Mobile — Wendy James looked up over a cup of spicy hot tea at Kate Shepard House, her bed-and-breakfast inn, and asked, "When was the last time you actually stopped in Mobile?"

Ah, yes, that's the question.

Mobile Bay Convention & Visitors (ENLARGE)

Bellingrath Gardens features more than 65 acres of landscaped beauty, including more than 250,000 azalea blossoms in the spring and mums (pictured) in the fall.

Mobile Bay Convention & Visitors (ENLARGE)

One of Mobile's finest examples of the Italianate style, the Richards DAR House Museum is open for tours seven days a week.

Mobile Bay Convention & Visitors (ENLARGE)

Families can walk the decks of the mighty USS ALABAMA, recipient of nine Battle Stars in World War II.

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Too many travelers just drive through Mobile on their way to New Orleans or to the casinos on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Not enough people unpack a suitcase and look around. So what is there to do in Mobile? Here are five suggestions:

1. Drive down Government Street

There are commercial places, sure, but you see old Mobile on Government Street; turn off every now and then and drive into neighborhoods with live oaks and gracious houses with porches and fancy grillwork.

A few are house museums. The Italianate-style Richards DAR House Museum — with a full array of lacy cast iron — is at 256 N. Joachim in De Tonti Square, the "fashionable residential section of the 1860s." (251-208-7320, www.richardsdarhouse.com)

The Mobile Carnival Museum at 355 Government St. has two floors filled with costumes from Carnival balls, as well as videos and a gift shop where you can buy marvelously tacky oversize sunglasses shaped like fat fleurs-de-lis. (251-432-3324, www.mobilecarnivalmuseum.com)

When you're finished touring, stop at 1111 Government St. at Sausy Q Bar B Q. Stuff yourself with ribs, beef and chicken, cooked since 1990 with "smoke, fire and love." 251-433-7427.

2. Tour the USS Alabama

This World War II battleship served in the Pacific without a single fatality. There's a grainy movie and a self-guided tour that leads visitors up and down stairways on the 12 decks (wear sneakers) while World War II-era dance music — "Begin the Beguine" and "My Mama Done Told Me" — plays in the background.

There's a list of those who served aboard the ship, a directory of "sailor slang" (scuttlebutt is either a rumor or a drinking fountain), mess halls, officers quarters, bunks, a barbershop and a fascinating posting about the war from different points of view.

The USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park on U.S. 90 east of Mobile also has a World War II submarine, a Vietnam-era river patrol boat and 24 airplanes. It's open every day but Christmas and is supported solely by admissions, donations and fund-raising. (1-800-426-4929, www.ussalabama.com)

3. Spend a few hours at Bellingrath Gardens

Bill Darr, 83, a volunteer who calls himself the guest transportation czar, showed us around the grounds in Theodore, about a half-hour west of downtown Mobile.

Spring is fabulous — flowers everywhere. In March, the azaleas bloom, "and when they finish, we dig them up and throw them away and plant something else," Darr said. Look for roses in April.

Don't miss the tour of Walter and Bessie Bellingrath's home — especially if curator Tom McGehee is leading it. He may be in charge, but he does not bow without a smile at the shrine of Walter Bellingrath, who made his fortune as owner of a Coca-Cola franchise.

McGehee will tell you how a doctor — it was McGehee's grandfather, who got tired of hearing Bellingrath say he couldn't afford to buy the land — told Bellingrath he needed to go there for his health, to fish. The camp Bellingrath bought had no water or electricity. He loved it, but his wife, Bessie, "kept checking in on him. She knew he wasn't drinking just the Coca-Cola he was bottling." No sirree.

She wanted a garden. They opened the doors for a day in 1932, and 4,700 people showed up. By 1934, they opened it all year.

And the 15-room house, built with bricks from a mid-19th-century house, replaced the fishing camp.

The couple had no children, only nieces and nephews. The house looks as it did when the Bellingraths lived there. Bessie died in 1943, at age 64; Walter was 86 when he died in 1955.

Upcoming events include an evening concert on Mother's Day. (1-800-247-8420, www.bellingrath.org)

4. Go canoeing

The 5 Rivers Delta Center, on the same road as Battleship Memorial Park but closer to Spanish Fort, opened last year at the point where the Mobile, Spanish, Tensaw, Apalachee and Blakeley rivers flow into Mobile Bay.

