Fishing, Seafood, Dolphins in Gulf Shores/Orange Beach, AL

Visitor Center

Gulf Shores and Orange Beach are 2 neighboring ocean-front towns. There are many beach houses and high rise condos, and it is the heart of the tourist zone. We saw a lot of license plates from Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois. 

High Rise Meets Low Rise

We bought some small shark teeth key rings for the grandchildren here, and Garry bought a large tooth for his own collection.

Fishing at Alabama Point State Park, Orange Beach AL.
Garry said he didn't notice the girls in bikinis. I think he did.

My heron friend, looking for fish. 

Gulf Shores and Orange Beach each had their own Mardi Gras parades, a few hours apart. More beads and Moon Pies! 

Here's the link to my post about our visit to the Mobile Carnival Museum, where we learned a lot about the Mardi Gras traditions, culture and history. There are a lot of photos of the elaborate costumes worn by participants at the Mardi Gras balls. 

Flippers Seafood Restaurant, in Orange Beach at Bear Point Marina, was recommended to us. Our meals there were very good, and homemade ice cream is included! I regret that I never got around to trying a popular Alabama drink, a Bushwacker, made with rum and ice cream. 

The dolphin tour which has offices next to Flippers had off season specials, and we got a fun and educational 2 hour trip. The dolphins like to ride the wake between 2 boats because it helps them to shed their skin. 

Gulf Shores advertised a Seafood Festival and Car Show at The Wharf, which is a shopping center and condo complex.  It wasn't a festival by Milwaukee standards; no beer tents and very little food. But it drew a large crowd and seeing the classic cars was fun.  

What we thought would be a short hike into the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge turned out to be a long hike in on sand in the hot sun. When we got to Gator Lake, we didn't see any gators. 

I guess some people need to be told not to SWIM with alligators.

During the month we were in Alabama, we made several visits over to Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, so we tried a few restaurants. One popular spot is Fish River Grill. Meals include Swamp Soup, which tastes better than it looks, sort of a greens & beans kind of soup. I tried a crawfish pistol, which is crawfish in a sauce stuffed into a roll. Yummy. 

We also tried Niki's Seafood & Thai restaurant. It seemed strange to have Thai food in a beachy-vibe place, with all blue and green decor. The basil spring rolls were good and the tea was served in a big jar. 

A neighbor in Perdido Beach suggested we go to Doc's Seafood Shack. I tried the fried stuffed crab, which I never had before and it was good. 

Gulf Shores and Orange Beach had some good places to fish, swim, eat and shop, but we were happy with our choice of our little cabin in the woods in Perdido Beach. It was a much more peaceful and quiet residential area. I took walks every morning on the roads around the neighborhood. 

Sunset from our deck at the cabin. 

Snowbirds: Exploring & Fishing in Alabama

I never thought I'd be a "snowbird", but since I recently retired and Garry is self-employed, we decided to escape the cold and rented a small cottage for the month of February in Perdido Beach, AL. It proved to be a great idea, and we had a wonderful time exploring "the real LA" (what the locals call Lower Alabama), as well as nearby Pensacola, FL.

Our cozy cabin had all we needed. 

We arrived shortly before dark on February 1, 2018 and met our host, whose family has owned the property, which includes two larger homes and the guest house we rented, for almost 100 years.

When we walked down to the dock, we saw our beautiful view of Perdido bay. Dolphins came to welcome us, swimming within 5 feet of the dock. They came by almost every morning and evening during our stay.

Dophin Pair with Young

Yay! I'm not wearing a parka. 

Blooming Camellias were a bright surprise from the snow & cold we came from. 

The nearest town was Elberta, AL. pop. about 1500. It is home of the Baldwin County Heritage Museum. Being a retired museum employee myself and museum geeks in general, of course we had to visit. It was very interesting and much larger than we expected. We met volunteers who were snowbirds from Wisconsin (the first of many we'd meet over the month).

I'm a fan of antique clothing, so I had to take these photos. 

Our tour guide at the museum asked us "Did ya'll eat at the Roadkill Cafe yet?". It's the most popular place to eat in Elberta; and has the Alabama Crimson Tide elephant painted on the window. It's also the first restaurant I've seen that is only open two hours a day - 10:30 a.m. to 12:30, six days a week. They serve a family style Southern buffet with fried chicken, chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, red beans & rice, green beans, corn, corn muffins, biscuits and gravy, and the popular sweet tea. Dessert of cake and ice cream is included. Seating is at group tables, and when it gets busy, people are encouraged by the owner to "quit your jawin' and yappin' and move on out so others waiting can get a seat". It's good they weren't super busy when we were there, because I'm a slow eater!

