The Wharf and Fort Walton Beach

The Wharf and Fort Walton Beach

We pulled out of Fairhope last Wednesday (12/7) and traveled to The Wharf marina (30.295827, -87.629834) in Orange Beach, Alabama. This is the nicest place we've stayed so far but still we had little to no wi-fi service. They have very nice floating docks rather than the more customary fixed docks usually found in coastal areas. The marina is part of a large complex of shops, restaurants, condominiums and a movie theater located right along the intracoastal waterway. We decided to stay a few days so that we could enjoy the sights, the best sight was the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola, it's a must see event. The weather has been colder than we'd like at times with occasional rain showers but we're managing to stay warm and dry. One night we had dinner at Lu Lu's and enjoyed the music of Albert Simpson, who by-the-way was born in Ringgold, Georgia. We left The Wharf Sunday (12/11) morning headed for an anchorage called Big Sabine about 35 miles away, but when we got there it didn't look like a very good place to anchor in our opinion. There was a very narrow trough showing on our charts with one to two foot depths on either side and no markers indicating where to steer, so we decided not to take a chance; there wasn't much wind protection either so it just didn't seem worth the trouble. We decided to go another 25 miles to a free dock at Fort Walton Beach where we spent two nights. One thing Loopers have in common, we all like the word “free.”

Kim’s Korner:

We were lucky enough to get to see the Christmas Boat Parade in Gulf Shores and even had front row seats from Overtime to view the parade and it was spectacular!

The most memorable thing in Ft. Walton was The Magnolia Grill which is a house that was bought from the Sears Roebuck catalog in 1910 and relocated at some point to its current location and made into a restaurant. The atmosphere was very warm and inviting with Christmas lights and decorations everywhere. The food was absolutely wonderful! If you are ever in the vicinity, I strongly urge you to try it.