Friends at Riverside

Beth (from Lasting Impressions from the HeArt) came down to Riverside on Monday. I tried to post, but this has been sitting on the computer for two days now. Solly. This was our first night on Mobile Bay at sunset.

Tuesday, I took her on the grand tour of the Gulf. We, of course, had to start with beignets from the Beignet Cafe. Sinfully good.

Oh, so much better than a power bar, ya think? Diet? Whaaaa?

They gave us enough strength to hit the beaches and the sorry state that the Gulf of Mexico is in.

But the beauty remains at first glance.

Double red flag? NO swimming. NO SWIMMING!!!

Warning signs are posted everywhere. I think this would have had my attention. Of course, there were still families, yes FAMILIES, in the water. So many local stories we heard. One lady said her daughter watched as a family came out of the water with welts on them. WELTS! (Or what Beth and I call "them whelps.") What are they thinking?

This was left over from the Jimmy Buffett concert made with seaweed (and probably a little oil mixed in). I think I would have made a NO BP sign, myself. But I'm sure the day was all full of peace and love, which was the point.

We then drove East towards my favorite beach, Perdido. This is looking West at Perdido Pass Bridge from Perdido Point. The pass separates Alabama from Florida.

These seagulls just sat by and watched. (Sorry about the smudge on the lens, I'm getting pretty good at that, aren't I. Hey, at least it's shaped like a seagull!)

The sands were much cleaner than they were three weeks ago at the same location. Still, we kept our sandals on.

Clean-up crews on the horizon in that gorgeous water.

There was a CNN.com reporter and photographer there. The reporter interviewed Beth.

There weren't a whole lot of people here, and the photog was trying to capture that, I'm sure. More people were walking along the beach than were in the waters. That's a good thing. The reporter told Beth that one lady had come out of the water and she asked her how it was. The lady said "Well, yes, there's some oil on me but mascara remover removes it really 'good.'" Oooooof. And when you come down with skin cancer, will the makeup remover help there? Lordy me.

After we had enough, we went and chilled at the Crab Trap and had my favorite there.

Pina Coladas! Woooot.

Then we made our way inland a tad to The Wharf. Oh, I do love this shop. Beth and I were oooohing and awwwing over all the pretties.

I'd love to do the "girls'" room like this. Not enough money in the world. lol

K, I AM going to make something similar to this though, thank you very much.

After all that window shopping, we were parched. So we headed over to LuLu's (Jimmy Buffett's sister's restaurant). Of course, they had a run on all the One Love, One Ocean T shirts during big bro's latest visit. The only things left were the hats and visors.

Of course, we had to have a margarita; and let me tell you, if I wasn't already warm and fuzzy, this one would have done the trick.

Woooooosh. A new tequila the bartender told us about that is as good as Petron, but cheaper. Thank goodness I only had the one.

After a few more stops, we headed back to Riverside. Only for a short while though. It was almost dinner time. The kid and I wanted to take Beth to one of our favorite haunts, Felix's on the Bay.
I love the copper menus at the bar. Beth ordered a Bloody Mary and I stuck with the margaritas.

It couldn't hold a candle to LuLu's though. (Must be a Buffett thang.)

She ordered my favorite dinner here, the BBQ shrimp. She was in for a real treat.

Straight outta New Orleans. My mouth is watering just looking at the pic.

Needless to say, I think we all slept well that night. No moss grows under our toesies. Zzzzzzzzzz.