Alabama, Part 2

On Sunday morning, January 26, I got up relatively early and before everyone else, so I thought I'd venture out and down to the beach.  It was a bit chilly out, but there was no one around yet and I seemed to be one of the first to leave my footprints on the shore.  I found several shells, but nothing very interesting yet.

Later we took a drive, they took us on a loop up to Mobile and back.  On the way we stopped at a local restaurant, one of the 5 or 6 Tacky Jack's in the region.  Tacky Jack's is a colorful place, inside and out.  It seems to be one of those places that must be visited when in the area.  If I'm down there again I would like to try a different location.

After lunch we hopped on the ferry across Mobile Bay.  It was an interesting trip, lasting about 45 minutes, that took us past a few platforms on the bay like you can see above Kate and Mom in the pic.  I took a picture of an informational sign on the ferry to read later.  That platform (different than the one in the picture - there were dozens as far as you can see) is in only 11 feet of water! 

After the ferry and a short drive into Mobile, we found the USS Alabama in a complex that included several planes, helicopters and tanks.  We didn't pay to go inside or board the ship, but we were able to see much just from the parking lot.  It would take several hours to do the tour and see everything, but I was happy with what I saw.

It was a long drive, but since it was Sunday the traffic was good and we loved our stops and all the scenery.  I didn't take pictures of where we went to dinner any time on this trip, so I forget what was dinner this night, but we were good with everywhere we ate out on this trip.  We did NOT go to the Waffle House, but I probably saw 18 different ones - they were everywhere.

Alabama, Part 1

My Mom and her husband Dan left for the gulf coast of Alabama shortly after the new year and are staying until the beginning of March in a luxury condo on the Gulf of Mexico.  As a Christmas present, they offered trips to all their kids to come down and spend some time with them.  We had never taken a vacation in winter before so we accepted their generous offer.

A week ago Saturday we flew from Madison to Atlanta to Pensacola.  As we were flying from Atlanta to Pensacola I thought of Mike Firesmith, the Hickory Head Hermit in the right column.  Perhaps we flew right over him, I'm not sure where he is exactly in Georgia.

The Pensacola airport was a bit smaller than Madison, I'm not sure why that surprised me.  Mom and Dan were there to pick us up and drive the half hour west to Orange Beach, Alabama, kind of a suburb of Gulf Shores.  The Blue Angels fly out of the Pensacola airport.  They said they've seen them flying since they've been down, but we did not see them in our time there.

The development where they were staying had two buildings, the tallest buildings in the area as far we could see.   Luxury condos that were built at an unfortunate time, in the late 2000's when the market crashed, so only two of the four planned buildings were built.

We arrived about midday and settled in after a lunch out.  Temperatures were probably in the low sixties, not very warm but better than where we came from.  Madison was about to get another blast of stupid-cold air.  Meanwhile, we were adjusting to this view:

Super Sunday 2014

My precious Packers are not playing today, but otherwise there are several reasons to support either team in this year's Super Bowl.  My reasons lean to ex-Badgers and conference, meaning I will be cheering for the Seattle Seahawks today. If they do not win, then I will be happy for Peyton Manning and Montee Ball.  Either way, my Packers are not there so my disappointment is over no matter who wins today. I just hope it is a real good game to watch.

Have fun today, everyone! 

Home!

Better late than never.  Details later, tonight we play with the cats, just relax, and go to bed.

Wouldn't It Be Nice..

Watch and mute the first, play the second.  Watch at least as long as the song plays, anyway...

This And Thats

Been kind of a slow week around here.  I haven't done this in a while now, but here's a bit of this and some of that...


--I've tried to post twice now this past week, but blogger still won't allow that.  Just wanted to share a couple great things from B&P - but not enough to save, upload to my flickr, then post.  How does everyone else post pictures they find?  Upload? By url?   So far I get the impression that it is a glitch with Blogger, but this has been over a week now since it started.  Lately when I try to add a pic by url it freezes so all I can do is close the whole Blogger tab/window.  I think this is what is called hyperlinking, and I've heard that it can be frowned upon.  I never thought my little site would bother anything.  I'm showing my lack of computer smarts here, aren't I?

--Another 'Polar Vortex' is upon us.  Stock up on bread and toilet paper! *Yawn.*  Temperatures will generally be single digits during the day and negative single digits over night, actual F temperatures.  Just another day in the life, lately...  Many people around me are starting to get a little exasperated with the weather.  I've just been calling it the 'dog days of winter.'  I don't like it either, but what can you do?

--It has been an exciting/disappointing/laughable year for sports in Wisconsin.  Milwaukee Brewers:  Braun gets busted for doping and the team nosedives.  (On a side note: Work friend and personal good acquaintance Al has passed.  Second from the left in the pic here.)  Badger Football:  Another disappointing end to what started to be a very promising season - and yet another bowl loss - but expectations have been high.  Green Bay Packers:  Only won the division because the division was terrible.  Still, you got to have something to hang your hat on.  Milwaukee Bucks:  I have no words and they have no game.  Badger Basketball:  Here we still have hope!  They started out 16-0 but have lost their last two games.  Hopefully it's a good wake up call.  Everyone has fun shooting baskets but everybody has to play a little defense, too.  If they can get back to that, they may still go far.


That's enough for now, there are other things I need to do in my short time before bed.  PTFO