Orange Beach, Alabama

 Orange Beach, Alabama

Since our condo was still under construction, we made plans to spend at least the first part of the winter of 2021 in Orange Beach.  Happily my mother and two of her sisters were staying at the same place, Caribe Resort.  What started as a 1 month rental for Jeff and me turned into a 2 1/2 rental which frustrated us, but was also nice since we could easily spend time with my Mom and Aunts.  

We usually tell people our condo is in Gulf Shores when in reality it is in unincorporated Baldwin County in an area called Fort Morgan.  Many people say Gulf Shores and Orange Beach as one area and considering they both have permanent populations of under 30,000 there is some logic there.  However, reality for us was literally a 22 mile drive west to go from Caribe to the Beach Club and our condo.  We visited weekly.  First time we thought we would be back in within a month, but then it sat.  We were a victim of the backlog of wood products so we sat for 6+ weeks waiting for floorboard so they could finish and turn it over to us.  But this is a posting about Orange Beach and the winter of Covid.

Caribe is a very nice resort, but it is on the bay not the gulf side so no beach.  It has a large marina and normally a tram to get you to the nearby beach and some nice onsite amenities.  Thanks to Sally the marina was missing 90% of its docks and thanks to Covid no tram.  Jeff and I were in a unit in the B building which was the first building (go figure).  It was a large 2 bedroom with a nice kitchen and a bit of a wraparound deck.  I said Caribe is on the bay side which it is, but it is also right at Perdido Pass so there were a fair number of boats and even dolphins to see from our viewpoint.  The first month or so we had entertainment from the boats in that they were dredging the mouth of the pass.  We could walk out to the pass area and watch that plus there was a couple of tugboats and other working boats that would come and go in the portion of the marina that was open.  Oh the marina had one lone sailboat too - not sure how much salivating that boat brought Jeff.  Towards the end of our stay it warmed up some and we saw a fair number of recreational pontoon boats in the pass and going out to an island that was in the middle of the pass by us.  There were pros and cons to being by the pass.  Pro was the proximity of the beach and seeing boats and dolphins.  Cons were there was a lot of traffic on the bridge that traverses the Pass as the sound travelled quite well - it was not our nice, quiet beach we are used to.  Each of the 3 buildings at the resort had its own indoor and outdoor pools.  Jeff and I visited ours once, but did not feel comfortable with others in it too so we gave that idea up.

Jeff by the dredging boat.

Nighttime and daytime views from our balcony.

Carol at the tip of the pass with the resort in the background.  The little red spot under my elbow is a face mask.

Since we were in a new part of town so to speak, we did tried out new restaurants and a different golf course. Since we were a mile from Florida, we went for a couple of hikes in nearby Florida State Parks.  Orange Beach has a municipal par 3 golf course.  So early on Jeff, me, my mom and her 2 sisters played it.  We all learned it is full of water hazards and thus a course that eats balls.  I think one of my Aunts had to borrow a couple of balls so she could finish.  Needless to say that was the only time we played that course.  Jeff and I did go there several times to use their driving range, but my Mom and Aunts never went back!

Hiking in a Florida State Park.

My Mom and Aunts decided they liked an executive course on Highway 59 in Foley called Gulf Links.  I am not as big of a fan partly because the holes are not well marked and 8 and 9 (the last 2 for me) make you go back and forth over a marsh - how rude!  When I say the holes are not well marked let me explain #7.  It is a par 5 so it is a long hole and you don't see where you are heading from the tee box.  In theory you drive your ball straight down the fairway and will eventually see the greens and tee.  If however you don't hit long drives and maybe you are off to a side you can see other holes and think that is yours.  So at least once if not twice my Mom and Aunts drove their balls from the tee for 7 and played the greens for 13 - oh well no one got mad and they enjoyed their day.  Not sure if I hit the correct green the first time I played that course either!

The year before my Mother and Aunts had introduced me to a group of ladies called the plantation ladies who golf together once a week at the Peninsula Golf Course near my condo.  Thanks to Covid and travel restrictions we had a smaller group this year, but most Tuesday afternoons you found me there with them.  They had branched out and had added a couple of husbands so this year Jeff and another guy played some too.  It is a pretty course and oh how a ball can bounce and roll on their fairways.  Also such smooth grass around the greens a bad player can get away with putting versus chipping.  The club has 3 courses each 9 holes and each suffered somewhat from the hurricane so several weeks you weren't allowed to play out of the sand traps and got a free drop - oh darn.  Also like Beach Club they had been hit by a tornado so their club house was closed.

Vaccination Volunteers

Baldwin County launched the vaccination with mass drive up clinics, where over 1,000 per day received the vaccine.   The clinic was at a local amusement park run by the Owa indian tribe.  Jeff helped my mom and aunts go.  We offered to volunteer and they took us up on the offer.  Jeff helped with traffic and I was a nurse assistant - paperwork queen.

