Saying Goodbye to Mobile, Alabama
My sister is leaving Mobile, Alabama. Her husband accepted a new job in Atlanta, Georgia. They’ve sold their home and in a week they’ll move. She is my final link to my hometown.
Kenny, Titus and I stopped in Mobile for the night on our roadtrip from Keller, Texas to Valdosta, Georgia.
We headed out of town by way of Dauphin Street. Dauphin Street is a fabulous street, rivaled in town only by Government Street in my opinion. Gracious old antebellum homes and old stone churches line miles of the street. The lacy Spanish moss dances with the breeze in the limbs of the old oak trees arboring the road. As Dauphin Street enters downtown, the architecture changes to the French brick row houses with wrought iron porches, made famous by the French Quarter in New Orleans.
Kenny and Titus kindly agreed to accompany me in my determined mission to eat a final time at Spot of Tea on Cathedral Square. This unassuming establishment offers incredible fare and outside dining under the shade of oak trees with a view of the beautiful cathedral and fountains in the square.
The decidous trees on the square, still bare of leaves for the winter, were adorned with the glittering beads remaining from the recent Mardi Gras parades. Did you know Mobile is actually the first city in the U.S. to celebrate this holiday?
What to eat at Spot of Tea? Definitely the Bananas Foster French Toast. Imagine the decadent desert of bananas flambéed in butter, rum and brown sugar, until the mixture combines to form lightly browned bananas in a warm sweet syrup poured over thick slices of french toast. Wow, it is simply amazing.
The only rival on the menu is the crab bisque. The large chunks of crab infuse a salty taste of the sea into every bite of the rich creamy bisque.
I figured this was my last meal. Well, at least possibly my last meal in Mobile, Alabama. So I had both.
After our meal, I figured I was due for a walk. Kenny and Titus relaxed in the shade of Cathedral Square while I headed further downtown on Dauphin Street to buy some pralines for Kenny’s mom at Three George’s Candy Shop. Along my walk, I noticed a curious art gallery with bright Van Gogh-like paintings in the window displays. I was intrigued and entered the Cathedral Square Gallery. This cheerful home to 50 local artists is fantastic. I easily chatted with the ladies keeping the gallery, and purchased several notecard watercolor prints of local scenes I plan to hang in a collage at home.
“Where are you from?” an older lady in the gallery asked me.
“I grew up here, but I’m from Keller, Texas now.” I replied, as it would be too tedious to explain to her the details of my current life-in-transition.
“Oh…one of my good friends lives in Keller. What a small world.” she enthusiastically replied.
“He’s getting married next month in Oregon. He’s 85 years old. I’ve been invited to be the matron of honor in the wedding. I’m 81.” she informed me.
“Do you know him?” she asked.
“Well, no.” I had to admit.
I guess the world is not quite that small.
I returned to Kenny and my baby son and we headed out of town. To return to Interstate 10 east across Mobile Bay, we had to continue on Dauphin Street past Bienville Square, a Mobile iconic destination, named for one of the city’s founders. A multi-tiered wrought iron fountain is banked by wrought-iron fences in this square surrounded by interesting shops and restaurants. A lazy group of people relaxed in the shade of the huge oak trees on the square.
We also had to pass Fort Conde, the restored historic fort from the city’s origins. I was thrilled to see the block surrounding the fort booming with the life of revitalization. A science museum, new in the past ten years, stands nearby, and many of the neat old buildings near the fort have been restored to now house inns, shops and businesses.
I tried to look hard and commit my final look at Mobile to memory. I guess the vision in my mind’s eye will always be blurred by the tears I cried in goodbye.
