DEL.ICIO.USSt. Louis Post-Dispatch
Published on: 05/20/04
GULF SHORES, Ala. — The arrival of spring on the Gulf Coast of Alabama means it's moving time.
Retirees from the North — the snowbirds — move back to their homes in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. Spring breakers, who come to Gulf Shores and Orange Beach as the snowbirds are moving out, are here and then gone quickly. Soon, families on summer vacations will descend on the coast to spend lazy afternoons on the white sand beaches that stretch for 32 miles from the Alabama-Florida border to the western tip of Gulf Shores.
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MOST POPULARThe area's critters are on the move, too. The alligators of Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, who spend the winter burrowed into the mud, emerge to warm themselves in the sunshine. Migratory birds arrive from South America after a 500-mile journey and find a haven and sustenance in the wildlife refuge.
Turnover is a good thing on the Gulf Coast, a ribbon of land that accounts for 25 percent of Alabama's $6 billion tourism industry. Visitors come for the chance to hop aboard a charter boat and go on a fishing excursion in the Gulf of Mexico, or to train their binoculars on herons, egrets and dozens of other species on the Alabama Coastal Birding Trail. They come to test their golf games at a wide variety of resort-quality courses. They come for the shopping and seafood restaurants.
And then there is snowbird Tom Hertting, a retired engineer from Neshkoro, Wis. He doesn't fish, and he doesn't play golf.
"I just walk the beach," he said.
More than one snowbird was heard grumbling last month that the winter on the Gulf Coast wasn't as warm as they'd hoped for. But Hertting was OK with that.
"It's a beautiful place," he said. "Even though February was colder than usual, we've had a good time. We've already made our reservations for next year."
A visitor's eye is attracted not only to the high-rise condos and beach houses that front the Gulf of Mexico along Highway 182, but also to the seafood restaurants that seem to occupy every street corner
from Bubba's Seafood House in Orange Beach to Bahama Bob's in Gulf Shores. Among the best of them, and probably the least impressive in terms of curb appeal, is King Neptune's Seafood Restaurant.
King Neptune's is on Highway 59, side by side with a Domino's, in a building that might have once housed a burger shack or a Dairy Queen. But don't be fooled by the ambience.
"When you go out to eat," said manager Tony Laukhart, "where do you go? You want to find the little hole in the wall. That's usually where the best food is. People say we have the best oysters — the best seafood — in town."
King Neptune's specialties include steamed royal red shrimp, fresh from the Gulf of Mexico ($10.99 a half-pound, $16.99 a pound). Coconut fried shrimp is $14.99; butterflied jumbo shrimp is $13.99. A Caribbean platter (yellowfin tuna, jumbo shrimp on a stick and coconut fried shrimp) is $16.99. Prices are lower at lunchtime.
For seafood restaurants on the Alabama Gulf Coast, survival is no more of a sure thing than it is for a fish in the ocean.
"We've been here 11 years," Laukhart said. "The restaurant business is fierce around here. You've got to have really good food and service to hold up."
If restaurants are plentiful, something else is not. Gulf Shores has no casinos and no so-called adult entertainment. The places to eat far outnumber the places to party.
"Most people don't come down for the nightlife," Laukhart said. "They come for the weather and the beach. To have a place to go to at night is just an added bonus."
Mike McArthur, executive director of the Gulf Shores Golf Association, suggests that if visitors look for nightlife, they'll find it.
"It's an impression that, 'Oh, it's Alabama. It must be quiet at night,'" he said. "But there's plenty to do at night."
One of the liveliest spots is Lulu's, an open-air restaurant and live-music venue owned by Lucy "Lulu" Buffett, sister of singer Jimmy Buffett. The Buffetts grew up in nearby Mobile.
After five years in another location in Gulf Shores, Lulu's opened anew in February a couple of blocks off Highway 59, overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway. At 6 p.m. on a Sunday in mid-March, the place was so crowded, customers had to cruise the huge parking lot to wait for a spot to open. Inside, adults crowded around an island bar while families occupied tables nearby and children gravitated to a sandy play area. The most popular item on the menu — the cheeseburger in paradise, $6.50. When the sun set and a band got started, the demographics at Lulu's began to change toward a more adults-only crowd.
