The Fairhope Experience | June 28-July 1

Early Thursday morning, yes, 4:30am early, Nathan and I woke up ready to take on the 11.5 hour drive to Fairhope, AL for the wedding of one of our dearest friends. We have been waiting and praying for this union for so long and were so excited about getting to share in the weekend festivities that we didn't think all that much about the drive down. I know what you're thinking....Fairhope? Where in the world is that? If you look it up on the map, you'll see that it is at the southernmost tip of Alabama.

For me, it was exciting because I'd never been to Alabama. (Props to me for getting to add another state to the growing list of states visited-woohoo). I could never in my wildest dreams imagined that Fairhope would be the most charming little town!  We arrived at around 3pm local time (4pm NC time) and headed to check in at our hotel. At the suggestion of the bride, we made early reservations at the Hampton Inn in downtown Fairhope. Check-in time wasn't until 4 so we were very early but decided to see if we could get to our room anyway. We were very tired from the long drive and thought we might be able to get a nap in before dinner. Our room wasn't ready so we strolled up and down the streets until what seemed like 5 minutes later, I got a call from the hotel letting me know that our room was ready. We went back to the car, unloaded our stuff and crashed. We were greeted to a basket of goodies from Stephanie's family! It was so sweet!

Goody Basket! 

After we took a nap we decided to head out for some grub. We went to a little pizza place within walking distance from the hotel. Papa's Pizza was our destination. It was delicious! We both got salads and one slice of cheese pizza, two for Nathan. When we were done eating, we asked for recommendations for some good ice cream. The waitress was adamant that we check out Mr. Gene's Beans. We walked down to the little coffee/ice cream/yogurt shop and got waffle cones. Nathan stuck to his all time favorite, cookie dough. And me? Well I just can't resist a good mint chocolate chip. Oh my, it was good! We had a good walk back to the hotel and had to be quick about eating our cones. Even after dusk it was still so hot and humid that the ice cream was very drippy. Delicious, but a huge mess if you can't lick fast enough! I remember when I was a kid, my mom and dad would always take our ice cream cones and lick up the drips because our little mouths couldn't keep up with the melting! 

Friday dawned bright but not so early. We lazily got up and ate breakfast provided by the hotel and decided to walk down to the Fairhope Pier. It was around 9:30, maybe 10 and we headed off to check out Mobile Bay. The walk down to the pier was very nice. Huge trees shaded the path and the breeze made the slightly downhill walk pleasant. **Key word there is "downhill".** The bay was mostly smothered in smog but we were able to very faintly see the city of Mobile.  There were several people fishing from the pier and did catch a few fish. As we were walking to the end of the pier, I looked over to the right and saw that one of the docks was covered in pelicans. The funny thing was that they were all lined up in a row sunning themselves or preening. It was quite a sight. The pics below are from the walk to the fountain and on the pier.

There was a pretty rose "garden" next to the pier

A huge fountain

Any idea what this means? or what this is for?  I thought it was funny.

The pier had a bunch of these bird houses that were sanctuary's for different birds.

This bird let me get reallllly close to him before he decided to fly off.

We didn't realize how hot it really was until we got to the pier. Its funny how the sun reflects off of roads and concrete. It was realllllly hot and muggy so we headed back to the hotel. On the way back we ran into Dwight and his family walking down the street - they were headed for ice cream - and we were pretty much drenched in sweat. It was gross. We both definitely realized that we didn't bring enough clothes or plan on how many times we would have to change to accommodate the weather. Nathan ran out of shirts by the second day and we had to "wash" one of his shirts in the sink and hang it up over the AC unit to dry.   I don't remember how many showers we took but it was a lot. I am truly thankful for the thing we call AC. 

We had to be at the church for rehearsal at 5pm. We took another nap and got up in plenty of time to get ready to be at rehearsal. I ironed some clothes and in our typical style we were ready wayyyy ahead of time.  We left the hotel at around 4:40. The church was only 0.2 miles from the hotel, however Google maps told us to turn the wrong way. Yes, we are still old fashioned and don't have a GPS. I had printed off directions a while ago and didn't think it would be so hard to find a place that was within walking distance of our hotel. We finally decided to turn around and go the other way and found what we were looking for. I wanted to get some pictures of the outside of the church before anyone got there. The church was beautiful!

Stained glass at the front of the sanctuary

Front entrance to the church

I love these doors!

Rehearsal went well and after it was over everyone headed over to the church's Christian Life center to celebrate and eat dinner. Dinner was salad, smoked chicken, beef brisket, baked and green beans with rolls. Banana pudding for dessert. Everyone raved about the baked beans. There was pineapple in the recipe and it really made for a good dish! As dinner came to and end, the time of sharing began. There were stories from family and friends of both Dwight & Stephanie. It is very clear that they are both living examples of how  faithful our God is.  They are both beautiful people, inside and out and are so perfect for each other. It is amazing to see how God brought them together and how He continues to mold, shape and draw them closer to Him. The stories were hilarious, touching and heart warming. I feel so blessed to be able to call them friends. I can't wait to see what awesome plans God has for them in the future. 

Nathan & Katie after the rehearsal dinner