The worst is over for tourist traffic on the Alabama gulf coast.

[trof]

Labor Day is the last influx of vacationers to the beaches.
Now we have the 'quiet time' until the snowbirds start to arrive in December and January.

During the spring break season and summer, we locals avoid U.S. Highway 59, the main road to Gulf Shores beaches, if at all possible.
It's usually bumper-to-bumper then.

Don't get me wrong. We appreciate our tourists and the money they bring to our economy. We're very welcoming to them. Gulf Shores and Orange Beach are 'family friendly', unlike places like Panama City and Ft. Walton which draw a younger, sometimes rowdier, crowd.

Note: If you'd like to visit one of the most beautiful sugar white sand beaches in the U.S., come in October if you can.
The gulf water is still warm from summer sun, but air temps and humidity are much more comfortable.



Spring (before spring break) is nice too, but the water will be cooler.
Y'all come.

[Habibi]

1. Sounds lovely!

And I wouldn't have known without your post. Thanks!

[trof]

2. Most beach sand is ground coral. Ours is ground quartz.

Left behind when the glaciers retreated a long time ago. It's so fine it squeaks when you walk on it. Blindingly white.

[csziggy]

3. Same thing for the North Florida Gulf coast beaches

My husband's family lives in Panama City, Florida. We don't visit them between Memorial Day and Labor Day. It's just not worth it, even if we don't go to the beaches.

I prefer going to St. George Island - but not during the summer. In a month or so, it will be nice and quiet. Then we can go have a nice day at the beach!

[Lochloosa]

4. I'm old enough to have driven from Bob Sikes Cut to the east end of the island.

On the beach.

[csziggy]

6. I haven't visited often enough to have those memories

Only once or twice when I was in college (in the 1970s) and only a handful of time since.

My most memorably visit was to an end of the semester party that lasted the whole weekend. Everybody else brought beer, BBQ, and potato chips. June, in Florida on a beach with few concessions (back then) when nobody had much money and everybody had been partying too much to want to attempt to drive to any of the stores.

I stopped by an aquarium shop, got one of the huge styrofoam containers they shipped fish in. Filled it with watermelons, then filled all the spaces with ice. By the time I got to St. George mid-day the second day of the party weekend, and drove out on the beach, the watermelons were cold and the ice was just starting to melt.

People mobbed my car - not for the watermelons but for the water that the ice had melted to. Not one person had any water with them. After a lot of beer and salty snacks the night before, they were all dehydrated and desperate for water. They liked the watermelons, too but they really needed that water.

[Still In Wisconsin]

5. I love Gulf Shores. Beautiful, beautiful place and

the hospitality we've had down there has always been great. Y'all coulda been a little bit nicer to our football team Saturday night, though.

[trof]

7. Your guys made a good showing, but Roll Tide.

[Still In Wisconsin]

8. I've never seen our offensive line get pushed around like that- ever.

We have three new starters and two missed the bulk of fall camp with injuries but still... dominant performance by Bama. That looked like an NFL defense. We will get better as the season goes on, but the Tide is the real deal. I expect to see you in the final this year.

I have always kinda liked Bama. It comes partly from being a Packer fan, and having Bart Starr as my favorite player when I was a really little kid.

I kinda like Eddie Lacy now too

[trof]

9. I remember Bart Starr, but I wasn't a little kid then.

[Art_from_Ark]

10. One of the first Scholastic books I had

was one about Bart Starr-- "Bart the Cool"-- that came out sometime after Super Bowl I.

[Still In Wisconsin]

11. He's still a hero in Wisconsin.

Kids who were born decades after he played his last game know all about #15.