Alabama Bound, On to Foley, Gulf Coast

Alabama’s charming small towns and downtowns feel like home, to me y’all. A lifelong Northerner, my heart now also belongs to Alabama.

My week touring the Mobile Bay area from Mobile to the Gulf Coast with eight other writers and tourism guides impressed me so much I now sing Sweet Home Alabama with gusto. Continuing on a weeklong visit, our tour bus headed south from Fairhope to Foley. Model trains and sweet pies, antiques and friendly souls make Foley a delight.

A friendly little town, filled with some good antique stores and boutiques, town boosters wanted to attract more visitors in Foley, a good stopping point for beachgoers heading to the Gulf Shore. So began Heritage Harbor Days. But instead of just having their own town festival, they invited an Oklahoma town to Alabama to show people all about chuck wagons, cowboy songs and cattle. Then the Foley folk they did the same up north, driving a shrimp boat and bringing Foley's gospel choir to Oklahoma.

The next year, they exchanged heritage with Grapevine, Texas, then Ozark, Missouri, and other towns. When Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina hit the towns, their festival exchange friends drove down to help, bringing truckloads of supplies. Kathy Danielson, a local booster, talked about her enterprising small town about 30 miles south of Mobile. She runs the visitor's bureau for the town of about 10,000. Over at Stacey’s Old Time Soda Fountain, I ordered ice cream sodas. Later, we toured the Holmes Medical Museum (Edith saw a ghost), and the Hotel Magnolia’s regal rooms.

Foley boasts a detailed array of O gauge model trains, set-up inside the original train station. Sixty feet long, twenty-two feet wide, multilayered and full of tunnels, it features a miniature town, freight trains, a circus, circus trains and passenger lines. The firemen slide down a pole, jump into a fire engine, and rush to put out a roof on fire. A team of train lovers in engineer’s caps runs the whole shebang. Many good antique shops line the main street.

Next stop – yummy pies at Sweetie Pie's. “The most popular pie is coconut cream,” Owner Tammy Mason said, handing me a plate with a huge slice. “But the Southern Living magazine judged my pecan pie the best.” My fave? The coconut cream with chocolate that I shared with Michelle along with a huge slice of pecan pie and another of apple – heaven!

Leaving Foley, a shore drive to Point Clear brought us to the elegant 550-acre Grand Hotel Marriott Point Clear Resort and Spa on Route 98, 23 miles southeast of Mobile and 49 miles west of Pensacola Florida. The exclusive golf course is part of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail.


This resort in Point Clear, overlooks scenic Mobile Bay, and offers impeccable service. Two golf courses are part of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, a luxurious 20,000 sq ft European-style spa, and a marina for sailboats, yachts and fishing boats. The beaches and pool complex offer families plenty to do. 1-251-928-9201, 1-800-544-9933, 17855 Scenic Hwy 98, Point Clear, AL.

At dinner the chef at the Grand Hotel Marriott Point Clear Resort and Spa used his own vegetable garden for much of his herbs on the food. His Kobe Beef was tender and the seafood risotto, delicious. This resort is right on Mobile Bay, and a boardwalk and pier give walkers a chance to circle around the resort.