Thursday, June 09, 2005
Dauphin Island
Eric and I stayed at a B&B on Dauphin Island called the Dauphin House. When Eric arrived there he was a bit concerned about how I’d react to its exterior -– which was cinder blocks painted yellow with those electric Christmas-type lights in tubes (you know the ones?) bedecking the place. But I did arrive and liked it. Our room was lovely and looked out on the water, northward. Dauphin Island was totally bizarre.
Some good things first –- not that the island being bizarre is at all bad. But first -– Eric loved how the two ladies working at the Dauphin House had a very good banter back-and-forth between them and called him “baby.” When I got there they gave us information on where to go to the beach on the island and we took their advice, kind of. We ultimately went to the public beach, which really was amazing. Not picturesque necessarily or possessing waters redolent of Cancun’s tropical blue ones, but the beach had soft sand, happy people, and warm, warm water. That was wonderful. But I’ll return to the beach description in a minute.
Before we went to the beach we drove around the whole island, starting on the east end. There, we saw an Exxon, I think, office, and off-shore you can see, all around the island, oil platforms. On the east end of the island there is also a yacht club (and don’t think South of France here –- think something much more low-rent as far as I could tell) and a historic military fort. There is also a bird sanctuary and a trailer park for people camping in their trailers. We also saw many, many people fishing off of the rocky coast there. So then we drove to the west end. On that side of the island we saw a kind of cottage I, for one, had never seen and could not frankly comprehend in terms of insurability. As you’ll recall, hurricanes hit the South in catastrophic ways, as Ivan did last September (or August?). These cottages are on STILTS. The floor of the cottage is about twelve feet above sand-level and I tell you, they looked precarious as all get-out. We hadn’t talked to any locals about the cottages at this time, so we just couldn’t imagine WHY someone would spend the money to build such a thing on land so vulnerable. They were interesting in terms of their architectural style. For those of you familiar with southern California’s “dingbats,” I think you’ll agree that there’s something to the Dauphin Island cottages that is dingbattish. Anyway, we did see some remains -– meaning, some stilts with no cottages on them. This, I am sure you can surmise, is the result of the cottages being BLOWN OFF OF THEIR PLATFORMS! Yes, the hurricanes just blew some houses right off of the slits. Now, would you turn right back around and build again? These cottages came in all kinds of candy colors though and shapes; some were in the purple-pitched-roof-ski-chalet style, others in the yellow-cube-with-metal-shuttered-windows style. We actually drove on a road that went down the center of the island that had several inches of sea water on it –- and that kept us thinking about the viability of such living.
Dauphin Island beach cottage on stilts
Anyway, on the beach, we played in the surf and lied in the sand. We met a family from Oklahoma. Next to us was a family from Mexico. But as we walked up to the beach initially, we saw Dauphin Island’s Finest arresting some kids, one was a girl in a Corona bikini and the other was her suntanned boyfriend. There were cuffed and sitting on the hood of their car. We surmised that maybe they were arrested for fighting. She looked like a scrapper. Anyway, the beach was fun.
That night we drove around looking for somewhere to eat and ended up at the country club’s restaurant, The Palms. Don’t go to the Palms. The tablecloth was stained, first off, and then my shrimp cocktail left much to be desired. Eric has sworn off of alfredo since and the waitresses were reprimanded for gossiping while we were there. But we did venture upstairs to the bar, lured by a sign advertising that “Dr. Bob” would be performing. We couldn’t resist the mystery of Dr. Bob. And we did want to find some locals to talk to about the strange features of Dauphin Island. So I went right in and sat at the bar and started talking to three local men, one of whom we discovered was Dr. Bob. He would be doing a set at 9:00, for which we couldn’t stay, but I tell you what, I don’t know what Dr. Bob plays or what he is a doctor of, but he was 100% entertaining.
We learned from Dr. Bob that some of the houses on the island we blown from the south side to the north side during the hurricane. He was also a master-something-captain for the ocean oil rigs and told us wild tales of the splendor and luxuriousness of the oil platform life. Some platforms have glassed-in dining rooms with “top-shelf” foods-aplenty, with waiters and cooks to serve the crew, with audio-visual equipment to while away the long lonely hours out at sea. He also told us about the buildings on the oceanfront in Biloxi. According to him, the Beau Rivage is a boat itself, and when there’s a hurricane, they attach it to several barges and drag it away. I am still suspicious of that information. Dr. Bob had lived in California, was in the military, and his friend told us that Dauphin Island is the most laid-back place on earth, “more laid back than Hawaii.”
Beautiful sunset on Dauphin Island
The next morning, since the ferry was not operational, we had to drive all the way around Mobile Bay so Eric could start riding again at Ft. Morgan, 22 miles west of Gulf Shores, Alabama. As we were leaving Dauphin Island, I said, "So long Dauphin Island! You were weird!" And that is as true as it gets. The drive to the other side of Mobile Bay was interesting in itself and as we drove further west on that isthmus, we saw the damage the hurricane wreaked there too. Still, there were piles of rubbish, dead tree limbs, and battered furniture stacked by the roadside. But it appeared to me that this side was wealthier than the Dauphin Island side. There were resorts and fancier houses and more people in general. So at Fort Morgan, Eric hopped back on his bike to ride again and I drove off, for a fun day of getting lost and spilling coffee on my pale pink Lacoste shirt.
