Don't ask me what Alan's doing! This is at one of our favorite Gulf Shores-area eateries, Live Bait.
It started when I was browsing Twitter the other day and realized my friend Randall Brown from the News Sentinel was on a beach somewhere. His tweet: “Exchange at beach bar: What do you have along the line of non-alcoholic drinks? Barkeep: What do you mean?” Hahaha. I thought that was amusing.
Later, he had a disappointing experience at a restaurant. His tweet: “Long wait, loud drunks and pricey ‘adequate’ entrees made for so-so dinner at fancy place.”
A buddy on Twitter soon asked him where he was. His reply: “The rung of hell called Gulf Shores, Ala.”
Now wait just a minute there! That’s MY beach you’re talking about!
Now, to be fair, Randall wasn’t entirely critical. “Becky gives the beach and water here points over Folly,” he tweeted, referring to his wife, Becky Napier-Brown and Folly Beach, which is near Charleston, S.C.
But then another slam when he got back to Knoxville. “The beaches at Gulf Shores were nice, but the town itself lacked the cultural richness of, say, Pigeon Forge.” Ouch!
I called him up.
Randall Brown. Follow him on Twitter!
“So, you didn’t like Gulf Shores?” I asked. By then he had mellowed considerably. He told me they had been stuck in terrible traffic before arriving there and then the hotel got their reservation screwed up. “I guess the snark was fueled by the traffic jam and weirdness with the reservations,” he said. But he did say he was used to going to a beach where there is a lot going on. And, at Folly, it’s only a short drive to Charleston, a charming city with great restaurants and entertainments. At Gulf Shores, the nearest “real” cities are Mobile and Pensacola — and they are an hour away.
Still, I love Gulf Shores. I can’t help myself. My brother and I spent a big part of all our summers there growing up because my grandparents had a cottage on the beach there. In high school, my first job was flipping burgers at a beach joint called The Hangout. Later, when I went to college at the University of Georgia, my family moved to Gulf Shores. Today my brother runs a custom cabinet shop there.
Jen McClurg Roth. She's on Twitter, too.
It’s a long way from sophisticated. But Randall is right when he says the beaches and surf are lovely. Unlike the grey or tan beaches on the East Coast, Gulf beaches have sand that looks like sugar. And the beaches are smooth and wide.
Knoxvillian (and fellow Twitterer) Jen McClurg Roth is from Mobile. But her family members now all live in Baldwin County, where Gulf Shores is. I called her up, too, just to be sure I wasn’t the only one around here who loves Gulf Shores.
“It’s one of the most beautiful pure white-sand beaches I’ve ever seen,” she confirmed. “It’s a really fun, down-home, laid-back place. And the locals are very caring. They care about each other and they care about the area. But if you’re looking for fine dining, you’re not going to find it.” She said — and I agree — the restaurants are getting better, though. But she warned against “unrealistic expectations” in the dining arena.
Jen said her “heart is still broken” over the BP oil spill. And I agree. I don’t care what my brother and the Chamber of Commerce down there say, that oil is in the Gulf and the seafood is ingesting it. We were down there on Father’s Day and oil blobs were washing up on nearby Dauphin Island.
I tried not to eat any Gulf seafood when I was there.
OK. Enough talking. Here’s how Gulf Shores looked to us last month. Randall, next time go with us! We just had to embrace our inner redneck!
We drove down on Friday and before we even checked into our hotel, we headed to Live Bait, one of our favorite spots. Their slogan: Dead Food, Live Music. Gotta love it!
We waited at the bar for a table to open up. Althought I was trying to avoid Gulf seafood, these oyster eaters were not!
Many restaurant and hotel workers in Gulf Shores are from Eastern Europe and they have lovely accents. Our server was from Romania.
I figured one way to avoid Gulf seafood was to order Alaskan crab legs!
What can I say? Southeastern Conference football is always with us.
After dinner, we thought we heard live music in the next room. But it turned out to be karaoke.
He was killing "Play Me Some Mountain Music" by Alabama, natch!
He had a cheering section!
And then “Sweet Home Alabama” came on the sound system and line dancing broke out.
It never gets old!
But WE are getting old. So we headed to our favorite hotel, Perdido Beach Resort. We’ve been going there for more than 20 years.
Here is the Perdido Beach Resort in the mist the next morning.
Saturday, my Dad who is 79, wanted to go to lunch at one of his favorite places, Wolf Bay Lodge. This is a restaurant I remember my grandparents frequenting, although it is in a different location now. It has a lot of fried seafood — both my dad and brother had fried oysters — and a huge, huge salad bar, which is what I had. It was great. And, again, I could avoid Gulf seafood.
Wolf Bay Lodge
I really liked their Christmas decorations. But in June?
The Blue Streak is turning into a wedding blog, isn’t it? Well, true to form, we were invited to the wedding of my sister-in-law’s niece. Here are some shots of the reception.
The bride and groom, the former Katrina Wilkins and Karl Neese.
Parents of the bride, Pat and Geoff Wilkins.
Dad dancing with my sweet sister-in-law, Tess Richard. Notice the halo above her head. It is well-deserved!
Hahaha! An Alabama bride and her beer! At least it's wrapped demurely in a napkin!
After the reception, we beat it back to the hotel for a little beach time.
Alan on the beach at dusk.
Here’s what the resort pool area looks like at night.
