Life in Summerdale

Well, first of all, what happened to the warm, balmy weather??? It's been pretty darn chilly for the past few days, not good beach weather for sure.



Yesterday, we decided to take a drive, maybe go to Fort Morgan, maybe go to Dauphin Island. Mark needed to get the tires rotated on their Jeep, as well as get the oil changed. We were ready to go shortly after he got back. We started out going down to Gulf Shores and stopped at the visitor center to pick up some maps and brochures.









We thought we could get to Fort Morgan by following a road near the shore, but alas, all we could do was drive to the end of the road and look at all the little beach cottages. We had to backtrack to get to the correct road.



Since it was close to lunchtime, and we were going right by it, we decided to stop at the Original Oyster House for a seafood lunch. We certainly enjoyed the meal, although we all agree, Uncle Bubba's in Savannah is better.

After lunch, we found the right road and made our way to the historic Fort Morgan, which played a part in the Battle of Mobile Bay during the Civil War.

Jim, Mark, and Dortha walk through the tunnel to the inside areas of the fort:

Inside the fort's walls:

From the fort, we could see this lighthouse in the distance:

We looked at the prices to take the ferry over to Dauphin Island, but decided to drive around Mobile Bay instead. Across the bay, we stopped to take a couple of pictures of the battleship, Alabama, although we did not tour it.

We got a quick view of downtown Mobile as we drove through.

We drove to Dauphin Island and took a look at the campground there. We also watched dolphins swimming, but weren't able to get good pictures. It looked like there were at least a dozen or more.

It was getting late so we headed back home. Another look at Mobile as we drove back:

This morning I made cupcakes (Weight Watcher friendly) to give to Dortha & Mark and Glenn and Sylvia, as they will all be on the road in the next day or two. Then Dortha and I went to our Weight Watcher's meeting. Congratulations to Dortha, as she reached her goal weight! Now she'll begin the 6 week maintenance phase of the program. I still have quite a few pounds to go, but I will make it! I'm happy that I've reached 15 pounds gone.

This afternoon, we prepared to have Sylvia & Glenn and Dortha & Mark over for dinner. The plan was to grill shrimp, but the weather was still too windy to grill, we had boiled shrimp. Dortha made a great dish of rice and veggies, and Sylvia made a beautiful and delicious salad.

I made a peach cobbler (modified to be lower in calories), and a broccoli slaw salad. It all tu.rned out great and we had an enjoyable time visiting. We'll miss our friends when they leave! But, we know we'll see them again before long.