Monthly Archives: August 2014
A Shucker’s Dozen . . .
After a quiet, easy day, resting up from yesterday’s almost 400 trip, we headed out about 5pm to have dinner at a new place, at least for us. Called Ginny Lane’s Bar & Grill, it’s located on the Intercoastal Waterway at The Wharf, a shopping/entertainment area in Orange Beach. They had really good ratings on Yelp, and even better, $6 a dozen raw oysters, our favorite.
Since we had the Seafood Platters last night, and couldn’t finish it all, we decided to go a little lighter tonight. So we started out with a dozen oysters on the half shell for each of us.
Sorry, I forgot to get a picture until I was done. We noticed that we both received what’s called a “Shucker’s Dozen”. Like a “Baker’s Dozen”, it means you order and pay for 12, and they throw in a extra free. Nice.
I noticed on the menu that they listed a Sriracha Aioli for another dish, so I asked for a bottle of Sriracha to try with my oysters along with the cocktail sauce and horseradish they furnish. It was really, really flavorful and added a lot to the oysters.
For our next course, Jan had a delicious cup of Shrimp and Artichoke Bisque, and I went with their Seafood and Sausage Gumbo. Again, really good.
Wrapping up a great meal, Jan had the Strawberry Shortcake,
and I tried the White Chocolate Bread Pudding. Really good, and I had enough to take home.
A really good meal, and we weren’t stuffed. Perfect.
Ginny Lane’s is really good, and it’s now on our list of great Gulf Shores restaurants.
Leaving the restaurant, we drove around the beach area for awhile, checking out all the changes since we were here two years ago. A lot of new condos, new stores, and new restaurants.
I think I liked it better in the old days.
One of the places we drove by was some beach front property my parents used to own at Orange Beach.
At one time, my parents owned this 300 foot / 6 lot section of beachfront, all the way down to where the condo is now. Then in the early 70’s they traded four lots to a builder in return for him building them two beach houses on the remaining two lots, which they then rented out.
Later, sometime in the 80’s my parents sold one of the cottages. Then in 1993 after the death of my father, my mother sold the remaining one.
The people who bought the first cottage, tore it down to build a modern-looking two story home. The couple who bought the second cottage also wanted to build new, but they bought a lot right behind theirs and moved the cottage about 100 feet away to the new location. This is it now.
Then they build a 3 story brick home on the beach front lot. At that point there were 6 homes along here.
Then in September 2004, Hurricane Ivan passed through the area, bringing a 27m tidal surge up over the sand dunes. And then there were none. And it still remains that way to this day.
And the original cottage that my father designed and built to his specifications, with strapping and reinforcements, is the only thing still standing.
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About 8pm tonight I started getting emails and phone calls saying that Jan and I had gone viral on the Internet.
Again.
And this time we made Yahoo. Here you can see the entire Yahoo montage
This was taken in 2009 at Busch Gardens in Tampa, FL. I posted it on our blog at the time, and then somehow it was picked up by the Awkward Family Photos site. It made the rounds all over the Internet, and we had friends telling us that they had seen it online.
In one case, a friend’s son was in class the last day of school, and the teacher was killing time by showing some stuff from the Awkward Family Photos site. He finished up by saying “And this one is my very favorite.”
And our picture popped up. After a double-take, the son spoke up and said, “Hey, I know those people.” And the class roared.
Here’s the full picture.
As I always say, One of us is having fun. The other one isn’t.
Jan won’t admit it, but the Cheeta Chase is the ‘baby’ coaster at Busch Gardens. It’s in the kiddie area with the Merry-Go-Round and the Bumper Cars.
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Thought for the Day:
“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” – Western Union internal memo, 1876
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Beach Bound . . .
Since we had a 370 mile trip down to Gulf Shores today, we had planned to be on the road by 9:00, but in a pleasant surprise, my great-niece Stahlie and her mother Helen and brother Luke showed up to say goodbye.. We really enjoyed hearing Stahlie’s stories about her and her sister Darby’s recent visit to China, and what ‘s going on in her life now.
So it was well-worthwhile getting on the road a half hour behind schedule. Leaving the Northgate RV Travel Park, we were back on I-65 in about half a mile and heading south. We made a pitstop about an hour and a half down the road, and while there, I checked the Birmingham Sigalert page for traffic problems as we passed through. When I had checked about 7 am there were a number of red areas, but they had dissipated by the time we got there.
A little south of Montgomery we ran into about 5 miles of heavy rain, but it cleared up pretty fast, so it didn’t really cause any problems. We did see signs of more rain further south that we missed out on.
Just as we turned off I-65 for the last 50 miles or so to the beach, the generator quit. I had been expecting it since I knew we were getting down to that level of diesel in the tank. But we quickly decided we didn’t want to drive the last 50 miles without any AC. So a few miles along the way, I pulled into a Love’s to get some more AC fuel.
The diesel pumps were pretty busy so we had to wait about 10 minutes for a lane to open up, but we were done pretty quickly and back on our way. And cool again.
We pulled into the Gulf State Park RV Park about 5:30, and got checked in and set up. We’re not right on the water this time, but we are right across the street from it.
After resting up for a while, Jan and I headed out for dinner at one of our favorite local places, DeSoto’s Seafood Kitchen. We’ve been eating here for years and it’s always good, and tonight, very crowded.
We had to wait about 40 minutes for a table, but it was worth it. And in fact, on a Friday night with only a couple of beach weekends left before school starts, everything down here is crowded.
Jan and I both ordered our usual, which is the same for both of us.
The Seafood Platter, with Crab Claws, Shrimp, Oysters, and Flounder, all fresh and delicious. And our sides were Fried Green Tomatoes and their fantastic Sweet Potato Casserole with glazed pecans.
The Flounder was really, really good, and we both had plenty of everything to take for later.
This is the first time we’ve been here during the season in a while and I had forgotten how crowded it can be. The last two times we were here it was November, and the time before that, in 2009, it was March. So this time was a shock.
Tomorrow will be a do-nothing, goof-off day except for going out for dinner at another of our favorite places.
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Thought for the Day:
“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” – Walt Disney
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