Other night spots in Gulf Shores include Fat Tuesday, the Pink Pony Pub and a smoky sports bar named Rafter's. One of the area's most popular spots for food, drink and live music is Live Bait in Orange Beach. And the king of them all is the legendary Flora-Bama Lounge, which sits on Highway 182 on the Florida-Alabama line and bills itself as "the last great American Road House."
Live music is virtually a constant at Flora-Bama, which looks like a tiny honky-tonk from the road but actually consists of a series of connected barrooms and outdoor shelters.
Those who prefer quieter diversions can find them on the less developed west end of Gulf Shores. Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge occupies 7,000 acres on a peninsula that stretches about 20 miles from the heart of Gulf Shores to Fort Morgan at Mobile Bay.
Bon Secour is evidence that even the dark clouds of hurricanes have a silver lining. In 1979, Hurricane Frederic flattened out much of this undisturbed area of Gulf Shores, which proved to be an open invitation for developers to swoop in and fill the void with high-rise condos. Congress established Bon Secour in 1980 to stem the tide and preserve the land as a refuge for wildlife, particularly the migratory birds, nesting sea turtles and the endangered Alabama beach mouse. The birds come to feed on seeds, berries and insects.
"In the spring, this is the first place they come to, so by the time they get here, they're pretty hungry," said Andy Hofmann, assistant refuge manager.
Although much of the refuge is inaccessible, visitors can enter on foot along the Jeff Friend Trail, a one-mile loop, or the Pine Beach Trail, a four-mile round trip. Last month, I walked the Jeff Friend Trail on a weekday morning and didn't see another soul, but I found little evidence of wildlife, aside from a soundtrack provided by the resident birds. The trail is entirely shaded, passing under a canopy of pines and oaks. At the halfway point, hikers get a good look at the Little Lagoon, which splits the peninsula west of Gulf Shores.
More interesting, and considerably more challenging, is the Pine Beach Trail. At the halfway point, the shaded trail reaches an opening where hikers are rewarded with nice views of the Little Lagoon on one side and Gator Lake on the other. This is a good spot to see herons, egrets and other species of birds.
As Hofmann and I walked the entire four miles on a picture-perfect day, we encountered only one other human. We saw herons and osprey surveying the marsh for food and a group of cedar waxwings congregating in a tree. The trail ultimately leads to the beach at the Gulf of Mexico. It's not an easy walk — about a third of the four miles is through loose sand.
"It's very peaceful out here," Hofmann said. "It's nice when you want to get away and not be around other people. You never know what you're going to see."
West of Bon Secour, at the western tip of the peninsula, lie the remains of Fort Morgan, the onetime guardian of Mobile Bay. This 1834 structure, nearly demolished by the Union Navy in 1864, is very much a family attraction. Even if they don't have an ounce of interest in American history, children will enjoy exploring the archways, tunnels, stairways and catacomblike rooms that surround an open parade ground.
Fort Morgan was one of three forts built in Mobile Bay to hold off enemy invasions. In the Civil War, the bay was an essential entry point for supplies for the Confederacy. The Union launched an invasion of 18 ships in 1864, led by Admiral David G. Farragut.
The Confederates' defense included mines, known as torpedos at that time. When a Union ship, the Tecumseh, struck a mine and sank, the other Union ships began to falter under a barrage from Fort Morgan. That's when Farragut uttered his now-famous command, "Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead."
The Union ultimately prevailed, and Fort Morgan suffered major damage from Union artillery before surrendering. Today, parts of the original brick fortification remain. Much of the fort now consists of concrete batteries, built between 1896 and 1905, which look out onto Mobile Bay. The mounts where the guns were positioned still remain.
A museum displays artifacts from the fort's 112-year history, including links of chain recovered from the Tecumseh, tools left behind by Confederate troops and mortar and other projectiles fired in the Battle of Mobile Bay.
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