 

Can you recognize me with the hat and mask on?

Restaurants- always a good topic.

One of our new favorites even after moving back to Fort Morgan is Playa at Sportsman Marina.  We had talked about going there before Sally hit, but never had.  We were missing out.  It has a bit of a Caribbean taste/style to its food which originally made me hesitate some being a hot spice wimp.  There are a couple of things I have learned that are spicier than I prefer, but I like more than I don't.  Have had brunch there which was wonderful, have had tacos, fried shrimp, nice fish dishes and Jeff has had the steak.  All were good - the shrimp tacos are a little too spicy for me though.  It is in a marina as its name suggests so you have a view of the boats and looking across the bay we also saw Caribe.  It is a sister restaurant to Fishers which has earned some national recognition if that is a hint at the food quality.

As I just said Playa has a sister restaurant and some of the other places we were eating at were also related/co-owned.  Right at Caribe was a restaurant called Cobalt.  It was related to Cosmos, Luna's and GTs.  We had been eating at Cosmos for a couple of years  and knew it was very good so first night in we ate at Cobalt.  Cobalt has a nice outdoor patio for eating and drinking along the bay/pass with a couple of fire pits and some tables.  The food seemed to be hit or miss for us.  The first night we were unimpressed.  We did take out a couple of times with my mom and her sisters and again some good some not.  The one thing we had that was stellar once was their Mahi Mahi sandwich it was perfectly cooked.  Unfortunately the next time we had it the fish was thin and over cooked - so frustrating.  We also visited GTs On the Bay a couple of times.  If you have kids this is a great place on a nice day/evening.  They have a great outdoor play place for them in their patio that over looks Wolf Bay.  We ate lunch there a couple of times and enjoyed the food and the view.  You will find some overlap in the food at all 3, but the restaurants are each distinct.  Cosmos is on the upscale/nicer dining side.  I think of GTs and Cobalt each as part bar part restaurant.

Another new place for us was Niki's Seafood and Thai.  We only did take out, but it was quite good each time. I had the pineapple chicken fried rice and enjoyed it a couple of times.  Jeff was more adventurous than me.

Since Jeff is not a fan of bagels, I waited till our daughter visited and she and I got bagels from a little deli on the corner of Canal Road and 161 called McClures NY bagel.  Like Jeff had heard they had good bagels.  We got a couple of different types and hers was fresh from the oven.  I would recommend it and will probably pick up a bagel or 2 just for me in the future.

Another good breakfast spot and one we knew of is Brick and Spoon.  The food is good, they make great mimosas and Bloody Marys as well as unusual versions of them.  It is only a breakfast and lunch spot.  It is well known so waits are not uncommon.  They added more outdoor seating this year so that may help some.

So we survived and at times enjoyed our winter in Orange Beach.  Now we are trying to get our condo and its building back to good as new again.  Unfortunately with everything that has happened in the world in the last year getting back to normal is a slow process.

Mardi Gras during Covid

 

It's Lunda Gras (aka Monday before Fat Tuesday) and Covid-19 hasn't sucked all the fun out of Mardi Gras.  Yes, the parades have been cancelled, but we are still finding ways to celebrate Mardi Gras.  Even little Fort Morgan's Golf Cart parade was canceled by the county due to concern that crowds like never before may arrive as it would be the only parade.  Our neighbors in Fort Morgan are an independent lot.   A video appeared on our Fort Morgan Parade of decorated golf carts with their Krewe tossing beads and other Throws.  Crowds were adequately social distanced, more so due to the typical size of the crowd than any support for the protocol.    

Likewise Orange Beach wasn't going to sit back and do nothing.   They hosted a great fireworks show at The Wharf on the Saturday before Fat Tuesday.   It started with a DJ and laser light show along the palm tree lined street with a big fireworks finale to complete the celebration.  

Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler!

The always creative people of Mobile (at least when it comes to Mardi Gras) have responded with the Mobile Porch Parade.  They set out to help the Artists and others in the Mardi Gras economy by re-envisioning the Mardi Gras Parade.  Instead of floats, they encouraged people to decorate their homes.   People then parade by the displays using an on line map.  

We fell in love with the neighborhood we chose to explore.   The homes were charming, the decorations festive and the residents very welcoming.   I hope you enjoy the highlights from our Mobile Porch Parade below.

Alexandria, VA

Jeff and I chose Alexandria, VA for our Christmas visit with Cierra this year.  It was partially planned and partially a last minute decision.  The trip was totally dependent on accommodating weather and Covid numbers.  Jeff and I drove there - straight through.  It was 13 hours each way with 2 to 3 of those hours being through the mountains which is tiring to us flatlanders!  We stayed in a Residence Inn - 2 bedroom with a kitchen that included a full stove and a family room.  Jeff and I got there the day before Cierra did.  We arrived tired so we unpacked, relaxed and went to bed.  

