Like I've mentioned before, Kurt and I spent this past weekend in West Alabama for the wonderful wedding of Charles and Betsy. We had a great, super busy time. As per usual, I've been sorting through a mountain of photos to find the perfect ones to describe our trip. Kurt is a photographing machine. I don't know why I even take my camera on our trips.
We had a 7am flight out of NYC which required a crazy early wake up time. Luckily I was able to convince Kurt to take a car to the airport :) Here you can see us high above Brooklyn! See Prospect Park and Greenwood Cemetery? I can almost see my house!
We had a few flight delays (but got free meal vouchers out of it no thanks to me) but finally made it to Mobile, Alabama. It. Was. So. Hot. I was in heaven! We were able to pack away our sweaters and jackets and broke out the sunglasses. We hopped in the rental car and drove to downtown Mobile.
A very knowledgeable local suggested we try out Wintzell's Oyster House for a quintessential Mobile lunch.
We missed the memo that fried oysters are their specialty, but I thoroughly enjoyed my crab cake BLT while Kurt excitedly devoured his first ever bowl of gumbo. It's now on the list of things to try at home :)
We saw this sign a few blocks down from Wintzell's and Kurt wanted to check out the bike shop.
Turns out it is a bar and restaurant now and we ran into the owner himself. Seeing as it was a Friday afternoon, the place wasn't too busy, so he told us all about the history and recreating the sign to pay homage to the building's past. The guy was super nice and talked to us forever. One of the bar workers even climbed all through the attic to find us a glass that Kurt wanted to take home to his brother. It was such a random and fun detour!
Adding to our Mobile exploration, we found a landscape architect's office across the street from the bar! We stopped in and chatted with the guy for a while. He used to live and work in NYC, so we bonded over some common acquaintances and told him about the things he has missed in recent years. Once again, super nice and very willing to take a few minutes out of his day to chit chat with strangers. I was already settling back into the Southern pace of life.
Finally we decided to set out on our journey from Mobile to Newbern. On the way out of town, we spotted this building and absolutely had to turn around to take a picture because it said "Ohio" on it.
The drive was long and kind of boring but we finally made it to the neck of the woods I recognized. Here is the Thomaston Farmer's Market, an early Rural Studio project.
The Rural Heritage Center. Sadly the enormous sign has seen better days.
Too bad they weren't open because I would have loved some pepper jelly!
Before our trip, I kept telling Kurt that Greensboro is the "Catfish Capital of Alabama" so I was excited to finally show him all the catfish ponds as we drove into Newbern.
After settling in at the Spencer House with our gracious hostess Mackenzie, we freshened up and headed off to the Donavan Inn Farmhouse for a crawfish boil.
I can't claim to be any sort of expert on the topic of crawfish. Luckily, Becca, a Louisiana native was on hand to show us how it's done.
Kurt is a natural! We decided crawfish are very wasteful creatures to eat though. It takes tons of effort for very little return. Regardless, it was a fun night hanging out under the stars! (I can't remember the last time it was comfortable to be outside.) We got to catch up with old friends and enjoy some delicious food and drinks before the big wedding day. Check out our great group photo over at Laura's blog!
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