Thursday - April 12 - Today was a gorgeous day, sunny and in the low 80’s. We decided to go to Bellingrath Gardens, it is south of Mobile so about 60 miles from here but having been there a number of years ago we knew it would be worth the drive.

The gardens were the creation of Mr. & Mrs. Walter Bellingrath. Mr. Bellingrath had the first coca cola distributorship in Mobile and was a very successful business man. His doctor suggested he find something to do for relaxation so he bought a fishing camp on the Fowl River, his wife then decided that it would be a good place for gardens so they purchased another 60 acres and hired the best architect in Mobile and developed the gardens, which were opened to the public in 1934.

In 1935 they built Bellingrath Home which is 10,500 square feet in size and is English Renaissance style. Mrs. Bellingrath had a very large collection of decorative art which is showcased in the home and is beautiful. Mrs. Bellingrath died in 1943 at the age of 64 and since they had no children, when Mr. Bellingrath died in 1955 at the age of 86, his estate had been converted to the Bellingrath-Morse Foundation to oversee the gardens and open the house to the public and it continues to be open to the public.

While there we took a cruise on the Fowl River aboard the Southern Belle River Cruiser. This river is home to 11 pairs of Osprey and their nests are amazing, they are huge and weigh over 140 lbs. We could see heads sticking out of the nests but didn’t get a good view of the Osprey other than that. The cruise was very informative and enjoyable.

Coming home we drove along the east side of Mobile Bay through some pretty little towns and couldn’t believe the number of new homes being built along the bay. They are all being built on very high stilts in order to protect them from flooding in the case of another hurricane, they look quite funny up on their stilts and there sure are lots of stairs to get in and out. When we got back we went to Doc’s Seafood Shack for a shrimp dinner which was very good.