The next day was Christmas Eve and we needed food!  There was a Whole Foods grocery store right down the street so off we went.  After debating the easiest way to fix a couple of dishes in the unit and double checking lists, we got our food and hurried back to the hotel since it was starting to rain.  We dodged the snow getting there, but it was supposed to rain hard all day Christmas Eve.  Happily it did not pour right away so Jeff and I got a little walk in around town before Cierra joined us.  We had chosen Alexandria because:   it was billed as a USA city that felt European, it was listed as a top Christmas destination and oh it was close to where Cierra lives. Then it was time to decorate our Christmas tree.  When we packed up our house in Missouri, we kept out a little Christmas tree and some other decorations and marked them in a crate called "Beach Christmas".  Well it wasn't the beach but it was Christmas!

Cierra arrived in the afternoon, got unpacked and we all started to catch up some.  Then it was time to pick up our Christmas Eve dinner.  We had ordered a meal from Brabo Brassiere.  It was an Amish roast chicken dinner that we augmented with some veggies we had picked up earlier and some homemade Christmas cookies and wine.  The dinner was wonderful.  We spent our evening watching Christmas shows and then midnight Mass before we went to bed.

Christmas day meant presents, exploring Alexandria and food - great food.  We had picked up a quiche for breakfast at Whole Foods, so that with fruit Cierra had brought was breakfast.  Later in the day we picked up a to go Christmas dinner from Magnolia's on King.  We had a lot of food and it was very good.  We had a salad, mac and cheese, collard greens, ham, turkey roulade, green beans and dessert plus 2 bottles of wine.  It turned into  several meals for us- all of which we enjoyed.  Then we went out exploring - we needed to work off all of that food!

Thinking we might need some entertainment, I had bought 2 gingerbread house kits and brought them along.  Cierra and I worked on the kit that was 3 row houses.  For a first time effort for both of us, I think we did pretty good.

We drove around 2 nights looking for Christmas lights.  The first night we kept relatively close to Alexandria and saw very few lights.  We did enjoy one neighborhood that was on a hill and close to the George Washington Masonic National Museum.  It had narrow winding streets with lots of architecturally neat houses.  The second night we drove out to a park close to Annapolis and saw the "Lights on the Bay" for SPCA of Anne Arundel County at the Sandy Point State Park.  Since it was supporting an animal related organization, a lot of the the lights had a dog or cat included.  One of the displays they listed as a must see was the naval graduates throwing their caps in the air.

In addition to eating in our suite, we did eat out (literally outdoors) on Sunday on King Street which is the main road of Old Town Alexandria.  It was a nice restaurant so we had a nice brunch and were warm enough with our own space heater.

In addition to gingerbread house building and football game watching, we walked around Alexandria a bunch.  We went down to the water front and strolled along the river.  In warmer weather, they have boat rides on the Potomac.  By the waterfront was an old torpedo factory that is now an art center.  We found it at the perfect time - we were all cold and happy to go inside some place for awhile.  Cierra and I looked at shops and Jeff read all the displays they had on the history of the factory.  Then we were all ready to go back outside and explore some more.  Below are some pictures we took while out and about.

The three of us with the riverfront in the background

In front of a house the 3 of us liked a lot.

 

Fort Meyers, Florida area Rotonda West

Since Sally was still keeping us from comfortably staying at our condo, we set off for Southwest Florida for a few days. We rented a house in an area called Rotonda West that had its own pool and near some bike trails. We brought our own bikes after not being able to rent earlier this year so of course, the house had a variety of bikes in its garage. 

While the theme of no bikes was broken with this trip, the theme of no food delivery was not broken.  We had trouble getting out the door and the condo complex so we got in later than we would have liked and had not eaten dinner. We had passed a Dominoes pizza not far from the house so we tried to order pizza delivery. Again we could not get delivery and Jeff set out to go get us dinner.

Babcock Ranch

A couple of years ago I read about a new community in Southwest Florida which would be strictly solar-powered. The ecological side of me wanted to know more and to visit it - maybe even consider it for a future home. Happily, it was located near where we were staying and Jeff was agreeable to going and checking it out. We had trouble getting the map system in Jeff's car to pull the town up or even an address we had, so it was challenging to find. Funny thing for the rest of the time we were in the area, I was always finding it on maps! Anyway, the town is still very much in development, but there was a lot I liked about it. Unfortunately, it is not near the beach and is kind of out in the country.  It will be a town of about 50,000 people when complete. There is already a huge solar farm, a small downtown area, a golf course, trails, and a couple of small lakes. Right outside the development, a new shopping center with a Publix is under development. There is already a public elementary school and a high school starting so it is a growing community. We toured 3 or 4 houses and liked a couple of them.  One thing you see a lot in this area is the back of the house "caged in" so an area where you can sit outside without fear of bugs bothering you. Which gives you a hint of one problem - bugs!

