December 8 - Alabama

While checking out the area around Mobile, we came upon a little Town called Foley, there was a parade happening so we decided to stop and watch.  They had 45 entries, which we thought was quite a few for such a little Town.  We did enjoy it, Dalton took pictures but I am having enough trouble uploading my pictures that I decided to pass on his this time.

After the parade we headed towards the ocean.  We came upon a Fisherman on a wharf by the Ferry Terminal we were going to take, I know, taking a Ferry when we really didn't have to, but it was on the route we wanted to take and we also had a destination in mind.

Back to the Fisherman...he was fishing for Mullet, never heard of it, Dalton says it looks like a fish we would throw back..he was fishing with a net, don't know that there is any sport in that.  He did show us how to do it and it did look interesting. 

The ferry ride was very disappointing as it was so foggy, you couldn't see the front of the car.  It was a small ferry, holding 28 cars, and the trip was 35 minutes long.  Our destination on the other side was Bellingrath Gardens and let me tell you, it is a place you do not want to miss.  We arrived at 4:00 in the afternoon, we were there to see the lights, not so much the gardens as it is the wrong time of the year for that, although they are also spectacular, but the lights...3 million of them.  The house on the property was fantastic.  Mr. Bellingrath was fairly high up on the Coca Cola organization and the house is ofter referred to as "the house that Coke built".  The place has been kept up as if people are still living there.  It was the nicest house we have ever seen, the furnishings we all antiques.  Mrs. Bellingrath had very good taste.  Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures inside but we sure got a lot of pictures of the lights throughout the grounds.

This is only a portion of the pictures we took.  They are spectacular, especially the ones with the reflections in water.  We spent over 2 hours here and when we left the traffic coming into the park was incredible, we drove for 15 minutes and all the way the incoming traffic was bumper to bumper.  We obviously arrived at the right time.