It was a nice, short trip from Apalachicola to Carrabelle where we will wait until the weather is favorable for our overnight Gulf crossing.
Apalachicola as we were leaving the marina
Carrabelle is home to the world’s smallest police station! In 1953, the phone company installed a phone in call box to the side of a building so that the two man police force could answer calls while patrolling the streets but they had issues with people making unauthorized long distance calls from the phone as well as vandalism. In 1963, the phone booth was moved to its current location where the officers could sit in their patrol cars and do paperwork and listen for the phone while watching for speeders and suspicious characters. They still had problems with unauthorized long distance calls being made and eventually removed the dial from the phone so that calls could be received but not made and it served the police of Carrabelle for decades.
We visited the Carrabelle History Museum, located in the Old Carrabelle City Hall, which was packed with history of this little town. One of the items was the original phone, a Western Electric Circa 1948, from the World’s Smallest Police Station.
C-Quarters MarinaSome of the Loopers staying at C-Quarters marina meeting at Harry’s Bar.
The Carrabelle Bottle House was started in 2012 by Leon Weisner. Weisner traveled the world being an artist for the Miss Universe pageant. We visited the property during the day but later learned that the lighthouse and the house are lit up at night which would have been nice to see. We also did not know that we could have gone inside the house!
The Fisherman’s Wife restaurantThe Crossing Group at Harry’s the night before our departure – minus Rhonda and Eammon in the back who are going to Steinhatchee. Jeff and Doris from Two by Two, Pam and Bob from Out of the Blue and Lynne and Earle from Aries. Julie and Kelly from GoGo will also be crossing with us but they did not join us this evening as they are at anchor.
We have had several “it’s a small world” moments on our trip but this one takes the cake: Lynne and Earle live in Vinings and their daughter is dating a man that lives ACROSS THE STREET from us in Atlanta in the former home of a very dear friend of Ellen’s aunt!
Apalachicola Marina is simply a 150′ face dock in front of the old Apalachicola Ice Company but it is right in the heart of charming downtown Apalachicola.
Across the street was a wonderful breakfast “food truck”, Baked Apalach, driven by non other than Matthew McConaughey! We got biscuits there both mornings and the were delicious!
We had an amazing dinner at The Owl Cafe and ran into a couple we had first met in Little Falls, NY whose boat is named Blue Merle.
The Owl Cafe
We had hoped to tour the Orman House but it was closed for preservation. Thomas Orman was a cotton merchant and was instrumental in making Apalachicola the third largest cotton shipping port on the Gulf Coast during the mid-19th century. The antebellum home was built in 1838 and the wood for this house was cut to measure in New York and shipped to Apalachicola via a sailing vessel which went around the Florida Keys.
Orman House built in 1838
We were able to tour the Raney House, also built in 1838. David Raney also made his fortune in the cotton trade and served two terms as mayor. He and his wife raised eight children in the home. Their bedroom was on the third floor which was closed.
Raney House built in 1838Note the highchair in the right corner that converted to a stroller
In the late 1800’s sponges were Apalachicola’s most lucrative fishery. Sponges were taken to the Sponge Exchange and auctioned to dealers who later shipped them to St. Louis, Baltimore, San Francisco and New York. Today, there is only one dealer in Apalachicola. Below is a photo of one of two original sponge warehouses in Apalachicola, built in 1840 and restored in the 1990’s.
The Sponge Exchange built in 1840.
We had a nice dinner at Half Shell Dockside our second night in Apalachicola.
We enjoyed our trip from Destin to Panama City and arrived to find several Loopers already at Bay Pointe Marina. As we are nearing Carrabelle, the location from which we will start our overnight Gulf crossing, everyone is scouring the weather apps for a good weather window for the roughly 20 hour trip across the Gulf. There may be an opportunity to cross around the 28th but it may be the beginning of February before it is advisable to make the crossing. While some had planned to wait it out in Panama City, we decided to go on to Apalachicola for a couple of days and then wait it out in Carrabelle. We learned that there are usually only about 5 to 10 good travel days for the Gulf crossing during each of the months from November to February when most Loopers make the crossing, or only 25-32 good crossing days over the four month period. Many things must be taken into consideration, most importantly, wave height and wind speed.