Bike Trails

As I said above, one of the reasons we chose the area we did was that there was a bike trail that we could get to on our bikes. The Cape Haze Pioneer Trail is 7 1/2 miles long.  It is a former railroad line.  A very straight trail!  It was nice to be able to ride to it and we did ride it twice but it was so straight it was kind of boring. From our rental house, we joined the trail close to the middle of it so we went the opposite direction each time. The first time we rode it, we found a part we were enjoying when we realized we had left the end of the trail and was on something else. We turned around on a bridge after circling a country club.  The second time we rode it to the opposite end which helped me at least with some perspective as to how some of the community was connected.  There was also a small park at the end with a historical building.

Hang out at the pool

In addition to the bike trails, one of the compelling reasons we chose the house we did was it had its own pool.  In Covid times, having a pool of your own right outside the backdoor was quite nice.  Several days we would sit on a chase lounger reading and then get in the pool for a while.  All of it was screened in so no fear of bugs really.  We saw little lizards climb up the screens some.  We enjoyed our short swims and some floating in a lightly heated pool in October!  Oh one of the first days we were there we had a visitor to the backyard - a bobcat stretched out at the end of the woods looking at us.  I had read up on local wildlife the night before so I knew it posed no threat to us but it was fun to see.  As soon as it realized we had seen him it left.  I kept a lookout for it the rest of the time we were there to no luck.

Golfing

We visited 2 different golf courses within 10 minutes of the house.  One was called The Links and the other was the Long Marsh golf course.  We weren't playing our best golf but enjoyed ourselves anyway.  My dad used to tell me that part of the joy of playing golf is enjoying the scenery. Well, we saw a lot of wildlife (birds) we are not used to and were on the look out for alligators while we played.  We played the Links twice (9 holes each time).  The first 9 we did pretty well for us, but the back 9 was a different story.  I have NEVER lost so many balls in one round of golf - I don't think I lost that many all summer in Collinsville.  Part of the problem was it had a small lake pretty much somewhere around every hole.  For example, one hole had a long narrow lake right next to the tee box that went the distance of my tee shots so if you went just 3 feet to the left your ball was swimming - our balls went for a swim/dunk.  Then on the same hole, you had land then another pond that was horizontal to the green so you had to get over a second pond before you got to the green.  The second course we played, Long Marsh, was a golf cart only for good reason.  It has 27 holes, so you get assigned a particular set of 9.  Well to get to that 9 holes we had to ride the cart along pathways paralleling streets, crossing them several times and over a bridge or 2 for about a mile before we got to the first hole.  It was a nice course, but it too had a fair amount of water on it so it too ate balls.  Before we left my mother's house at the end of summer, I had gotten a bunch of old Titleist brand of balls to be my water balls - I need to restock over Christmas.

Island Hopping

Before we left for the area, I had asked a couple of friends for advice of where to stay or what to do.  All mentioned visiting the islands in the gulf for the beaches and the lifestyle.  So while we did not stay on an island, we did visit Anna Marie Island, Gasparilla Island, Boca Grande Island, and Manasota Beach, and Sanibel Island.  In short, I think we visited all of the islands in the area - we did a lot of driving while we were in Florida.  We also got some beach walks in and did spend one afternoon on a beach.  One of the first we visited was Anna Marie Island where we had a drink at Sandbar restaurant at the northern end of the island after driving around for a while. It was an enjoyable experience. We also drove around Gasparilla Island and Boca Grande Island early on. Later we went back to Boca Grande for a day trip. There is a bike trail that is a former railroad line so the plan was to ride it and then go to the beach. We deviated a little in that we started on the trail in town and went south to the tip, past the lighthouse, and then on our way back, we decided to ride through a community on the bayside.  Good decision! By wandering around in there we saw some gorgeous mansions - yes mansions and it was nice and quiet for bike riding. It was a fun ride which we followed up with lunch at the Loose Caboose and some beach time. We ended the day with dinner at an outdoor beachside restaurant  (Mucky Duck) where we had a nice meal and a very pretty sunset.

Pictures from the beaches

    Birds

The birds in the picture above are Sandhill cranes.  The sign was near our house.

Wood storks - they liked a house right down the street from us.

This bird is the Anhinga or snakebird.  When it is the water, you can only see its head so it resembles a snake and when out of water it likes to stretch its wings out to dry them.  This one was on a golf course.

Unfortunately can't find my picture of the gopher tortoise, but this is his hole and sign for his crossing in the neighborhood.

friendly neighborhood iguana

Englewood Farmers Market.

Englewood was a neighboring town that has a large farmers market which doesn't start until October 1 each year and then goes through March or so.  Different growing season.