Some good things first –- not that the island being bizarre is at all bad. But first -– Eric loved how the two ladies working at the Dauphin House had a very good banter back-and-forth between them and called him “baby.” When I got there they gave us information on where to go to the beach on the island and we took their advice, kind of. We ultimately went to the public beach, which really was amazing. Not picturesque necessarily or possessing waters redolent of Cancun’s tropical blue ones, but the beach had soft sand, happy people, and warm, warm water. That was wonderful. But I’ll return to the beach description in a minute.
Before we went to the beach we drove around the whole island, starting on the east end. There, we saw an Exxon, I think, office, and off-shore you can see, all around the island, oil platforms. On the east end of the island there is also a yacht club (and don’t think South of France here –- think something much more low-rent as far as I could tell) and a historic military fort. There is also a bird sanctuary and a trailer park for people camping in their trailers. We also saw many, many people fishing off of the rocky coast there. So then we drove to the west end. On that side of the island we saw a kind of cottage I, for one, had never seen and could not frankly comprehend in terms of insurability. As you’ll recall, hurricanes hit the South in catastrophic ways, as Ivan did last September (or August?). These cottages are on STILTS. The floor of the cottage is about twelve feet above sand-level and I tell you, they looked precarious as all get-out. We hadn’t talked to any locals about the cottages at this time, so we just couldn’t imagine WHY someone would spend the money to build such a thing on land so vulnerable. They were interesting in terms of their architectural style. For those of you familiar with southern California’s “dingbats,” I think you’ll agree that there’s something to the Dauphin Island cottages that is dingbattish. Anyway, we did see some remains -– meaning, some stilts with no cottages on them. This, I am sure you can surmise, is the result of the cottages being BLOWN OFF OF THEIR PLATFORMS! Yes, the hurricanes just blew some houses right off of the slits. Now, would you turn right back around and build again? These cottages came in all kinds of candy colors though and shapes; some were in the purple-pitched-roof-ski-chalet style, others in the yellow-cube-with-metal-shuttered-windows style. We actually drove on a road that went down the center of the island that had several inches of sea water on it –- and that kept us thinking about the viability of such living.
Dauphin Island beach cottage on stilts
Anyway, on the beach, we played in the surf and lied in the sand. We met a family from Oklahoma. Next to us was a family from Mexico. But as we walked up to the beach initially, we saw Dauphin Island’s Finest arresting some kids, one was a girl in a Corona bikini and the other was her suntanned boyfriend. There were cuffed and sitting on the hood of their car. We surmised that maybe they were arrested for fighting. She looked like a scrapper. Anyway, the beach was fun.
That night we drove around looking for somewhere to eat and ended up at the country club’s restaurant, The Palms. Don’t go to the Palms. The tablecloth was stained, first off, and then my shrimp cocktail left much to be desired. Eric has sworn off of alfredo since and the waitresses were reprimanded for gossiping while we were there. But we did venture upstairs to the bar, lured by a sign advertising that “Dr. Bob” would be performing. We couldn’t resist the mystery of Dr. Bob. And we did want to find some locals to talk to about the strange features of Dauphin Island. So I went right in and sat at the bar and started talking to three local men, one of whom we discovered was Dr. Bob. He would be doing a set at 9:00, for which we couldn’t stay, but I tell you what, I don’t know what Dr. Bob plays or what he is a doctor of, but he was 100% entertaining.
We learned from Dr. Bob that some of the houses on the island we blown from the south side to the north side during the hurricane. He was also a master-something-captain for the ocean oil rigs and told us wild tales of the splendor and luxuriousness of the oil platform life. Some platforms have glassed-in dining rooms with “top-shelf” foods-aplenty, with waiters and cooks to serve the crew, with audio-visual equipment to while away the long lonely hours out at sea. He also told us about the buildings on the oceanfront in Biloxi. According to him, the Beau Rivage is a boat itself, and when there’s a hurricane, they attach it to several barges and drag it away. I am still suspicious of that information. Dr. Bob had lived in California, was in the military, and his friend told us that Dauphin Island is the most laid-back place on earth, “more laid back than Hawaii.”
Beautiful sunset on Dauphin Island
The next morning, since the ferry was not operational, we had to drive all the way around Mobile Bay so Eric could start riding again at Ft. Morgan, 22 miles west of Gulf Shores, Alabama. As we were leaving Dauphin Island, I said, "So long Dauphin Island! You were weird!" And that is as true as it gets. The drive to the other side of Mobile Bay was interesting in itself and as we drove further west on that isthmus, we saw the damage the hurricane wreaked there too. Still, there were piles of rubbish, dead tree limbs, and battered furniture stacked by the roadside. But it appeared to me that this side was wealthier than the Dauphin Island side. There were resorts and fancier houses and more people in general. So at Fort Morgan, Eric hopped back on his bike to ride again and I drove off, for a fun day of getting lost and spilling coffee on my pale pink Lacoste shirt.
# posted by jnewwave @ 2:01 PM 
