Alabama's White Sand Beaches: Part I

For my birthday weekend I received an invitation to enjoy the white sand beaches of the Alabama Gulf Coast and to check out the restaurant scene around Gulf Shores and Orange Beach.  Eric and I made the relatively short drive from Baton Rouge to the beach where we checked into the Phoenix All-Suites West.  The view from our 7th floor room let us know there was no oil in sight as the beaches and water looked as pleasant as ever!





White Sand Beaches of Gulf Shores, Alabama
After throwing our luggage down in the hotel room we ventured over to Orange Beach and to our first feasting destination, Live Bait at the Wharf.  We were there as part of the Mamas4Mamas Tweetup, an event to raise money and awareness for the sea turtles that lay their eggs on the Alabama shores.  Eric and I randomly ran into an old friend, Julie Laperouse, who happened to be asking for a table right when we walked in.  Good times!  After checking in at the Tweetup, we grabbed a few Pick Axe Pale Ales from the Tommyknocker Brewery and met the rest of our blogger crowd.



Ericka, Jay, and Shannon at Live Bait at the Wharf on their birthday!
Live Bait at the Wharf served up some grub for all the bloggers to sample.  We started with the Greek seafood nachos and blackened gator bites.  While the gator failed to live up to what we're accustomed to in Louisiana, the Greek seafood nachos were fully loaded and quite good.  They had shrimp and crawfish tails piled up on fried wantons with red onion, olives, banana peppers, tomatoes, scallions, and a creamy spinach cheese sauce.  Interesting, and quite delicious!





Greek Seafood Nachos at Live Bait
Once we sat down at the dinner table we ordered up a couple other appetizers.  This time we selected the fried calamari and baked oysters.  The calamari had a nice golden brown color and tasted about average for a fried calamari.  The oysters were also satisfactory, though they didn't have the size of the oysters we get in Louisiana.  Still, they were topped with garlic, Worcestershire sauce, andouille sausage, Italian bread crumbs, and Parmesan cheese, so they most definitely were not bad!



Fried Calamari with Firecracker Sauce


Erika, Shannon, and I's Birthday/Tweetup Cake!