We visited the Gulf Coast of Alabama this spring for a week in March. We stayed in the Mobile Bay area. Samantha’s family rented a beach house on Dauphin Island just outside the bay. The tiny island has a history going back 300 years. At one point it was the capitol of the Louisiana Territory, which covered nearly two thirds of the United States.

The west end of the island was damaged by Hurricane Ivan and then pretty well destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, but the east end of the island where we were staying was hardly touched. Our end of the island was pretty sleepy, but the damaged west end experienced a traffic jam of contractors each weekday as they rebuilt the multi-million dollar beach houses.

It was a relaxing week spent walking along the beach, eating good food, visiting with family, and sightseeing along the coast. We put a about 1000 miles on our rental car during the week, so there I guess there was quite a bit of sightseeing.