The drive from Nashville, where we had been staying to Mobile is mostly long and boring.    As we got closer, we came over just another same old ridge and I nearly drove into the other lane. 

It’s hard to describe the sudden transition from solid ground to a pyloned highway raised to tree height above a watery, wetland, swamp area.  Below us the landscape transitioned rapidly from water to sandbars, to Cyprus swamps, to wetlands, back to water and finally we rode over a body of water, not even the bay yet, just a tributary and into town.  I remember saying to Mary, look at the water, it’s right there, no more than a 6 or 7 feet below the banks of the waterfront, which were the first few blocks of downtown Mobile.  

We were headed to Fairhope, which required getting through Mobile and back on Route 10 over the actual bay to the other side and south a bit.  I won’t go into details, but some Alabama highway planners should be shot at dawn for making the system so incredibly difficult.  We went around and around downtown Mobile several times till we figured it out, wasting precious time as the afternoon turned quickly grey and rainy.  

Unfortunately for us the house we rented had a bad case of mold. We were only in the house for 10 minutes before I began to wheeze.  We called and cancelled that rental and then things got weird.  On a Friday night on nice weekend in May, all the surrounding hotels were booked solid.  We began to panic, spread the search out and finally found a Marriott in downtown Mobile.  So back across the water we went, at 7 pm on a rainy Friday night to a downtown Mobile hotel, 2 blocks from the water, across from the convention center and checked in only to find that surrounding restaurants were closed, and the hotel not only did not have a restaurant open, but because of Covid, they didn’t even have a little market to buy snacks or a vending machine.  So we went to bed after eating snack-bars.  Then followed a very stressful and anxious three days while we tried to pivot and figure out what to do.  

Eventually we ended up staying in the Jubilee Suites Bed and Breakfast in Fairhope for 10 days.  One of the best decisions ever.  However, instead of staying a lovely month and exploring all the area, we left for Fort Morgan Beach after 10 days.  This meant that we had only a few times to explore Mobile.  

Our first impressions weren’t good.  Due to Covid, downtown was a ghost town with boarded up businesses and few restaurants still open.  It had been sadly neglected with sandbags from previous flooding still scattered randomly around the blocks, some open and leaking sand.  The few people we did meet looked sad and dejected.  There were signs of neglect everywhere, unpainted exteriors, unwashed windows, rust and mold.  Already stressed by trying to find somewhere to stay for the month of May and hungry, we did not take to the city. It was only after we found lodgings and came back to explore some museums that we began to have a different perspective.  

Once known as the “Paris” of the south in the 1800’s and prosperous because it was an important transportation hub, there was some fine architecture and neighborhoods in the city.  Houses and buildings’ architectural styles range from antebellum wrought iron balustraded houses, 1920’s art nouveau decorative high rises to modern glass and steel buildings.   This amalgamation means you have to look hard for each.  The city reveals itself in patches.  We found evidence of a happening vibe in Gulch, a totally gluten free bakery on Government St that was doing a thriving business.  Northern Dauphin Street sported some nice murals and new foodie - related restaurants.  Some of the neighborhoods closer to downtown had been renovated and the houses there were splendid examples of southern farmhouse types of architecture.  The neighborhood streets were shielded by huge old oak trees.  So old the roots had pushed through to the street and grown over the curbs, causing a natural traffic slowing circle.  It was all quite lovely.

Two things I loved about Mobile - one the bay.  What a splendid piece of water.  Exquisite from all sides and angles.  The other was the Maritime Museum.  A more clever and lovely way to capture what it means to be on a ship in the harbor, the history of the harbor, the history of ships on the harbor has yet to be invented.  Inside it looks like a giant container ship, complete with water at at the base of the ship.  I got to “drive” a safety patrol boat .  It’s a simulator.  That boat went fast and I couldn’t’ see the opening I was supposed to steer it towards.  Yeah, its true, I’m never going to be a boat captain.  Mary chose a barge, which, since it was only going like 5 miles an hour was easy to steer around the bend.  Mary however chose to see her total success as a measure of her ability to captain a real ship and crowed about it for days.  (Just kidding, she only crowed for a day.)

It doesn’t hurt that the museum is right on the bay and has a terrific view of ships coming and going.  We had a splendid day at that museum. 

In the end, we might be enticed back to see all of Mobile.  What was missing due to Covid, plus what we missed by not being in the area more than 10 days is worth a return.