We began RVing in 2004, but this blog did not begin until we went into fulltime RVing in 2007. The blog has evolved to a time when we no longer have a RV, but we still consider ourselves vacationing on a perpetual basis.
One of the perks of being THE PERPETUAL VACATIONERS is learning about restaurants we haven't tried. This morning we visited Auntie Bo's for breakfast. Although we're usually not buffet fans, the specials we saw on the boards sounded appetizing and were reasonably priced. Getting our money's worth is perhaps the biggest advantage to visiting this restaurant. I would emphasize the FAMILY part of their description because it is definitely difficult to take out a whole family for a meal and everyone be reasonably satisfied. Most people like fried chicken, and it's offered every day. Our neighbor said the prime rib special is done right.
If I lived closer to this restaurant, it would probably tempt me every day because of the vegetables and salad bar. Our server mentioned that they do have a menu besides the terrific breakfast special that is especially cooked for each customer – and once we learned what it included, we didn't even look at the menu.
So now you have had our review, such as it is, since we're not really critics. We typically don't have trouble liking food wherever we dine. If we really can't recommend a restaurant, we just don't mention it much at all on our blog.
While there we took some photos, which may be seen on Flickr at:
We're both Elvis fans. I'm a fan of Elton John as well, but did not know about this song by Elton until I saw this:
Elton John · Porch Swing in Tupelo
Video Description on YouTube: An emotional tribute to Elvis Presley and his beautiful birthplace in the South. This tribute focuses on that part of the young man, who turned out to be king, that will always belong to the timeless peace and eternal wonder of places like Tupelo, Mississippi, U.S. and on the contrast between the life Elvis had, when he grew up, and the life he lived, when he died. Once again a proof of what fame can do to people - but we would never have been without his wonderful music, talent and charm!
Back in May of 2010, we made our pilgrimage to the area where Elvis was born and lived. We took in Graceland in Memphis and stopped by Tupelo on a peaceful Sunday morning. While there we took some photos, which may be seen on Flickr at:
For some reason, it seems we've been blogging about fountains lately, so now we include our video of the Fountain of Life in Tupelo at Elvis' birthplace.
My thanks go to Tom for sending this link to me because I'm sure not ever going to see it in person. For more information on this amazing fountain, look at what Wikepedia has to say.
We missed this event our first year here in 2008, but have attended each year since. It offers over 200 exhibitors from across the nation. Live entertainment is included, along with many booths offering food and refreshment. All of this takes place on the streets of beautiful downtown Fairhope.
Official Artwork by Karen Faire
Admission is free to the festival, and the only expense for us was a dollar each way from the Bruno's parking lot on BRATS (Baldwin County Area Transportation System), plus our food and drink at the festival itself. A person could spend lots of $$$ on many interesting and unusual items and some great art, but we curbed our appetite for spending.
We discovered the back entrance to The Pub when we followed our noses where barbequed pork and chicken were being cooked outside the place. We had the pork, baked beans and potato salad for $8 a plate and a very welcomed seat at their outdoor patio bar – about $25 total, tip and all.
We chose Saturday again to attend this year, so as I'm posting this, things are underway for its third and final day. We encourage anyone reading this today to get on out and take in what is offered in downtown Fairhope.
We left the festival in a mood to continue enjoying ourselves and stopped at Magnolia River Bar and Grill in Magnolia Springs before we returning home. That night was a much talked about special full moon, so our photos for the day ended on that note.
We got in on our first pub crawl ever thanks to some friends who requested transportation to Papa Rocco's in Gulf Shores where the Gulf Shores Pub Crawl began. The pubs included were Mudbugs, Gulf Shores Steamer, Desoto’s, The Hangout, Pink Pony, Gulf Island Grille, Ribs ‘N Reds and Mikee’s. We must confess that we did not make the last three pubs. Instead, we began our walk back to Papa Rocco's, where our car was parked. At that point, our friends' ride home had arrived and we were pooped. We stopped along the way at The Shrimp Basket for sitting down and resting as much as for the Shrimp Po-Boys.
