A Cool And Windy Morning As We Head To New Orleans

A Memorable Night With Buddy

6:22

6"23

It's 6:43 as I start this and the sun rose at 6:15, on a cool, 48º morning, with a 15 mile an hour wind, making it unpleasant to walk the beach. I think we are leaving at the right time.  About 15 people are up and enjoying breakfast and the soccer girls are just starting to come down for breakfast.  It will get busy.

A Rough Gulf

Yesterday could hardly have been more perfect with temperatures in the mid 70's and light winds. It kept us on the beach rather than wasting a day shopping at the beach stores, filled with junk like tee shirts, stickers, and hats.  We were up early as usual, at 6:00, finished the blog, organized the room some, and came down to breakfast and we were the first ones on the beach at 9:00. We alternated walks with sunbathing until 12:30 when we went for a swim and a brief, very brief run. I finished my book, Magpie Murders by Alan Horowitz, and started the new Jack Reacher, Better Off Dead.  Horowitz's mysteries are not your typical mystery as the writer somehow gets involved.  I like it. 

Feeling Like A Twenty Year Old

Beach Life

We had our usual lunch, peanut butter, and jelly sandwiches, and read and watched some TV.  Around 1:30 Evie went back down to the beach and I took a good nap for once, for close to an hour.  Love it.  I then joined her on the beach and we stayed until 4:00 when it was starting to get cool. We then took showers and got ready to go out to eat.  We relaxed during sunset with a light highball and I walked down to the beach to get a better photograph.  

Sunset

Northern Sky

5:05

5:06

Our only conundrum was where to eat and we finally decided to go to Cobalt, Evie's suggestion.  After a couple of wrong turns despite Waze, we found the restaurant, set on the bay.  It was a huge place, so unexpected after the past couple of cozy restaurants.  There was seating for 50 to 100 both inside and out and many were sitting out along the wharf as it was so mild.  We, of course, sat at the bar, the only ones until another guy walked up and sat a seat away. 

Cobalt Restaurant's Outdoor Dining

Once again it was a propitious moment as we struck up a conversation and by the time we finished dinner we had become friends. Buddy is an Alabama native, a graduate of the University of Alabama, and a former President of their alumni association.  He is an avid Alabama football fan, has photos of both him and his wife with Coach Nick Saban.  He was a student at Alabama in the 1960s when Joe Namath played and had stories about the iconoclastic governor George Wallace. He also remembered the good old days, growing up on the beaches before the condos.   He owned a furniture store, a magazine, and had a radio station, quite a guy. Unfortunately, his wife recently passed away and suffered from dementia for the past few years. He was in near tears as he talked about her.  We loved talking with him and were sad to have the evening end. We exchanged phone numbers and will keep in touch.  He even suggested a backroads drive to New Orleans, taking us through some of the old Southern towns. It was fortuitous to meet him. 

On the way home, we stopped briefly at CVS then Dairy Queen for hot fudge sundaes to end the evening on a sweet note.  We watched TV and worked on photographs until 9:30 when we went to bed, tired again from our day. Thinking back on the past four days, we have loved everyone we met here in Alabama, especially our new friend, Buddy. 

The Gulf