It was nice to be back on the water after a wonderful trip home! The boat was not ready when we had planned to be back so we stayed in Atlanta an additional two weeks but she sure did look pretty after her detail and bottom paint job!
Perfect Match wasn’t the only thing that was put back in the water. The Lady in the Bay was also reinstalled at her home in the water while we were home.
We were anxious to get moving once we got the boat back in the water but decided to stay an extra day at Barber marine in order to get more settled and organized. It was a nice trip to Destin and, thankfully, everything came back to us after our extended time away from the boat. We did not do anything in Destin other than enjoy a wonderful dinner at Grand Vista Bar & Grill.
Today was just a short trip to get to the marina where the boat will be pulled out while we travel home for the holidays. While out of the water, the bottom will be painted, boat detailed and minor maintenance completed.
Barber Marina was built by billionaire businessman, race car driver, real estate developer and philanthropist, George Barber. Barber Marina has several whimsical attractions situated among the several thousand acres where the marina is located.
Bamahenge is partial replica of England’s Stonehenge. The structure is made of fiberglass. While it is not a complete replica of the 50+ stones at Stonehenge, it does have the same astrological alignment of Stonehenge which is thought to have been constructed between 3000 and 2000 BC.
Bamahenge
Once Perfect Match was hauled out, she was placed on blocks and situated next to the Lady in the Bay. The Lady in the Bay is another fiberglass structure that was situated in the water at the marina before being nearly destroyed by Hurricane Sally. She had just returned to the marina after extensive renovation by her creator, Mark Cline, and was waiting to be placed back in the water. If the woman were a full standing figure, she would be taller than the Statue of Liberty!
There are also four dinosaurs, also created by Cline, on the grounds of the marina but, apparently, we only took photos of three of them – the fourth one must have been hiding deeper in the woods.
We also took a path and found several life-sized copper knights:
There were many other structures scattered about the property including a fountain influenced by the Neptune Fountain in Rome, a giant steel spider, an alligator, a giant sundial and more.
We are off to Birmingham and Atlanta for fun times with family and friends over the holidays! Kevin will also be in Columbus, OH for Thanksgiving. We will be back in January!
Shortly after we had docked at the marina, Kevin flew to Atlanta for the weekend in order to bring his car back to Gulf Shores. We will be here for a week and then will have the boat pulled out to have some work done. We will drive home and come back after the holidays to finish our Loop and cross our wake! It is hard to believe it has almost been a year that we have been living on the boat!
Our friends Kay and Don from Neverland invited us to docktails at The Wharf Marina which is just a few miles from the marina where we are staying. There were several couples there and we all had a great time! We had met one of the couples back in February in Marathon and never met up with them again until now. They had just crossed their wake the day before and there was another couple who were just starting their Loop the next day!
Docktails at The Wharf
The Wharf is a huge complex with a lot of condos, restaurants and shopping in addition to a beautiful marina. When we arrived, one of the parking areas was filled with kids “trunk or treating” and by the time we left a few hours later it had turned into quite a block party.
We drove to Mobile each of the next three days for some sightseeing.
The Bragg-Mitchell House, built in 1855, is a 13,000 square foot Antebellum mansion surrounded by magnificent live oak trees that are over a century old. Only four families have owned the home since the Bragg family. The last family to own the home was the Mitchell family who purchased the home in 1931 for $20,000. The Mitchells restored the home and lived there until 1965. The Mitchell foundation donated it to the Explore Center in the late 1970’s. Photographs were not allowed to be taken of the interior which was beautifully decorated.