It's a center for recreation in the delta area, including floating campsites and canoeing in the 250,000 acres of waterways. If you aren't the outdoors type, visit the small nature museum (ask someone to pry open the alligator jaw fossil), and relax on the porch overlooking the water. (251-625-0814, www.outdooralabama.com/outdoor-adventures/5rivers)

5. Explore downtown Mobile

There's not much going on midweek, but on the weekend the downtown area has funky little shops, loud nightclubs and popular cafes. Downtown is undergoing a resurrection of sorts.

Any day (except major holidays), visit the Museum of Mobile at 1837 Marketplace, in Old City Hall (251-208-7569, www.museumofmobile.com).

It has some compelling exhibits. Some, such as the Discovery Room for children, are fun. Kids can try on colonial costumes, play with foam architectural building blocks and listen to tapes of a fish vendor.

But the museum doesn't avoid the shameful and painful past. There's a cutaway of a slave ship, with creaking sounds of a ship at sea and voices speaking an African dialect. Four stacked shelves are lined with feet of slaves. Body silhouettes show their prices: A child sold for $700 to $900 ($14,000 in today's money); a man, $1,200 to $1,300 ($26,000 today).

There are lighter exhibits, too — one on Mardi Gras and a home run ball hit by native son Hank Aaron. There's a whole board on the definitions of creole.

Across the street is a reproduction of part of the original Fort Conde, built to four-fifths its actual size, which protected Mobile from 1723 to 1820.

After looking inside the niches of the fort wall, meander back to the newly renovated grand dame hotel, the Battle House.

The first hotel was built in 1852, the second in 1908. It shut down in 1974, and reopened last year at 26 N. Royal St.

Toast your weekend with a drink from the bar or splurge on dinner in the Trellis Room, its fine-dining restaurant. There's a new tower, but sleep in the old part and relish the history of the hotel ... and of Mobile.

IF YOU GO

Getting there

Flying: Expect to pay $200 round trip from Atlanta to Mobile.

Driving: Mobile is about 330 miles from downtown Atlanta, about a five-hour drive.

Where to stay

• The Battle House, which played host over the years to notables from Ulysses S. Grant to Babe Ruth, reopened in May 2007 as a Marriott Renaissance hotel downtown at 26 N. Royal St. Splurge on dinner at the Trellis Room. $179-$199 for a standard room in spring and summer; up to $3,000 for the presidential suite. 251-338-2000, www.rsabattlehouse.com.

• Holiday Inn Downtown Historic District. Recently renovated, downtown. $135 up. 301 Government St., 251-694-0100.

• My Victorian B&B. $123-$169. Eclectic, great breakfasts, near downtown. Pet friendly. 504 Church St. 251-219-9961, www.myvictorianbedandbreakfast.com.

• Kate Shepard House. Three rooms, $145. The Queen Anne-style B&B is a little farther out, but Wendy James' pecan praline French toast is listed in the state's brochure "100 Dishes to Eat in Alabama Before You Die." Pet friendly. 1552 Monterey Place. 251-479-7048.

• Malaga Inn. Packages begin at $75 a person in a double room. 40 rooms and suites in two townhouses downtown. 35 Church St. 1-800-235-1586, www.bbonline.com/al/kateshepardwww.malagainn.com.

Where to eat

• Cafe 615. Contemporary restaurant/lounge downtown, power crowd, 615 Dauphin St. 251-432-8434.

• Wintzell's Oyster House. Fried seafood since 1938. 605 Dauphin St. 251-432-4605.

• The Pillars. Fine dining in a 1904 mansion, voted "most romantic," a splurge. 1757 Government St. 251-471-3411.

• See sunset over Mobile Bay at Felix's Fishcamp, 1530 Battleship Parkway, 251-626-6710, or Ed's Seafood Shed, 3382 Battleship Parkway, 251-625-1947.

• Ruth's Chris Steak House. Locally owned; service receives raves from regulars. 2058 Airport Blvd. 251-476-0516.

• Dew Drop Inn. Everybody's favorite greasy spoon: hot dogs and burgers. 1808 Old Shell Road. 251-473-7872.

Information

Mobile Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau: 1-800-566-2453, www.mobilebay.org.