Golf & Gladiolas

It started with a field of gladiolas. That’s right, gladiolas. R.C. Craft, owner & founder of Craft Farms, had 870 acres of gladiolas and a dream of building a world class golf facility with home sites. Who to call? None other than the King himself, Arnold Palmer. As they say, the rest is history.

Today Craft Farms is home to two of the finest golf courses on the coast, Cypress Bend and Cotton Creek. Cypress Bend is links style course that features wide open spaces for the occasional errant shot. However, with water in play frequently, and numerous bunkers, it can also be challenging for a mid to high handicapper (like yours truly). The greens are generally spacious and gently sloped. The par four #2 generally is the toughest for me, a good drive and second shot are required to reach the green.

Cotton Creek is generally considered the more challenging of the two courses. It has fairways that are a little more confining and requires better shot making to score well. My favorite hole is #6, which requires two shots over water to reach the green.

The clubhouse houses the Cotton Creek Grill, a well appointed restaurant and locker room facility by anyone’s measure. They serve a full menu, but the Cotton Creek Club sandwich is my favorite. The clubhouse overlooks a lake and the 18th green of Cotton Creek. They also have several big screen TV’s, perfect for viewing the college football games during your after round meal. The food and the atmosphere are strictly top shelf.

If you’re planning on visiting the coast in the fall (and you should , the weather and the golf around here is unbelievable) make sure you pack your golf clubs and hit one of our excellent local courses.

Love this weather

We had our first little “cool spell” this past weekend and it reminded me again how much I love our weather. When an afternoon high of 65 degrees makes you look for a winter sweater, you know you are in the right place. Of course, by mid-week, our temperatures will be back in the high 70s and short sleeves and shorts will replace our sweatshirts and shorts.

Fall is a great time to visit the beautiful Alabama Gulf Coast. The temperatures are moderate, the sand is still sugar-white and the gulf waters sparkle as the sun circles the earth a little more to the south. Speaking of the sun, in the fall and winter, the sun rises and sets over the Gulf of Mexico. It is a great time to get up early for sunrise pictures in Orange Beach with breakfast afterwards at the Island Pancake House in Gulf Shores. The best view of the Gulf for breakfast on the island.

Walking on the beach is great this time of year. A late afternoon beach walk has the extra benefit of a beautiful sunset over the water. Just before sunset, the world takes on a new hue. It almost takes my breath every time I am on the beach at sunset. The water turns a beautiful, deep turquoise blue just before the sky is painted with the glorious colors of the setting sun.

The summer crowds have gone home to wait for their next vacation and the local people come out of hiding to enjoy the many amenities the area has to offer. Some of the best eateries offer specials for lunch and dinner this time of year and a table with a view is easier to come by.

More about great food and where to find it next time…

post provided by Luanne Burnett

Sausage Festival & Halloween Happenings

This year, there is a special treat on Halloween on the Alabama Gulf Coast. The Elberta German Sausage Festival is October 31. This free, twice-yearly festival is a great way celebrate fall.

The Elberta Fire Department owns the special recipe and orders 7,000 pounds of the German sausage each festival. It is almost as much fun to watch the firefighters cook the sausages as it is to eat them. They have a great system in place and can serve the more than 30,000 people without much of a wait. The festival is from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but the sausages usually sell out by 3 p.m., so plan to arrive early to get your taste of Germany. There are other food vendors as well as music, dancing, arts and crafts, children’s rides and games.

After your German Sausage Festival experience, be sure to check out some of these spooky happenings in the area:
• Annual Halloween BooLu’s Haunted House, Gulf Shores – LuLu’s recruits local middle and high school students to create an amazing haunted house at the world famous restaurant on the Intercoastal Waterway. There is a spooky maze for adults and older children and age-appropriate Halloween games for the younger kids. All proceeds go directly to the art departments of several local schools. For info: 251-967-5858.
• Maizing Family Fun Farm, Elberta – This farm has something for everyone and incorporates a little history in with the fun. They are open until midnight Halloween and will have a haunted corn maze, hay bale maze (for little ones), hay rides, u-pick garden, pumpkin patch, antique tractors, live farm animals and a corn cannon (you can shoot ears of corn at targets across a field). For info: 251-747-1368
• Trick or Treat TangerStyle, Foley – Tanger Outlets is holding a “spooktacular” event for Halloween with trick or treating and costume parade. The event starts at 5:30 p.m. with the parade and a prize for all children who participate. Trick or treat “TangerStyle” in participating stores from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
• Scream for the Arts! Haunted House at The Wharf, Orange Beach – This haunted house takes you into the bayous and beyond. You’ll experience what really happens to the pirates and scoundrels when they’ve turned away from the light to live in the shadows. The event benefits the Fine Arts program at Gulf Shores High School. Located across the street from the Ferris wheel behind Sand Dollar Lifestyles, spooky family fun (all ages) from 6 to 8 p.m. and spine tingling scary (not for small children) from 8 to 10 p.m. For info: 251-224-1015.