We had been told that Denny and Billy were playing at the Elberta VFW, so we felt rested enough to take in another St. Patrick's celebration there, where not only was there holiday entertainment with songs like My Wild Irish Rose and Danny Boy, they were also serving a plate of traditional corned beef and cabbage for a mere three bucks. We could not partake because of our Shrimp Basket lunch less than a hour before, but those who did proclaimed it was delicious.
To fill in on the pubs we missed in Gulf Shores, we stopped at Kelsey's in Foley and Magnolia River Bar and Grill in Magnolia Springs before returning home happily exhausted. It was a beautiful day for the all-day celebrations.
Three years ago, the Orange Beach Pub Crawl was begun at The Wharf, and includes Rafters, Shucker’s, Rum Runners, Guy Harvey, the Cigar Bar and Live Bait. A really young, ambitious partier might be able to make both, since theirs doesn't start until noon. The fact is, their times do overlap because the Gulf Shores Pub Crawl doesn't return to Papa Rocco's until early afternoon.
Thanks to Terry Harpole in Maben, Mississippi, I'm able to share a brief trip with you. I love the video and audio sketches Walt Grayson of WLBT provides to people in his TV show Look Around Mississippi.
We took in two Mardi Gras celebrations as Mardi Gras was rapidly coming to a close: A party at Magnolia River Bar & Grill in Magnolia Springs, and the Gulf Shores Mardi Gras Parade on Fat Tuesday, March 8. After the parade, we stopped by MRBG and found two of the people who had walked in the Gulf Shores parade and took a few photos there.
It took us awhile to discover a place to eat fried catfish in our new home. For awhile, there was a take-out place in Foley we patronized when we needed a fried catfish fix, but the BP oil spill very likely put an end to that like it affected other Coastal Alabama businesses. At any rate, it closed. David's Catfish House in Spanish Fort is now the closest place for good fried catfish. Milton, Florida, has a location we may look up one of these days.
From the website:
Back in 1983 David and Sadie Ross started serving food from their now famous menu. Nearly a quarter century later, the catfish and cheese grits have been flying out of the kitchen. In fact, the dish has been named one of the 100 Dishes to Eat in Alabama Before You Die by the Alabama Bureau of Tourism and Travel for two consecutive years.
Not bad for a mom and pop start-up that began in Waynesboro, Mississippi.
Three years after opening and seeing a market in dire need of great food, David and Sadie moved their restaurant to Monroeville, Alabama, where its headquartered today.
If fried catfish is not what you're looking for, take a look at David's Catfish House Menu(pdf). The menu at Spanish Fort seemed to offer other items when we looked at it, but we knew what we came for.
Note: If you are expecting to have an alcoholic beverage with your meal, it does not look like that is available.
When we lived in Jackson, Mississippi, we got our fix at Cock of the Walk, on a fairly regular basis. Their menu is very limited, but they had what we wanted along with the nice atmosphere of being on the water. We enjoyed dining there at least once since we've been in Alabama. Actually it may have been shortly before we settled in Alabama. Possibly the last time we were there was on December 10, 2007, during the Christmas Season. The photos from that visit may be seen in a Flickr slideshow at:
Here we are in Paradise (Lower Alabama) nearing our third year as 2010 is coming to a close. It seems many things have occurred since we settled down here. Here's what I have to say about that. It's the same thing I've mentioned before. If you are doing lots of things to write about, you don't have time to write about them. If you aren't doing much, what do you write? One of those quandaries. What results is one never really fully shares the exciting, newsworthy happenings because there is not time for that. When there is time on your hands and you'd like to think of something to share, the feeling is, it's not worth sharing mundane happenings. Perhaps we can just sum it up by saying –
♥ We still love living in LA ♥
This time of year beginning with Thanksgiving and running through the last day of the year and rapidly moving into New Years Day, has so much to do and be energized by that I am seriously thinking of taking off January of 2011 as a vacation from blogging. I've threatened this before and couldn't stick by it. Maybe, just maybe, next year I'll succeed.