Bragg-Michell Home
We toured the History Museum of Mobile which is located in the 1857 Old City Hall building. In addition to learning about the history of Mobile, we saw quite an impressive collection of miniature houses built by a man named Aaron Friedman. Friedman and his wife had four sons who fathered eleven grandchildren, including eight granddaughters. After Friedman retired, he built eight miniature houses, one for each of his granddaughters and one for his wife (two of the granddaughters were twins so he built a larger house for the two of them). The miniatures are modeled after actual houses and one of them was modeled after a house in Atlanta! The scale of the miniature houses is 1 inch to 1 foot so they are not as “miniature” as one would think. The miniature modeled after the Atlanta home is 6 feet long! Some of the many fascinating features included in the houses are: real Italian marble, hand laid oven-fired tile, needlework rugs, curtains, cushions and bedspreads made by Friedman’s wife and a friend, stucco walls, and hand casted stones made of plaster and sand. Each of the houses features a painting of the granddaughter for whom it was made. Our pictures of the miniatures did not turn out great due to the glare from the lights and the sun shinning through the windows but they can be viewed online.
History Museum of Mobile
Getting to and from Mobile from the eastern shore of Mobile Bay requires either taking a ferry or via an underwater tunnel which is 40′ below the surface of the bay.
Once we were back at the marina after our first day in Mobile, we noticed that our friends Caroline and Todd from Sunset Dreams had arrived. We met them for a drink at LuLu’s (Jimmy Buffet’s “Crazy Sista”) which is located in front of the marina where we are staying. We first met Caroline and Todd in Key West and have run into them several times since and always enjoy their company!
Back in Mobile the following day, we visited Bellingrath Gardens and the Oakleigh House.
Before discussing the spectacular Bellingragth Gardens, a very brief history of Coca-Cola and its relation to Belingrath: First invented by pharmacist John Pemberton of Columbus, GA in 1885, the drink was called Pemberton’s French Wine and was first sold at Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta. Pemberton claimed “it cured morphine addiction, dyspepsia, neurasthenia, headache and impotence”. In 1887, he sold the formula to another druggist, Asa Candler, who modified the formula. By 1890, Coca-Cola had become America’s most popular soft drink and soon Candler began selling rights to bottle the product on a franchise basis. Walter Belingrath took over ownership of the Mobile Coca-Cola Bottling Company in 1903. He began business with one mule, a wagon, an assistant and a hand-and-foot powered bottling machine. He and his assistant would bottle the Cokes and then drive the wagon around the city selling the drinks to local businesses and later retrieve the bottles, wash them by hand and refill them for the next day’s delivery. Three years later, Bellingrath married his secretary, Bessie Morse. Fast forward to 1948 when the Mobile plant is one of the most successful bottling plants in the country and Bellingrath is inducted into the “Half Million Gallon Club” for his plant having used a half million gallons of syrup in a year’s time. He would be inducted into the “Million Gallon Club” in 1970. In his first year of operation, Bellingrath only used 365 gallons of syrup.
In 1917, Walter purchased a rustic fishing camp on the Fowl River and named it Bellcamp. Bessie later got the idea to turn the Bellcamp into a country estate with beautiful gardens such as she had seen on a trip to England. In April, 1932, the Bellingraths invited the public to visit the gardens that they had created and an astonishing 4,700 people showed up to see the beautiful gardens. The couple decided to open their gardens to the public and charge a small fee to control crowds and cover the upkeep of the gardens. They later built their home on the property in 1935 all the while still welcoming guests to the property. Today the home is filled with all of the original furnishings and collectables just as it was when the Bellingraths lived there.
The Oakleigh House was built in 1833 on 35 acres by a brick mason, dry goods merchant and cotton broker named James Roper.
Oakleigh House, 1833
On our final day in Mobile, we visited the World War II battleship USS Alabama, submarine USS Drum and the Conde Charlotte House.
The Conde Charlotte House was built in the 1820’s with the portico added in the 1840’s. It was originally the courthouse and jail until it was purchased by Jonathan Kirkbride in 1849 to be his family home. Each of the rooms in the house is decorated to depict a distinct portion of Mobile’s History from the 1760’s to the mid-1800’s.
British Commandant’s room reflecting Mobile under British rule in the early 1760’s through the early 1780’sParlor representing the antebellum periodAmerican Federal Dining Room representing the early 1800’sSpanish GardenFrench bedroom representing the early 1700’sAmerican Bedroom representing the mid-1800’s
We spent the rest of our week in Gulf Shores relaxing and getting ready for our trip home for the holidays. We will be back in January for the completion of our Loop!
