Explore Alabama || Dauphin Island

A weekend well spent. Dauphin Island is about a 1.5 hour drive from where I currently live (about 40 minutes West of Mobile). And although it’s close enough for a day trip, I would totally vacation here. Whatever your plans may be for this area however, this is what I found interesting about the island.

I went early so that I could grab brunch at a cute little breakfast hut called Foxy’s Waffle Bar and Sugar Den. If you plan to go here, better make it there on a nice day because it operates like a snowball hut. There is no indoor seating, which of course I didn’t mind because, dogs. There isn’t much parking out front, so I can’t imagine how that works during their busier season, but I had no issues while I was there. I imagine you could park across the street and walk.

As far as food variety goes, you get what you came for. Waffles; And these waffles are BEAUTIFUL. From the business itself, they wanted a beautiful mess, and they sure make them. The waffles are fat, fluffy, and taste even better than they look. You get to build your own, starting with the size (you can choose a whole waffle, or a half). Next, you add your toppings (all sorts of fruits and nut choices), and lastly your syrup. Each waffle comes with powdered sugar and whipped cream.

If you’re not feeling a waffle, they also serve “smoothie bowls” which to me look like glorified acai bowls, and granted I didn’t fall into the stupid fad keto diet trap, I probably would have grabbed one for the road.

Even more convenient for day trips, right next door is a touristy gift shop, where you can grab souvenirs, shirts, and other crap to remember your trip, but more importantly, they rent beach cruiser bikes. I didn’t stop in to check the price, but if you’re looking to ditch the car and bike around (highly suggest), then here’s your place!

Next, I drove up the main strip toward one of the public beaches in the area. My first destination was the Sea Lab/Estuarium. Lucky me, that I chose to make this trip on Discovery Day. The entire sea lab was open to visitors and for free. There were booths set up all over the lab buildings informing children, students, and adults the work that is done here. I didn’t stop to listen much, but I did learn that just because someone says there is a building with a dolphin inside, does not mean that there is a happy dolphin swimming and flopping around, and that sometimes, that dolphin is dead, and being autopsied. Yeah.

Lesson #2: if you give 4-7 year old children ice tubs full of dead fish, odds are they will pick up the dead shark, open and close its mouth in your face while ventriloquizing the phrase “i’m going to eat you” over and over again while its lifeless body flops around all over the place.

With that being said, I then went over to the estuarium, which was not free and costs about $10 for adults. This was essentially a very minuscule even less exciting version of an aquarium; but there was a touch tank and I got to pet a sting ray so I’ll take that as a win.

For children, I think this is great. It’s incredibly family friendly, and I really don’t find aquatic life to be that interesting, so I’m not sure why I’m surprised that I was relatively disappointed.

Fort Gaines however, surprised me as well, but in the sense that I really did enjoy it here. It was such a nice break out from the business and chaos that Discovery Day was, and was pretty slow, so I had most of the self-guided tour to myself.

This does cost about $8.00 per adult to get in, but I’ve paid more for worse, so I wasn’t bothered. Plenty of parking across the street as well.

This is probably the most I’ve explored old military forts in my life, but for some reason having some of these structures to myself is really very relaxing; quite ironic based on the history.

The entire fort’s grounds are very well labeled, so you can follow your map easily, and read about each and every portion if you like.

If you continue to drive straight past Fort Gaines, the road eventually dead ends to a little beach area. If you ask me, skip this one and head to the next one I mention. I can see this becoming very crowded, as it was on the day I went, and it was foggy and gross out. I’d also go as far to say this is a better place to fish, rather than relax and lay out for a lazy day.

Next stop was the Bird Sanctuary (Audobon). Straight shot down the road in the opposite direction. I wasn’t crazy excited about this place, because I’m not into birds, and find them quite creepy actually, but I ended up enjoying this the most during my trip.

There’s a boardwalk that leads you right into the woods, and the trees outline both sides. If you follow the path and the sound of the waves, this trail leads you right out to the beach. A beach with barely any human beings on it, that is dog friendly, and really only a 15 minute hike (on flat trails) from the car. GO TO THIS BEACH, NOT THE POPULAR PUBLIC ONE.

I can’t find the words to explain the beauty of this park, but the trees alone made me want to stay all night long.

I stopped at a few other places during my stay, and I’ll touch on those briefly below before I close this post, but prior to heading back home to Fairhope, I stopped at Pirate’s Bar & Grille for a bite to eat, and I’m so happy I did.

Pirate’s is located inside of a golf club development. There is a public pool here, and it sits right next to the beach, so there is beach access as well. The pool is right next to the bar which serves your typical american beach bar fare, which was delicious, and can be enjoyed while sitting right across from their stage where they have live music.

This is a place I could day drink, lay out by the pool/beach, and eat my fill, for an entire day and not feel as if it was wasted because I didn’t change locations. I will be back.

On the drive home (for those of you headed in the direction back towards Mobile), there is a city called Theodore which houses the grounds of Bellingrath Gardens.

The only negative experience I had here was price; $14 per adult. I know this isn’t ridiculous, but I feel that I’ve been to better gardens for cheaper. This place was still beautiful though, and everything you could ask from a garden. It was quiet, colorful, and full of wildlife.

The oriental garden is a work of art, and they truly saved the best for last by placing it towards the exit.

All in all, there is still probably plenty more to cover here, to save for another day. I’ll let you all discover those places on your own. Hopefully you can share these places with me in the comments.

A few other places I’ll mention before I wrap:

Indian Shell Mound Park – Another quiet, not so busy park with less exciting trails, more birds and their birdwatching elderly friends. I thought this place would have actual mounds made of shells, but even cooler, this is an old indian reserve. The dirt along the trails is mixed in with remnants of shells RUMORED to remain from the indian residents who buried their loved ones and topped their graves with sea shells.

The Happy Octopus – I tried to go in here because I just love small boutique shops for their clothing, but they were closed. Supposedly they’re moving, but I tried to look for the new building and couldn’t find it. Maybe you’ll have more luck.

Take a picture with/of the famous and heavily photographed colored houses of Dauphin Island (see article cover photo). It’ll make you look cool on instagram or something.

I’m excited to have discovered this place as summer rapidly approaches here in the south. This is going to be a great place to kayak and continue to explore.

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I leave for Vegas in TWO DAYS and I’m getting antsier as each day passes.

Until next time!

-C