Alabama April 1 and 2.

We left yesterday morning at 8 am on our Spring 2013 trip incorporating some family fun, sightseeing and RV maintenance.  Our first day was mostly driving to get us to Theodore, Alabama in time to set up and relax before dark.  I-75 and I-10 were filled with cars with out-of-state plates heading north and west.  It looks like things in Florida will be quiet for a few months until school is out and summer vacations begin.

You may be asking, “So what’s in Theodore, Alabama and why go there?”.  Well, we have been stopping here for several years on our way to Texas to visit our daughter and her family and have loved it each time.  The difference this time is we are here in the Spring instead of in November or December which is a BIG difference.  Usually we stop here to see the Christmas Light display at Bellingrath Gardens and Home.  It is a truly impressive display with innovative designs covering a large portion of the 60 acre grounds.

Walter and Bessie Bellingrath bought this abandoned old fish camp back in 1917 on the advice of Walter’s doctor as a way of making him relax from his business stress.  He was the first Coca Cola bottler in Mobile.  Before long, Bessie was planting flowers and the old fish camp was transformed into a country estate. In April 1932, the Bellingraths opened the gardens to the public on Sunday afternoon to see the gardens and over 4,700 people responded to the invitation.  After their deaths, the estate was established to honor Mrs. Bellingrath’s memory by a foundation set up by Walter.  Proceeds from the estate not only go towards the maintenance of the house and gardens but to various Christian colleges and churches.

Our timing was not the best considering the frequency of freezes and varying temperatures this Winter.  We missed the azaleas and caught the tail end of camelias but there were some really pretty beds of planted hydrangea and other flowers I can’t name.  There is an impressive rose garden with over 2,000 plants of 75 different varieties.  Unfortunately, they were not quite ready to bloom yet.  It was fun comparing the pathways we have walked so many times in the dark with the imaginative lighting to the beauty and simplicity of the flowers and gardens. 

After walking what seemed to be the entire 60 acres, we decided to move on to Dauphin Island and see if we could find some food and beach scenery.  The sign that caught our attention was “fine dining in flip-flops” with lots of outdoor tables and umbrellas with a view of the beach.  It was almost 2 pm by this time and Burger King would have sounded good, but we held out for seafood on the beach.  Unfortunately, they were only serving a lunch menu but we had a wonderful table up high in the sun.

If you have never been to Dauphin Island, it appears to be narrow and everything is built up on stilts.  I guess they want to minimize the hurricane damage if possible because it looked to me like one good storm surge and Dauphin Island would be  gone.