We always ask for a room with a pool view.
And then, courtesy of the Alabama Dental Association which was having a conference at our hotel, fireworks!
Father’s Day was Sunday and we had all morning before meeting the family for a celebratory brunch in Dad’s honor. Unfortunately, we were met on the beach by some beautiful but unwelcome visitors.
I like jellyfish much better in an aquarium.
But it’s a beautiful beach anytime of day.
The colors of the sand and the water make this beach one of the prettiest.
Here’s a place we recommend for a Sunday brunch, or anytime, really. It’s called Louisiana Lagniappe in Orange Beach almost directly across from the Perdido Beach Resort. The food has a Cajun flair. And I loved the decor, too.
Here's the front door.
The bar stools
Ladies' room
After brunch, we had some very important errands to run. Most importantly, we had to go to LuLu’s, the huge – and hugely popular – restaurant and bar owned by Jimmy Buffett’s sister, LuLu. Why? They have my favorite hot sauce in the world. It’s called “Mean Green” and you can only get it there.
We didn't get a chance to eat there this trip. But we usually do.
And then, my all-time favorite dive, the Pink Pony Pub for cocktails.
Love! Been drinking there since I was underaged. (Surely the statute of limitations has run out. That was a long time ago!)
Dinner was at Cafe Grazie, an Italian restaurant — again to avoid Gulf seafood. We both had pasta.
Very good food and service
Our last night of the trip; the moon looked spooky.
Randall, you just gotta give Gulf Shores another try!
We might return to Gulf Shores some day, though we are looking toward Folly again for next summer.
The Alabama Gulf is stuck in time, if not rolled back a bit by a storm or two. For all of our 16+ years together, Ginny and I have hauled 2-8 children and young ones + 2-4 grandparents down to this comfortable, clean, warm, and extremely hospitable section of our nation’s Gulf Coast. 2011 brought us perfect weather both weeks, lazy days and nights, and the finest seafood from The Original Oyster House, Louisiana Lanniape , and Cotton’s …not to mention the taste of the big city from the Old World Pizza. Mamma Mia! Like the Myrtle Beach of my youth, Gulf Shores is the utmost t-shirt and shorts, shoes optional, relaxation destination! Sure, I can play great golf courses…but bumming around the Gulf sand and surf with kids of various ages is the best! No oil. No worries. Great sun, fun, and food. THAT is the redneck riviera of Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, Perdido Key, & Dauphin Island. Cheers and let’s get back to our Gulf home very soon…
This is a marvelous travelogue — feel like I was there with you and your family! One question: where’s my bottle of “Mean Green?” You know what a hot sauce fanatic I am!
OK Randall. Rain check.
Brad: Thanks for those comments.
Ellen: Well, I guess we’ll just have to go back and get you a bottle!
Coincidentally, the pic you selected was taken at Tacky Jack’s in Gulf Shores. Brad mentioned Cotton’s… I have fond summer memories waiting tables there. I guess I don’t really go to the beach for “cultural richness,” like I don’t go to NYC for a suntan. 🙂
I can understand Randall’s traffic frustrations though.
Hey Randall, buzz me next time you go and I’ll give you the back road short cuts. 😉
Jen: I wondered where that pic was taken! It looked familiar, but couldn’t place. Thanks for your comments!
Gulf Shores is a wonderful place to live!!! We have great beaches a wonderful hospitality!! I lived here when I was younger for about 4 years. Being a military brat I never lived in a place I could call home till I lived in Baldwin County! After many many years I returned to my home town Gulf Shores. This is where I met my husband Jimmy, cynthia’s brother. If u want to relax and enjoy life come to Gulf Shores AL! SWEET HOME AL. We might be a little redneck but u couldn’t come to a greater town!! U just got to b ready to relax and enjoy life!
And that, friends, is my sweet sis-in-law!
Love Gulf Shores, too, but sadly, experienced fish kill on visit last week. Arrived Sunday 7-10, our first day at the beach, and there were hundreds of small fish–menhaden–floating dead in the water or dead on the shore. Most were intact except for their eyeballs. Trying to make sense of it all, I explained to my six-year-old nephew that the fish were victims of very picky birds. Wrong, but aunts don’t give in easily. On the second day, tried to make fun game of horrific situation by yelling out “floater” whenever a dead fish floated near. This got old after an hour or so. There were dozens and dozens of floaters. And they kept coming. And they were starting to smell. By the fourth day, most of the floaters were gone and replaced by something far worse: bits and pieces of rotting fish parts churning in the surge. The sight was almost as bad as the stench.
On Thursday, 7-14, found the first story about the fish kill on the internet. The news report says fish and game authorities believe the fish kill is due to a natural event and most likely an algae bloom. I hope that is the case but, of course, it’s hard not to believe this is somehow related to the BP oil spill or other manmade pollutant.
Hope and pray we learn from our mistakes and that mother nature is more understanding than we deserve….
Meanwhile, in addition to dining at popular places — Tacky Jacks and Oyster House — we discovered wonderful new dinner place–the City Grill. Very small, non-descript diner in strip mall…but the food was excellent. Best of all…no wait! If in the area, give it a try!
Amy Styles
Amy, how awful! So sorry. Was the fish kill ever in the Mobile or Pensacola papers, I wonder. Did it occur elsewhere along the Gulf Coast?
Do appreciate the City Grill recommendation, though.
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