Almost at the Beach

Foley, Alabama
October 13~16


Getting my toes in the sand turns out to be much more difficult than I had thought. The resort we have booked, Bella Terra, bellaterrarvresort.com, has been highly touted in the press and their advertising looked great. While it is nice and they have built a very beautiful clubhouse, it is not nearly as nice as the Blue Ridge Mountain property and it is in the middle of nowhere. They can't be blamed for the nasty cold and rainy weather,but the whole situation manages to put us in a rather surly mood. They wouldn't honor a promotional price they had online, but offered us a pay for two nights, get one free price. We changed our original plan to stay eight days to those three nights. It was enough.



The first full day there we set out to find another place to stay closer to the beach. We find Buena Vista and make arrangements to move there in three days. We are longing to feel a little beachy and look for that perfect beach shack of a restaurant...Bahama Bob's on West Beach Blvd in Gulf Shores, fits the bill nicely.


We managed to exhale just a bit. Asked where the best place to buy seafood off the docks was and we were directed to Billy's Seafood on the Bon Secour River. It is a long way, but everybody must know about it....it was mobbed at 3 p.m. Pick up some extra jumbo shrimp and Royal Reds which look to me like Florida Pinks, but must be named differently in Alabama.

















Grill the shrimp for dinner and since we are in the deep south, I make cheese, garlic grits which my good Georgetown friend, Cecelia from Arkansas, has helped me bring this to near perfection by telling me to ignore all instructions to use water in the preparation and use milk...I now love grits!

We bought the "Diners, Drive-ins and Dive's" book by Food Network's Guy Fieri. And there happens to be a listing in nearby town of Fairhope which is on our intended itinerary anyway. It's in a cute little cluster of shops called The French Quarter.

Panini Pete's paninipetes.com is touted in the book as a must do. If you intend to go, be aware it is only open for breakfast and lunch, closing at 2:30. I have their special panini, Rick orders their special burger. He wins big time! They should call this place Burger Bob's or something. The Angus beef burger with a gorgonzola spread was fab! My panini of turkey, aioli and greens was rather dull and flavorless.

Walk and drive the town of Fairhope. Numerous shops and a pretty little park on the water, but our only purchase comes from a used book store chock a block with perfect beach books should we ever get there!