Today is My Birthday!

Last year I posted the interesting people born on my birthday.

This year I had a quiet birthday. She left town this evening on business, although She bought me lunch at Li'l Dizzy's in the CBD today. I had Trout Baquet. It was pretty good.

The real celebration was last weekend. We repeated a ritual from recent years. Once a year we go to the Gulf Coast. We usually start at the Grand Hotel before we go to the beach. I don't like to shop, so in between we go to the Rivieria Center and stock up on a few things.

The Grand Hotel has been completely restored and reopened. It is almost exactly like it was before, which is good.

There seems however to be something which hasn't survived the trauma. A certain je ne sais quoi. Perhaps a certain southerness or Mobileness. The feeling was most apparent in the dining room which used to have a quiet genteel southern feel. It now seems more like commercial semi hip hotel a sort of Marriottness. I really miss the old shoe southerness of the old Grand Hotel.

This year I didn't find a lot of stuff at the Outlet Mall. It may be I have no place to put it. It may be I already have too much stuff, although I still have far less than I had. Perhaps I'm less materialistic. We finished early.


We stayed at a condo in Perdido Key Floridia, largely because when we go to the beach I like to cook fresh local seafood and I like Perdido Seafood located under the bridge from Perdido Key. It is located right on the bay and has very fresh fish, shrimp and other stuff.

The weather was perfect. The sky was clear and blue during the day and filled with stars at night. We had the condo balcony doors open all weekend and ate every meal on the balcony. We walked on the beach, swam in the tidal pool right in front of our beach lounge chairs and simply enjoyed the beauty.

Sunday we drove back early. We were back around one, still happy from the beach.