Hanging at The Wharf - Orange Beach, AL - Oct 29-Nov 3

Our home for the next several weeks will be The Wharf Marina in Orange Beach. We won a stay here for a month at the AGLCA Rendezvous! What a great place to relax and enjoy the beauty of the area. 

Next to the Marina is a complex of shops and restaurants with a nightly musical Palm Tree light show. It reminds us of the Musical Fountain in Grand Haven except with palm trees. Sweet!

Wednesday we decided to check out the area on our bikes. We rode 6 miles to Gulf Shores beach and enjoyed the awesome miles of white, soft sand.  The Pura Vida is slipped with our stern facing the Intracoastal. Everyday we get to watch the dolphins play from our back deck. What a treat! 

Thursday morning "Captain Fix-all" went to work on repairing the generator which stopped running our last night on the anchor. It turned out we needed a new governor which is obsolete and no longer available. Amazingly, two phone calls later, we found a marine repair shop a short bicycle ride down the road that had a used generator out back and they were willing to sell us the governor off it! 

An hour later she was purring like a kitten!  At night we joined a couple other loopers for dinner at the Mexican restaurant at the Marina.

Friday morning we picked up a rental car that we will have for our stay here. We found a Tommy Bahama Outlet Store with a big sale and we scored some great deals for Steve. Another beautiful day so we hit the beach for a few hours in the afternoon. Halloween night is a fun night at The Wharf. They hold what is called "Trunk or Treat". Cars line the complex with their trunks open full of treats. Wow what a turn out of kids in costumes. They offer free rides to all on the Ferris wheel. Dressed as pirates, we joined in the festivities and took a ride which gave great views from high above. 

Saturday was cold and windy! A good day for Sheli to have her hair done and did some chasing and shopping. Jim and Connie from Patriot joined us on our back deck to a fantastic dolphin viewing. What fun! (Have we told you we love the dolphins?)  After the "show",  the four of us walked over to Bimini Bobs for dinner.

Sunday morning we attended Worship on the Water at the Flora-Bama Beach Bar. Although this seems like an unlikely place to worship, it was a great service. The church has a very active outreach program in the community. Typical Sunday morning attendance is about 700 people. Over 2000 people attend Easter service.  Our friends on Priorities anchored near Pirates Cove Marina which is nearby, so we met them for dinner. At dinner were, Randy & Sherri from Priorities, Jim & Sharon from Blue Angel and Paul & Stephanie from Infinite Sea - all from Michigan! Small world!

Monday morning Steve helped Jim from Patriot change the oil on his boat while Sheli and Connie took a walk and did a little shopping. In the afternoon the four of us went to a cool little outdoor restaurant on the beach named The Gulf for lunch and then walked out to a sandy point where Perdido Pass meets the Gulf of Mexico. At night the four of us went to Toby Keith's "I love this Bar & Grill" for Bingo.

Our table won 6 of the 8 games! Whohoo!

 The Wharf Main Street

 Selfie!

 Sheli hugging Palm tree! Looks like Banana Cabana!

 Pirates on the Ferris wheel.

 View from top of Ferris wheel

 Church at Flora-Bama

 Outside of Flora-Bama

 Connie and Jim from Patriot.