Recently I have noticed TV shows such as Oprah, run their shows more than once, so I am going to refer you to some reruns from both of our blogs.
As I looked over previous blogs, I found this one from this blog in 2007: Pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
This reminded me of one of my projects I plan to complete before the Christmas decorations are stored away. I want to scan the Little Drummer Boy Christmas cards we have sent and received. Most people would probably think that's a waste of time. Well, that's the kind of priorities I set, so the really important things don't get done while a project like this does. If you are curious enough to check back, I plan to have them in one album on Flickr: THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY - A Collection
As I looked over previous blog posts, I discovered that some of the links I gave you in previous posts no longer work. At first I thought I'd try to correct that, but life is just too short to spend my time on that. Most of the videos that do not work are from YouTube and the account has been closed because the user was infringing on copyright laws, etc. So, just let me apologize for the fact that they don't work and be done with it. If you want to mention a particular one to me, feel free to do so, and I'll see if there is something else I can substitute that does work on the post.
The other posts I wanted to run by you are from the LIVING... MAEDEANS STYLE blog:
By now, if you have been paying attention, you probably realize I like THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY. Yes, I know there is nothing in the Bible about him, but it was published in 1857 by James Pierpont, so we'll just say its a fictional legend, sort of like Rudolph and dare we even say the fat man in the red suit? All I know is I really think Jesus likes him too.
This is my final 2010 post, so let me send this wish to you from our house:
Our youngest daughter treated us to the Lights Show put on each holiday season at Bellingrath Gardens and Home. It had particularly been recommeded to us from a long-time resident and friend from Mobile, so we knew it was well worth the trip to view it. We had not seen it already because we really don't like to drive at night. With Carla doing most of the night driving on our return home, we sprung for an unbelievably entertaining evening as we strolled the gardens decorated everywhere with seasonal light decorations while Christmas songs played from many speakers in the gardens. The weather could not have been better with calm winds and only the need for a jacket while leisurely walking all the paths.
An early disappointment: We left our camera at home. Carla had hers, though, and snapped lots of photos as long as its battery allowed.
A pleasant surprise: The area's frost-free autumn encouraged spectacular blooms on the gardens' flowering plants. The cascading chrysanthemums were fantastic, and the rose garden was prettier than when we visited last April. Although there were fewer roses today, the December blooms seemed invigorated by the cooler temps. We recommend arriving long before dark to see the beauty of the blooming plants, then stay for the lights after nightfall. The only negative about approaching it this way is that old joints tire before that much time and walking. Perhaps a better recommendation is to make two visits: one in the daytime and one in the evening.
A clever plan: We arrived before dark and missed heavy traffic, some by the busloads, attending the special lights display. As we departed, vehicles were streaming in to enjoy holiday lights.
More photos would have been taken and probably some videos if we'd had our Canon camera. The reason we were unable to bring it finally unwound after lots of searching back at home. We theorized the camera had fallen out of my unzipped purse sitting on the bedroom floor and slid under the end of the bed out of sight.
Leaving our camera behind certainly didn't deter all three of us from enjoying our visit. The photos that Carla took with her camera illustrate what an impressive and entertaining evening it was:
When we first came down to Alabama in January of 2008, we had no idea we would find a second home at Magnolia River Bar and Grill. Today we enjoyed our third Thanksgiving there. To make this a short blog post, just let me say I had the best food there I have ever eaten at any time or any place.
Not only is this a nice, relaxing way to enjoy Thanksgiving, but, when compared to all the Thanksgiving holidays when most of the food preparation was done by a few people, these past three Thanksgivings have been a cooperative effort like a potluck. I would not want to give the impression that it was not a much bigger effort on the part of some people. In the first place, this restaurant and bar always goes out of its way to decorate for holidays, and this was no exception. In a few days the beautiful Christmas tree will be decorated with many other decorative touches as the season quickly follows on the heels of Thanksgiving.
