More than most locations, our visits to Mobile have extended well beyond even the actual metro area and encompass the whole of the bay area. This first visit we actually stayed in Spanish Fork on the Northeast corner of the bay and made a full circle of it.
One of the first anachronisms we found was just down the street at a large shopping mall totally surrounding a rather ordinary suburban house. Apparently these folks thought they could block the mall by refusing to sell and now have a small parcel of unsalable property in the middle of noise and bustle. Reminds me of our old secretary whose husband hand built their dream house right in the middle of what is now Lex Wexner's (owner of The Limited and associated stores) front yard. She was smart enough to sell at a very very substantial premium and move on with life.
Another very interesting location on the east side of the bay is Fairhope, Alabama which has tried to simulate a simple one tax system in our land with every politician trying to reach into every pocket you have. It appears to work for this thriving little town. Fairhope is also famous for the Mobile Bay jubilee which causes large swarms of seafood to come into very shallow water and provide a bounty that is easy to catch.
On the eastern edge of the bay opening is Fort Morgan which at the Civil War Battle of Mobile Bay Admiral Farragut supposedly gave his famous Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead
command which historians now think was an old codger invention years later. Civil War mines (torpedoes) were short lived and unreliable so he ran the minefield rather than let the fort guns smash him to kindling. The fort's design made it difficult for ships to lob shells over the berm to hit the actual wall although they could drop shells into the interior. Infantry attacking the fort had to climb over the berm and drop into the ditch before trying to climb the high wall. Modern naval weapons with high explosive shells would make short work of these defenses but the fort was armed in the world wars to discourage German ships particularly submarines.
The average depth of Mobile Bay is only about ten feet and there are lots of these drilling platforms here being serviced by the high speed tenders that make working on the platform almost like commuting. This platform was just inside the bay only a few hundred yards north of Fort Morgan.
To complete the circuit of the bay required a ferry trip across to Dauphin Island named for the heir to the French throne rather than the mammal. The boat was just swarmed with sea gulls looking for anything that might be churned up. After a lot of tries I finally managed to capture one keeping up with the boat just by surfing the breeze. There was a rather stiff breeze out of the west and the ferry has a blunt bow that smashes through the waves as these passengers discovered early into the trip.
On the eastern tip of the island is Fort Gaines which basically served to keep attackers honest since the main shipping channel runs very close to Fort Morgan on the other side. During our visit this blacksmith was demonstrating the primary blacksmith task in those days: making nails. He made a nail for Lori with a flat head he marked with an L
. I hope we still have it around here but we have not been able to locate it recently. Also on the island near the fort is the Dauphin Island Estuarium which is covered on this other page.
Heading up to the actual city of Mobile the visitor's center featured these doll houses. We also had to work hard on Lori's pronunciation: In the far north of Idaho they were taught it was like mobile phone while is is really like the last part of auto-mobile. The city also revolves around Marti Gras so much the Marti Gras Museum had to be put on this separate page.
Much like New Orleans, Mobile is a modern city with a lot of historical reminents like this little glimpse that looks very much like the French Quarter. All depending on location the city can change character in a flash and there always seems to something interesting to see. On the east side of the city is the USS Alabama Memorial which is a minimum full day excursion so we have passed in favor of less commercial attractions.