The Battle House: A Renaissance Hotel Mobile

... for free. For a Pilot, it's a decent-sized one, so it'll be a good place... Just so I get there before dinner-time & can find parking. Has Internet & stuff too, so that's cool. Well, I guess I should head out. I'm glad to have found this site, and will enjoy learning to create more exciting journals. Keep the shiny side up. Tony

... exciting to finally exit the Mobile River into Mobile Bay. When we pulled into the Turner Marine Supply Marina on the Dog River at 2pm on November 15, our GPS registered a total trip distance of 1,356.2 statute miles. We celebrated our arrival with a well-deserved seafood dinner, our first real restaurant experience since leaving Chicago. Yum.
Mobile, Alabama, United States sv-hawkswood

... Thus began the quest for the special bag. Websites like one bag dot com. were very helpful as well as Esther's list (OBOW). The bags were found and packed.

But in the process forgot "Let your memory be your travel bag" which takes a lot more than doing (finding a bag), perhaps just being in the moment.

Oh, forgot to mention...left for Atlanta from Mobile without a hitch.

... Chinese authorities. The mountain turned out to be a mole hill.

Then there was the notion of just sending the passport out to the unknown. Would it ever return?

Therefore it was with much relief that David tore off the end of the FedEx package to reveal our passports with the Chinese visa stamped within the inner pages. We marveled at how some entities have the power to change the face of a document that others consider sacred.

Breathe

... be an All-Star baseball team at the hotel for a tournament and they had taken over the very small pool. We told the kids we could swim in the morning instead and luckily, they were ok with that. We had dinner at a Waffle House across the street. It was a really nice night.

Had breakfast at the hotel.Resisted the waffle for self control.
Transferred to another Hotel America Best Value Inn . It s nearer the the Bellingrath Gardens.
Drove to Theodore.where the Garden.is.
It is one of the famous gardens in America,
Guided tour of the ...

... city trolley.The driver narrates about downton.
Walk downtown and visit a bookstore .It has a haunted section.
Drove to Wintzell's Oyster Restaurant with the GPS aid.
Ate grilled oysters and L had the fried oysters..It is the oldest restaurant (1938) with funny sayings in the wall.by the founder.Ex, "After 12 Canadian beers and a dozen Wintzell.s oysters there no such things as an ugly woman."

I got into Mobile and stayed with my Grandparents, who I hadn't seen in quite some time. This was very nice to be in a safe place where I could just relax and talk about things that had happened over time, and whatnot. As with San Antonio I didn't do too much other than to rest and visit with my family, and eat some good food. But this was a great stop nonetheless, and I look forward to visiting my roots in Mobile again.

... up. I saw two different parades, the first held in downtown Mobile, and the second out in a the neighborhoods. The first was a more polished and larger scale affair, while the second was a down-home community event. The first was essentially a "White" parade, and the second a "Black" parade. Yes, racism is alive and well in the deep South! : ( The parades are hosted by groups called "Krewes" that ...

... off the interstate and drove through some neighborhoods. I had overheard someone talking about New Orleans at dinner the night before. He commented that before the hurricane there were 450,000 residents and that it was down to 190,000 now. So we were somewhat expecting a ghost town. Far from it, we were soon in a traffic jam as we drove over to the Garden District. There, as we drove along St.Charles Ave. towards the city, it was hard to believe ...