51 straight weeks of work, kids and a neurotic dog. It’s enough to make you GO COASTAL. – 225 Travel East – Special advertising section
The tedium of the average family vacation washes away like so many sandcastles on the beach when you visit beautiful Mobile Bay on the Alabama Gulf Coast. It’s the perfect spot to while away the hours wandering historic tree-lined streets and gardens. Or send a little white ball toward a distant green on our world-class golf courses. And when it comes to fresh seafood done in an enticing Southern style, Mobile Bay serves it up right. When you’re looking for an exhilarating alternative to the usual—GO COASTAL in Mobile Bay.
1. Get your feet wet
With miles of white sand beaches along the Gulf of Mexico, Dauphin Island is a little slice of paradise at the mouth of Mobile Bay and is the place for family adventures. Search for shells on the sun-bleached sand with your kids, or bike and hike along winding wooded trails. Drop a line from a pier or sail the surf at sunset, then golf the 18-hole links-style course at the Isle Dauphine Golf Club.
Nature lovers can spy on birds and other wildlife by the thousands at Audubon Bird Sanctuary, while history buffs relive the past among the towering dunes and Southern pines at Fort Gaines.
The Estuarium at Dauphin Island Sea Lab features exciting interactive and visual displays on the animals, plants, resources and ecology of the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta, Mobile Bay, its Barrier Islands and the Gulf of Mexico. Marine life abounds in the Gulf of Mexico and Delta tanks, the living marsh boardwalk, and within two “touch tables” featuring live and preserved specimens.
2. Get your hands on science
Alabama’s attraction of the year, the Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center, is filled with more than 100 hands-on interactive exhibits. Combining three exhibit halls, blockbuster exhibits and the only IMAX® Dome Theater on the Gulf Coast, the Exploreum is the place for fun.
Experience the shadow wall, the WKRG TV studio, the laser harp and many other opportunities for fun in Hands On Hall. Or discover the everyday miracles our bodies perform in the most advanced human health hall in the United States, My BodyWorks. The Exploreum’s new 6,500-square-foot gallery is packed with leading-edge exhibits, including a 12-foot-tall realistic beating heart and a fully functioning health and biology lab where visitors can perform experiments and learn more about the science of life.
3. Smell the roses
Visit Bellingrath Gardens and Home, “The Charm Spot of the Deep South,” where you’ll enjoy 65 acres of year-round floral pageantry in a ?Southern estate garden, including the 2004 Top Public Rose Garden in the United States. Visit the Delchamps Gallery of Boehm Porcelain, the largest public collection of Boehm porcelain in the United States. Tour the Bellingrath Museum Home, featured on A&E’s America’s Castles series, filled with priceless antiques and furnishings. Or see osprey, pelicans, blue herons, sea gulls, egrets and songbirds while relaxing on a scenic cruise of Fowl River aboard the Southern Belle River Cruiser.
4. Make your vacation historic
Here, in a 175-acre memorial park, you can tour two National Historic Landmarks, the battleship USS ALABAMA and the submarine USS DRUM. Walk the decks of a mighty battleship. Go below in a World War II submarine and see how crew members earned 12 battle stars for valor. Prepare your imagination for takeoff as you walk the flight line of historic aircraft inside the huge aircraft pavilion and see more than 20 rare aircraft. America’s most unique military attraction, this is an unforgettable adventure for the whole family.
5. Explore the Delta
Five rivers converge and flow into Mobile Bay, and these rivers in the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta provide favorite fishing holes, places to explore by kayak and canoe, ancient Indian mounds and much more. The newly opened 5 Rivers—Alabama’s Delta Resource Center—provides a wonderful starting point for exploring all that the Delta has to offer. With several buildings located along the Blakeley River, the center includes the Apalachee Exhibit Hall that highlights the Delta’s indigenous wildlife, including alligators, owls, bears and boars, and the Tensaw Theater, where guests can tour the area without getting wet. Kayaks and canoes are also available for rent. Other activities in the Delta include airboat rides, hovercraft and wave-runner rentals, and pontoon tours. Alabama’s 63-mile Scenic River Trail, the longest water trail in the country, ends in the Delta and can be explored by power boat, canoe or kayak.
6. Have a carnival
The Mobile Carnival Museum highlights the history of Mardi Gras in its true birthplace—Mobile. But it’s also a rare chance to explore Mardi Gras from the inside: Experience a behind-the-mask view of the street party by climbing aboard a rocking float. See firsthand the intricate designs and artistry of majestic crowns, scepters and robes of Mardi Gras monarchs. Discover the art of costume design and float construction. View videos of parades and balls. Browse a pictorial gallery of historical photographs dating back to 1886.
7. Travel through time
The Museum of Mobile, located in the ?Southern Market/Old City Hall, is a National ?Historic Landmark built in 1857. Mobile has a rich history of Native American, Colonial, African-American and Antebellum influences that come alive in the museum’s 21st century exhibits. Explore Mobile as the first Americans saw it. Relive the passage on an African slave ship. Listen to the stories of Civil War soldiers, and feel the power of nature’s raging storm, the hurricane. Get your hands on history in the Discovery Room, an interactive gallery for the young and young at heart.
8. Eat coastal!
Delectable gulf shrimp—boiled, fried or steamed. Locally harvested oysters, served “fried, ?stewed, or nude.” Piles of hot and crispy crab claws. Spicy gumbo teeming with shrimp, crab and okra over a bed of rice. Off-the-boat red snapper, grouper and flounder. It’s hard to resist all the fresh seafood found in Mobile Bay. The area specializes in traditional Southern cooking as well—think fried chicken, collard greens and cornbread. Feeling adventurous? For a unique culinary experience, visit one of the modern establishments where chefs showcase their own creative twists on Southern cuisine. And barbecue is another Mobile Bay specialty. Locals are fiercely ?loyal to their favorites; to find yours, you will just have to try them all!