Most of the photos taken today were of decorations with only a few of some people. If you could have seen the place as more and more dishes came out to be set on the table, you would have had no doubt many people worked very hard to make this its usual success. The Flickr photos taken today may be seen at:
We had heard about the Oyster Cookoff at The Hangout last year, but it may have been after it had already taken place. This is not to be confused with the Oyster Fest in Bon Secour, which we did attended last year.
Anyway, if it had not been for a phone call from Diane Saturday morning, we would have missed this one, too.
This was actually the first time we had really participated in any event at The Hangout, located at the "T" intersection of Highway 59 and Beach Boulevard. It is set up for entertaining all ages with it's own sand mountain with a tunnel running through it for youngsters to romp and play on. The outside Beer Garden was where teams were set up in booths cooking oysters to vie for some kind of honors with judges and all. For us it was just a chance to get out and enjoy the gorgeous weather while "people-watching."
The three categories for the competition were: Oyster Rockefeller, Cajun Oysters, and Chief's Choice Raw. I had a couple of the first two categories and one raw one, which was served in a tiny martini glass. Meanwhile, "Bust" was entertaining us with their music on the outdoor stage.
If Diane had not told me about the gift shop inside The Hangout, I would have missed a special collection of trolls on their wall there. During the craze, just about everyone had at least one troll. Of course, all one needs to have of anything is two, and you have a collection.
Only the burning rays of the sun caused us to leave when we did, but visiting with friends in such perfect weather can't be beat.
We were very excited about the opportunity to stay right on the beach at Sun Destin Beach Resort and Hotel located at 1040 Highway 98 East (Emerald Isle Parkway) in Destin, Florida.
We did not go over exactly the route we had planned because we made a wrong turn somewhere and wound up on I-10 and traveled even further on it than we realized, and this had us arriving in the parking lot of Sun Destin about the same time as our host friend, who drove all the way from Jackson, Mississippi.
Once checked in, we immediately went to the beach balcony side of the condo and soaked up beautiful beach and the waves rolling in. It's not hard to see why they call it the Emerald Isle. The water is a beautiful green hue. Rather than trying to describe this beach resort hotel, the video below will give you a very good idea of what it is like.
While we were there, the weather was pleasantly warm with a good bit of sunshine with lower temperatures and high wind only arriving the night before we were checking out.
We visited with a few snowbirds in the condo bar and sort of envied them being there for several weeks or months rather than a few days, but we really were happy to head on back to Lower Alabama anyway because we still enjoy the many friends we have made there.
There's a great outlet mall there that we visited and even made it back over to Fort Walton on Thursday to check out a special Halloween Costumes shop. Can you believe this? Some of the costumes there cost $150! We wound up at Wal-Mart for our costumes :)
We had shrimp twice in one day. First we had Shrimp Po-Boys at Joe's Crab Shack for lunch and then we purchased fresh shrimp at Sexton's for delish Shrimp Pasta cooked in the condo.
We looked up the Fisherman's Wharf for an early lunch on Thursday. It's a place we visited many, many years ago when we had small children and have visited one other time when we were on one of our Orange Beach vacations. We had the special for that day priced around $8 for two steak patties smothered in onions and gravy and mashed potatoes and gravy. A soft drink was included.
Our photos from the trip may be seen on Flickr at: Trip to SunDestin in Destin, Florida. It is possible more will be added as we had two disposable cameras we were snapping pictures with as well, which we'll pick up at Wal-Mart on Thursday.
On our way back to Alabama on Friday, we got lost in Pensacola. This has happened to us more than once there. This time we wound up going through the Penscola Naval Air Station and on via Pedido Key and the Perdido Sun (a condo we stayed in many years ago).
Probably no one has had a love affair like we have with the beaches and areas on the Coast. We've camped in a tent on Dauphin Island as well as stayed in the Holiday Inn there before it was blown away by some hurricane. We've also stay in cabins right on the beach on Santa Rosa Island. Somewhere along the way we discovered Orange Beach and came there many times -- sometimes in groups or with family staying at Seaside Beach and Rachet Club and other times at Sunswept when there was just the two of us. Sunswept has the distinction of having its on traffic light.
