawfish and shrimp and a great sauce and then fried. It was small and we each got about 4 bites...it was good but that was enough.  The swamp soup was a clear soup with white beans, greens, and some seafood.  Interesting but the small cup was enough.  Ben liked it but it was not my favorite.

Swamp Soup

Shrimp Po'Boy

Crawfish Pistol

Then on to the beach. Across an expensive $2.75 toll bridge. 

Ben thought he made reservations at the Holiday Inn Express in Orange Beach and we quickly found it - not the right Holiday Inn Express...we were at the one in Gulf Shores about 8 miles away...no problem we found it.  Only problem was I had done all the seafood restaurant research in Orange Beach - not Gulf Shores...oh well there are plenty of seafood restaurants!  We have never stayed in a Holiday Inn Express because we use the Choice Hotel Points Hotels when we can.  However this vacation is compliments of most of our points earned over the past year on our main MasterCard.  In fact it was selected because we had 4 nites without paying anything!  Pretty good for charging stuff over past months.  Nice hotel about 1 mile from the beach.  Nice pool, nice room and they upgraded to a suite for some reason....Ben says he just walked in at the right time and it was ready!

We sat by the pool in the sunshine for a bit and then after a little research we ended up at DeSoto's Seafood Kitchen for supper. This was an older restaurant probably here for years.  We both liked the atmosphere and they were super busy. Of course it was 5:30 on a Saturday night.  We did not wait long tho and the service was great.  Neither of us were very hungry but knew we needed to eat something.  I think that Crawfish Pistol stayed with us all afternoon!  It seems my only photos of the day were of food and traffic!  Supper was a salad and coconut shrimp for Jane and salad and seafood bisque for Ben. Both great.

Coconut Shrimp

Seafood Bisque

Time for a good night's sleep.

Leaving for April in Alabama

We left Kingsport at 11:30 on Thursday following the routine that Ben has followed every other week since November.  He has been doing a process inspection at a company near Atlanta.  He is documenting the progress on a project that is being shipped to Korea.  He has perhaps 2 more visits so we chose to tag a little trip down to the Gulf Coast on to this trip.

The routine.... Pick up a sandwich "to-go" at Jersey Mike's.  Eat half the sandwich about noon.  Drive to specific truck stop - get out and walk around a bit.  Travel on down towards Chattanooga eating the other half of the sandwich, stop at the GA welcome station and walk around some more,  Arrive at Canton GA about 4:30 or 5:00.

The fun thing to watch this trip was spring arriving as we drove south.  The redbud was barely showing any red at home. As we reached Knoxville it was looking like a redbud tree not quite in full bloom.  As we neared Chattanooga they were in full bloom.  As we neared Atlanta we began to see what might be dogwood beginning to show some white.  No photos but it was fun to watch.

The Comfort Inn Ben has been staying at each time is located in Canton about 20 miles north of Atlanta.  Right next door is a Cracker Barrel so according to his routine we had dinner there!  Their food is always consistent and usually good.  Ben had chicken and dumplings and I decided to begin the seafood extravaganza and had the catfish.  Both were good.

Ben was up and at his 8:30 appointment about 5 miles down the interstate.  He came back to the hotel and picked me up and we headed south about 10:15.  We were not looking forward to the drive through metro Atlanta.  We thought we would just go interstate to interstate to interstate but there was "police activity" at one of our exits so we had to exit through Marietta and Smyrna.  We saw some nice home with pretty yards, lots of shops, and even more traffic.  Finally after a long trip off the interstate we made it to I 85 South and were out of Metro Atlanta - only 1 hour and 15 minutes after leaving the Comfort Inn. 

Metro Atlanta Traffic

Somewhere south of Atlanta we stopped at a Chick-Fil-A and enjoyed lunch.  Ben tried the new Key lime shake which he said was pretty good.  There were now azaleas, camelias,  and other flowering plants in full bloom.  Also most of the trees are showing lots of green.  It is indeed full spring here!
We kept on trucking south and west and into Alabama.  The welcome station was pleasant and had a new i-pad sign in to track travelers instead of the normal paper and pen. There was a beautiful rhodendron blooming - I would not have known it was a rhodendon but Ben did.

Rhodendron

 Interesting thing about Alabama was all the gas logos had been removed from the exit signs at highways.  We had other ways to find a gas station but it was odd. We also changed time zones somewhere along the way.

Ben told me all his Red Cross disaster tales again.  He had a 2 or 3 week assignment in Alabama on our ERV with George Stevenson after a tornado some years ago.  Any Red Crossers reading this will remember assignments with George Stevenson and how he always served bananas!  I always enjoy hearing these stories because George was one of the dedicated volunteers everyone enjoyed working with near and far.

To select a travel destination for the day Ben had mapped out how far he wanted to travel and selected a location with a Comfort Inn.  Greenville Alabama it was!  Found the hotel, Ben took a nap and wrote his reports.  I sat outside in the bright sunshine at 78 degrees by the lovely pool and did absolutely nothing.   TripAdvisor found us a seafood restaurant - best in Greenville - a branch of a Mobile standby - Wintzell's Oyster House - and it was only .2 mile away!  Can't ask for more than that. 

We ordered a grilled seafood platter for one and two salads.  When it came we thought the server must have gotten the order wrong - we had 12 shrimp, 4 oysters, 4 scallops, a crab cake, and large piece of fish. The fish was pangasius.  Never heard of it - a type of catfish shark - found out it is from southeast asia.  Normally don't buy fish from there but I will have to admit it was very good!  I kept thinking they had given us the grilled seafood platter for two but when the bill came it was indeed the seafood platter for one....we did eat it all but certainly could not have eaten twice that amount!

Before...

After...

Ben really liked the oysters that were grilled with butter, bread crumbs, cheese and some herbs. All was excellent.

Nice relaxing day and Ben even worked about 3 hours!  Tomorrow on to the coast.