Saturday, March 7th: Took the long way to Mobile today. Drove down to Gulfport so we could stay along the coast road for a while. There was a nice park in Gulfport where we took a walk out to the pier. Everything at the marina and in the park looked very new. This area was hit hard by Katrina so likely rebuilt after that
This marking on a newly built pavilion showed water levels for several storms
Encountered our first coronavirus impact at a Starbucks on our way to Biloxi. No reusable cups allowed. Makes sense. Found a nice waterfront restaurant in Biloxi and had a leisurely lunch on their deck.
We then stopped at the Ohr/O’keefe museum. The intro we got when we bought tickets mentioned the potter George Ohr but nothing about O’Keefe. Hmmmmm…
Nice little museum with buildings designed by Frank Gehry. He found the architectural requirements interesting/challenging. The buildings had to be placed so that they didn’t impact the huge live oak trees on the property, and they have to be hurricane resistant. The doors into the buildings were huge and heavy. In the entrance of the building below they had a staff member there to provide assistance to visitors who were having a hard time opening the door on their own.
There was an African American Gallery display. Some great pieces by Charles Smith, a potter from Mobile.
We also enjoyed a small house with a Dusti Bonge gallery. Bonge was a mid-century Biloxi artist. You know, mid-century modern like we are.
This is a land of casinos and several of the galleries had their sponsorship.
George Ohr, he “Mad Potter of Biloxi”, created unconventional ceramic forms in the early 1900s. He was also quite a character
So, about that O’Keefe ….
It was a beautiful day to be meandering!
Sunday: Meandering continued on our way to Fairhope, Alabama. We drove to Dauphin Island and had a lovely walk in their Audubon Sanctuary.
Nice path through the dunes down to the water
Took the car ferry across Mobile Bay, shortening our trip to Fairhope to about an hour.
On the way we passed quite close to one of the many oil (or gas) derricks that you can see from the shoreline.
Stopped at the Fairhope Market and discovered that there is a movie shoot happening in town. When looking up what movie it is (a movie called “Map of Tiny Perfect Things” for Amazon Prime) we found that a lot of the movie “Get Out” was filmed here as well.
Our Airbnb is a loft over a barn and this guy is our neighbor