You didn't know you were going to get a commercial for the entire Gulf Coast, did you? Actually, the Mississippi Gulf Coast attracts many people as well -- partly because of the gambling casinos, but events like Cruising the Coast bring many people there to see and be seen in their vintage vehicles. We've enjoyed that a couple of times. I must admit that I missed out on the "gambling gene," but we've still enjoyed a trip with a group of friends on a Halloween weekend.
WHEN?Wednesday · September 15 WHERE?Mobile Greyhound Park It was a day for us to "go to the dogs," "have a dog in the race," on a "dog day afternoon" and have a doggone good time!
Facilities were nice as evidenced by Mae Dean's great photography. I'm still worried about that "bronzed dog". Wendell explained the betting philosophy to Mae Dean, while I bet on lucky numbers and cute names. I only lost $17.00. Hot dogs and french fries were very cheap -- usually stadium prices outrageous.
I have to close my eyes when I drive through the tunnel in Mobile, so Wendell insisted that I ride with them rather than vice versa to our dinner destination. Their selection was perfect -- Ed's Seafood Shack -- best shrimp I have ever eaten. Almost prawns so big and delicious.
After dinner we kissed, kissed, hugged, hugged and went to our respective rooms. Got up early next a.m. and drove uneventfully home. Tired but very glad I went. ~Pam, Guest Blogger The photos from today are on Flickr at: Going to the Dogs Let me (MDS) reveal once again why I am not a gambler. I lost every cent of the 28 bucks I bet on the 14 races. Nuff said.
As Pam wrote, we did not see each other the next day because she took off headed back to Jackson too early for that. We didn't hang around Tillman's corner very long ourselves. We chose to take the slow and leisurely scenic route back to Lower Alabama. You can view those photos on Flickr also at:
This blog post was definitely a joint venture, and we really want to help all of you out to get ready for the football season of 2010.
It takes a little more effort now that we are out of our stomping grounds for many years in Mississippi, but we hope some of our friends back in Mississippi will appreciate this post as well as our new friends in Alabama.
We are fully aware that Alabama came out No. 1 last year, and it seems like from what the sports commentators are saying this year, they may do it again.
But, we are definitely dyed-in-the-wool maroon and white fans, and have always supported them, whether or not they were doing well.
State rivalries are well known in many states. We are familiar particularly with Texas-Texas A&M, Ole Miss-Mississippi State, and Alabama-Auburn, but they are certainly not the only states with rivalries.
The Southern Golden Eagles did not do too well in last night's opening game against the North Carolina Gamecocks as they came out on the short end of the final score of 41-13. We also flipped around for some other first games of the season on TV last night.
The above images are from the website for Manci's Antique Club. The bar-restaurant is located at 1715 Main Street, Daphne, Alabama (Phone: 251/626-2124).
After you look at the website, you will know Italian immagrant Frank Manci purchased an old wooden produce warehouse in what is now downtown Daphne in 1924 and built a gasoline station on the property. This caught my attention because of my own life's history, but I'll get back to that later.
Twenty-three years later Arthur Manci, Frank's son, took over the business. After obtaining a liquor license in 1967, Arthur started to hang bottles and various items on the walls of what is now a full fledged bar, which has resulted in the establishment holding the largest collection of Jim Beam decanters on display. But Jim Beam decanters are not all that decorates the interior of Manci's. All manner of old items are outside and inside such as two antique gravity gas pumps and a wooden schulpture in the inner chamber of the Ladies Room.
Alex Manci, Arthur's son, took over the club in 1987. He holds the title for the "Bloody Mary Capital of the Eastern Shore." So, naturally, I had to try the Bloody Mary. Since I'm not any kind of authority on Bloody Marys, I'll not critique it, but I will tell you it was so hot with spice that I didn't finish it.
In 1995, Alex and his wife Gwen started serving food in the club.
Southern Living and Coastal Living have carried articles about this historical place.
