Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Orange Beach, Alabama

We arrived in Orange Beach, Alabama on Friday, November 2nd after a short trip from Gulf Shores, Alabama.  It is nice to be able to spend several days without moving around and to have easy access to a courtesy car, nearby grocery, and plenty of restaurants and shops.  There is also extensive bike/walking trials in the area and at the nature park just west of the marina.  Keith and I took our bikes for a nice long ride over the weekend along the Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trial.

Backcountry Trial and Gulf State Park



We also took the courtesy car over to the Orange Beach Arts Center.  The Arts Center displays local art and has a clay studio and glass studio.  We spent some time watching the artists blow and shape glass.  It was pretty fascinating to watch.

Heating up the glass

Shaping the glass

This is called flame work. The artist was working on a small turtle pendant.

There are many options for restaurants here.  We made the short trip to the Flora-Bama Lounge one day for lunch.  It was something to see.  I can not imagine what it is like on a Saturday night.  They were gearing up for the Alabama vs LSU game that evening.

The Flora-Bama as viewed from the beach

Looking out the boardwalk to the beach

Beach

Oysters at the Flora-Bama (Yum)

We even found one little restaurant in Orange Beach (the Barefoot Cafe) that had chicken and pastry.  It was not as good as Miss Robin's, but it did make us think of home.  Being able to spend some time and decompress a bit is so nice after our experience on the rivers.   I also found some time to kayak a little as well this week.

The bridge over Perdido Pass

Fog hanging over the buildings

Southern Style docked at Orange Beach Marina

I am excited to be flying to Pennsylvania to visit family for a week. Keith is staying on Southern Style in Orange Beach.  He will take the boat to Pensacola the day I fly back and I will get on board again there.  From Pensacola we will continue along the panhandle likely to Carrabelle, FL before crossing the Gulf to western Florida.

We had dinner Monday evening with Tom McCoy.  Tom is the previous owner of our boat and currently resides in Panama City Beach, FL.  During dinner he told us that east of Pensacola, the damage from hurricane Michael is pretty bad in many places and marinas are almost non-existent.  Most marinas were completely destroyed by the hurricane.  We may have to just transit this area by anchoring and move on to get across the Gulf to western Florida relatively quickly once I am back.

It was great to see Tom again and see his new boat.  Tom now has an 85-foot Pacific Mariner that is absolutely stunning.  He was very kind to give us a quick tour of his boat before dinner on Monday night.  We were very sorry that his lovely wife, Donna, was not along, but she was out in Colorado getting ready for Thanksgiving with family.  The good news is that Tom and Donna will be down in Key West while we are in Marathon over the winter, so there is a very good chance we will get to meet up with them for dinner in the New Year.  Dinner with Tom and his captain, Davis, was a lot of fun and it was wonderful to catch up.  We are looking forward to seeing them again in the Keys next year.

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