When paying at the register, you have a chance for a free meal by picking a poker chip out of a bag and if you get the red one, your meal is free. We weren't so lucky and paid ($11 each). The owner Mike, decked out in Alabama Crimson Tide shirt, took our cash. They don't accept credit or debit cards, and Garry heard him tell a guest that if he didn’t have cash, he could bring it back later!


We brought our fishing equipment, and spent a lot of time fishing off of the dock on the property where we stayed. It was a bit early in the season for redfish, but Garry managed to catch a nice one, which gave us 2 tasty meals.

Garry caught a nice redfish off of the dock!

He also caught some stingrays, which he carefully threw back. 

Catfish, which also was returned to the water. 

Great Blue Heron

Pinfish

We fed the pinfish to the herons.

Atlantic Brown Pelican

Loons

Other posts from the month-long trip are in the archive list at the right of the page. 

I needed to do something with the photos Garry takes! 

Placencia Penninsula & Caye Caulker, Belize, January 2017

I've been slacking on the blogging lately, but here's a post written by the taxidermist himself, Garry, about our trip to Belize in January, 2017.

My wife, Jeri Jackson, and I went back to Belize in late January, 2017. On our first trip a few year's earlier, we traveled north to the Crooked Tree area. This year we drove south along the Hummingbird Highway and the Southern Coastal Highway to the Placencia Penninsula. 

Hummingbird Highway is narrow in many places! 

After an adventurous drive from Belize City to Maya Beach in the dark, we found our room at the beautiful Swan Villas in Maya Beach. There are only 4 units in the complex so far and the studio unit we had was plenty of space and had a great balcony. There are quite a few local restaurants nearby serving delicious seafood. 

Pool at Swan Villas, Maya Beach,BZ

Balcony View from Swan Villas, Maya Beach, BZ

Tipsy Tuna Restaurant, Placencia, BZ

We also took a boat trip out of Placencia to snorkel at Laughing Bird Caye and also drove to the Cockscomb Basin Jaguar Reserve near Victoria Peak. 

South Stann Creek, Cockscomb Basin 

Cockscomb Basin Jaguar Reserve

Keel-billed Toucan

We didn't see a jaguar (it's very rare to see one), but we saw many tropical birds while hiking along a jungle river. We emerged covered in bites from tiny "no-seeums" (sand fleas). Jeri deleted the photo of her red, itchy legs, but can tell you about her search for something to relieve the pain, which resulted in our finding a the local remedy made from hemp seed oil. 

Laughing Bird Caye

After a few days in the south, we drove back to Belize City and took a water taxi out to Caye Caulker. We had such a great time on the small island on our first trip that we had to go back. Caye Caulker is much smaller and has fewer tourists than the more popular Ambergis Caye. There are no cars allowed, just bikes and golf carts. If you're thinking about traveling there, this a good Caye Caulker web site.

Sitting on our patio at the Barefoot Beach resort looking out at the Barrier Reef and watching the sea birds was so relaxing. 

Rooms at the Barefoot Beach Resort include bikes, since that is the best way to get around the island.

The snorkeling at Hol Chan Reserve is unbelievable; swimming with the sea turtles, fish, sharks and rays. We made six different stops on the reef and I took over 300 photos with my new $39 digital camera that is waterproof to 10 feet deep! What a great buy! 

Snorkeling trips include lunch and rum punch! 

Jeri hand-feeding bait fish to tarpon.

Tarpon will jump to get the bait fish!

We also went fishing another day, catching a lot of different reef fish and keeping enough snappers for a meal. 

Feeding small fish to Frigate Bird

Frigate Birds eating fish scraps while we're cleaning our fish. 

Even though the island has become busier in the past few years, with construction of new hotels, bars, and restaurants and there are more tourists, it is still a peaceful and friendly place. Winter weather is sunny with temps in the low 80's. We like Belize because it is easy to get to with reasonable airfare & accommodations, is English-speaking and the 2:1 dollar exchange is simple. It was another great trip, and we're already talking about trying to go again to explore more of the country.