The entire west side of the 1700 block of Main Street (Old Scenic Highway 98) is filled with restaurants. The other two, Guido's and Cousin Vinney's, are owned by the same owner but have separate kitchens. Another restaurant we noticed that seemed to be doing a booming business was East Shore Cafe located about two blocks away on the east side of Main Street (1506). All you need to look for is the old yellow house surrounded by a white picket fence. After reading reviews, I understand they serve Philly Cheese Steak. Hope we can check out that one of these days.
Here's the part about how the history of Manci's Antique Club sort of coincides with mine.
All along, I had known that both my sister and I were born at home. Are you ahead of me? What I did not know was:
I was born in the back of a gasoline station where Daddy worked and my parents lived at the time.
Think about it. The country had not fully recovered from The Great Depression in 1936, so Daddy had the good fortune of having a job and all of us were lucky to have a place to live. We took a few photographs while we were there enjoying the food, drinks and atmosphere, which you can see on Flickr at Visit to Manci's Antique Club in Daphne.
Since I'm a very curios person, I still want to go back there when few, if any, customers are there and check out that fig leaf. I received an early warning with a VERY LOUD buzzer before I went into the Ladies Room and put 2+2 together. Still wanta know what's under it :)
This post is related to a post on July 18, 2010, entitled Choir Concert at Marlow Church. This was a concert by the Sonshine Choir from Brentwood UMC, Brentwood, Tennessee.
I now have an audio music CD of their 2008-2009 tour, and the song in the videos below is one of the tracks on it.
The video below is one taken from one of the closest rows of seats to the stage, so maybe you can pretend, like I did that the camera was in my hands and I was sitting right there.
I would have loved to be there on the final Broadway performance. Or, for that matter, any other Broadway performance of RENT.
Macy's thought it was a good way to advertise on TV:
This Garden Party began at the beach. It was the first time we attended a beach wedding, and we liked it alot.
But, we're getting ahead of where this began. Well, we really don't know where it all began, but we're thinking from what we've heard that it began in Georgia a long time ago, and it culminated in their marriage and celebration today.
Like the "Garden Party" by Ricky Nelson, and the story it tells, it appeared to us that the bride and groom accomplished what the song tells us with its message of "you can't please everyone -- gotta please yourself," and had the kind of wedding on the the beach they planned together. As far as we could tell, everyone there enjoyed every minute of it from the beginning all the way through the reception.
The wedding itself was blessed with very nice weather for an outdoor event, but their Plan B involved the pavilion at Gulf State Park had God not arranged such heavenly weather.
As we were leaving the beach after the wedding to go to the Foley American Legion for the reception, we spoke with two nice ladies who had driven from Georgia to attend this happy event. Since they did not know the way to the place of the reception, they followed us.
A few people were at the reception who did not attend the wedding, but the friends and family we had seen on the beach filled the hall with quite a celebration afterward, with a buffet brimming with many delicious foods and music for entertainment and dancing.
One of the earlier songs played by Billy Pelletier at the reception gave us the title for this post. We always have to preface one of our amateur videos with the fact that they are all non-award winning videos and add that perhaps, as they say, they are only a little better than nothing. Here's a link to GARDEN PARTY - BILLY PELLETIER.
Kevin and Lynda did their dance together at the reception to Brad Paisley's "Then," which is very appropriate because of the story it tells with reoccuring words:
Now you're my whole life Now you're my whole world...
We look forward to seeing their wedding photos. Like many others, we snapped a few of our own and even took some very amateurish videos, but we can imagine them looking at these and laughing at them. Just to give you a feel for the enjoyable, relaxed atmosphere of the beach wedding, here's a few photos on Flicker we have to share: Our First Beach Wedding
Karaoke PLUS happens each Sunday afternoon at Magnolia River Bar and Grill in Magnolia Springs, Alabama. Denny Grisham and Billy Pelletier do a good job of entertaining with more than Karaoke. They both sing, and Billy performs on the guitar and harmonica -- have even seen him play the saw a couple of times. MRBG is at 14984 US Hwy. 98, Magnolia Springs, AL, 251/965-6801. Hopped up and recorded this video after the song was already underway when I realized it was Buffett's 1974 hit “Come Monday.”
