Exploring the Mobile Alabama Area

We spent memorial day weekend exploring the Mobile Alabama area... including the historic downtown district ....this town is filled with southern charm and is so pretty with all of the moss draped oaks and other trees! 

 Our first day began at  Bellingrath Gardens (just outside Mobile in Theodore, AL.) It was very humid and hot that day, but there is a canopy of trees here, so there's a lot of shady places in the gardens. Everything was so green and the gardens were blooming beautifully.....

Nothing says the south like some black ironwork..... I love looking at the intricate details of it....

 This was the rose gardens....

 Inside the greenhouse.....

 Water features abound at Bellingrath....

 Wow, who knew pineapples grew in Alabama!

 The gardens here are expansive....

 I love the lampposts that line some of the pathways....

This trip for us was all about relaxing and taking it easy, so me and my husband sat here in this shady spot a while and enjoyed swinging together.....

 I love all of the brick walkways...

There I am...

 I tried to take a picture of the little squirrel, but like most of the squirrels that I've tried to capture with my camera, he must not have wanted to be on the internet.....

 It's hard to pick a favorite feature here but I love the rock garden area.....it was cool within the walls of it and I loved the trickling sound of the water...

 My husband always laughs at me because I make the biggest deal out of any cascading water I can find, anywhere...well, because it reminds me of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tn. So here I am making a big deal again!
By the way, I told you how humid it was already right? The hair's proof, ha!

 Bellingrath has it's own Chapel and it was something special, plus it was air conditioned, yay....

The God's Garden plaque seemed perfect for this place....

I had to pose by all of the puffs of blue hydrangeas...my favorite flower!

The Japanese inspired gardens were very unique and pretty....

After we left Bellingrath, on our way back to our hotel we stopped at a junk store along the way and plundered around a while, (I found a stack of old Romantic Homes and Victorian Country magazines, cheap), then we headed to our hotel and went for a swim at the hotel pool to relax a while and cool off.


The next day we went to the Mobile Flea Market, it's a large covered outdoor type flea market, those are my favorite!  I found a few little treasures....a couple of miniature houses (that I like collecting), one was of an English Cottage and the other was a Victorian Cottage, I also found an antique square linen table topper with embroidery and lace edging, for my coffee table, and I picked up a few other things too, like handmade soaps and some Avon lotions and colognes...my husband found a couple of silver coins from a coin vendor, so he was thrilled.


After the flea market we headed to the historic downtown district (we parked near Dauphin Street).....

 Our first stop was at the huge Cathedral there in the city square....It's called the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception ....

 It is massive, it is a work of art....

The stained glass is breathtaking....

The grounds and gardens within the iron fences of the Cathedral are shaded and so pretty....

We then went walking around the downtown area.....

Mobile Alabama is old, but lively and has an interesting history.... there are shops to explore, places to eat, there's an old fashioned soda fountain/ ice cream shop, a peanut shop that had awesome divinity.... and there were even a couple of different musicians around town playing jazz music on the streets....(which reminded me a little bit of the French Quarters of New Orleans). I guess I didn't get a photo of them. I love the French architecture that is seen here in the old ironwork.....it is a charming downtown area.

 Mobile Alabama is the birthplace of the Mardi Gras Celebration.....did you know that?

After our walk about downtown....we went to the Historic Oakleigh Mansion, (built in 1833). We were happy we made it just in time for the last tour of the day.

 The people here at Historic Oakleigh were so very sweet and hospitable, we enjoyed our time spent here.....

 The grounds were lovely....

 And the inside of the home was stately and beautiful....

 Our tour guide was so sweet, she was just a little doll, she was dressed in 1800's period appropriate clothing, I seriously wanted a tablecloth or throw pillow made from the fabric of her dress, it looked like shabby chic or something, I loved it! I get sidetracked, sorry, anyway she was very knowledgeable about the history of Oakleigh and made the tour fun and interesting...

 With being a fan of dollhouses and having one of my very own, I loved that this mansion tour included this dollhouse! The dollhouse is from around 1904 and it was adorable....I could have stood around in here and looked at every little detail of it for hours, I think! This room was rather small, and we moved along from it rather quickly on the tour, so I'm glad my husband got these pictures of it for me! He would stay behind after everyone in the tour party would leave each room, so that he could get pictures for me.

 I think it's fun to see how people lived in the past....

As we left Oakleigh Mansion, we drove around the area and looked at all the old homes that were on the National Registry of Historic Places....

 There were so many cute cottages.....

 Lastly, we made our way to the Confederate Rest Cemetery....my husband had this on our itinerary.....

My prayer:
"Rest in Peace.... every fallen soldier of these United States. We honor you. We remember the history, we remember you this Memorial Day and we will never forget the sacrifices that you made.... that have been made on every side. We learn from history and we honor it in our hearts because of all of the sacrifices that have been made. May peace reign in this world, may God's peace reign in our hearts.... unite us as one.... unite us, once and for all. God Bless these United States of America."

The view as we left Mobile and headed homeward on I-10.....

 We had such a memorable, interesting, and fun weekend in Mobile! I liked that the people there talked like us, with a strong southern drawl. We fit right in around there. Heck, they probably thought we were locals. We are Alabama natives, even though we've lived in the panhandle of Florida for over 20 years now.  We were born and raised in southeast Alabama and we've still got the southern Alabama voice that comes with that. I know you're probably thinking....well the Florida panhandle is further south than southeast Alabama, yep, that's right, but nope, it's not the same.

I hope you enjoyed coming along with us today!

For more information about things to do in Mobile Alabama you can visit the official website HERE