post provided by Luanne Burnett

October Fishing Report by Capt. Randy Boggs

Inshore the flounder are being caught on a regular basis on jigs and live bait in almost all areas of the bay and around shallow water reefs.

Some red fish are showing up as well as trout. Red fish are being caught on cut bait around the Perdido Pass Bridge and rocks. There are quite a bit of blue fish and Spanish mackerel too. Spanish mackerel are being caught on jigs or slow trolling a silver spoon usually with a planer. There have been some really large Spanish mackerel being caught – 4 lbs to 5 lbs. Be very careful to make sure that they are not small King mackerel as the enforcement officers are doing a great job of checking catches.

Red snapper are being caught around almost any structure on cigar minnows and live bait. This is catch and release only as the season is closed.

There have been a lot of trigger fish show up from little bitty ones to very nice ones. The small ones are quite a nuisance stealing bait. Don’t forget the new size limit is 14” fork length.

Vermillion snapper are being caught in the 100’ to 150’ depths. They bite best on good quality white squid or cigar minnows cut into small rings about ¾ of an inch in size.

Gag grouper, red grouper and scamp are starting to bite this fall. Rocks or wrecks in 200’ depths or deeper seem to be the best.

Some really nice amberjack are being caught on the oil rigs offshore or deep water rocks. Live bait is the key with a lively blue runner being the top choice.

Offshore at the oil rigs there have been good reports of black fin tuna being caught on diamond jigs. Yellow fin tuna have been being caught chunking or trolling.

There have been some good reports of Wahoo about 45 to 50 miles due south of the Perdido Pass Bridge. The top color choices for catching Wahoo seem to be purple and black or red and black.

Capt. Randy Boggs

Reel Surprise Charters @ SanRoc Cay Marina

www.reelsurprisecharters.com or www.sanroccay.com

Baldwin County Heritage Museum

If you drive east from Foley on U.S. 98 to Elberta, a hidden treasure awaits. In an unassuming wooden building with a windmill and few pieces of antique farm equipment out front, a wealth of ordinary and extraordinary treasure is hidden.

“…it holds bits and pieces collected from the daily lives of the men and women who built this county,” is on their website.

That statement says it all. I made my first visit to the Baldwin County Heritage Museum recently and once inside I wished I had been there sooner. It is not your typical stuffy museum. There are a few displays behind glass and a few “do not touch” signs, but most of the articles are within reach and can handle the touch of a hand or two.

The museum sits on 5 acres and has more than 20,000 square feet of display space. Outside of the main building, there is a school, a church, a potato shed, pole barns and a blacksmith shop along with numerous pieces of antique farm equipment and tractors. I’m talking about a real school and real church, not replicas, which were donated to the museum and moved to the property.

Back inside, there are so many small things to see that made up life in years past. One corner is furnished as a 1920s parlor. Exhibits include fishing tackle, tools, wooden wagons, scrub boards, antique sewing machines, clothing, children’s toys and so much more. Every room is filled with beauty, history and humor.

The BCHM is also home to Odyssey’s Shipwreck! Treasures from the SS Republic. This unique exhibit opened in August 2008. The SS Republic, a Civil War-era side-wheel steamship was lost in a hurricane off the Georgia coast en route from New York to New Orleans in October 1865. It was carrying a fortune in gold and silver and other goods to help rebuild the south after the Civil War. The crew of the Odyssey discovered the wreck in 2003. With videos, interactive exhibits and actual artifacts, you can relive the excitement of the discovery of the treasure-laden ship.

I recommend making this little museum a stop while you are enjoying the beautiful Alabama Gulf Coast. It will give a little insight to early years of Baldwin County and how its future was shaped.