On To Mobile, Alabama

We were up early this morning with the hope of beating the predicted storms along the Gulf Coast. We were under a tornado watch when we left Mexico Beach but the sun was out.  Unfortunately the further we went the darker the clouds so by the time we were rolling down I 10 the rains came and with them the winds - high winds with no place to pull off.  Luckily we drove out of the worst of it and before long the skies started to turn blue.  We'd survived it all.

By 1:00 pm we arrived in Theodore, Alabama (a small town near Mobile) at our campground where the sun was out full force and a beautiful day stretched before us.  Once we were settled,

had lunch, and checked out our pretty surroundings,

we set off to visit the nearby Bellingrath Gardens that surround the former home of Coca Cola bottling millionaire Walter Bellingrath and his wife Bessie.  In 1917 when he purchased the land it was an abandoned fishing camp on the Fowl River.  His wife started planting flowers and then in 1927 hired a local architect to further develop the area into a beautiful garden estate,  They built their 15 room home there in 1935 choosing to almost hide it among the gardens which by that time they had opened to the public.

We enjoyed wandering the formal rose garden,

the conservatory,

the Asian garden,

the bayou boardwalk,

the rockery,

and all of the little pocket gardens.

The grounds had many artesian wells causing many flooding problems so there are now many water features: waterfalls, cascades, fountains, pools built into the garden to take advantage of this "problem" and create wonderful sounds and special beauty to the gardens.