Hey Baby, Wanna Go On A Date?

Ever since Matt and I got back from our 3-day weekend back in October when we stayed at a Bed and Breakfast, I've been looking at other B&B's within a 2-3 hour drive. And I really mean "ever since", as in "the night we got home." That was our first time to stay at one, and I am hooked on them. I spend evenings browsing websites of local and not-so-local B&B's, comparing rates, rooms, amenities, driving distance from home, specials, and reading reviews on them. I figured we'd eventually have the opportunity to go to another one, and I wanted to be ready when that time came so I could book it in a hurry if need be. And the fact that my niece Katie offered back in December to watch the kids overnight for us sometime if we ever just wanted a night out was a good motivation too.

In all my late-night reading, I discovered a lovely little place called the Kate Sheppard House Bed and Breakfast in Mobile AL, a mere 45 minutes or so from home. It is near downtown, serves a big breakfast, has large rooms, claw foot bath tubs, complimentary sweets and drinks available through the day, pretty good rates, and very nice innkeepers. They allowed us to check in early on Saturday and told us we could pretty much stay all day Sunday if we wanted.

So three weeks ago I made reservations for this past Saturday night there. The Tuesday afternoon prior to our little get-away I sprained my foot pretty badly and was not able to put any weight on my right foot for about two days. The X-ray didn't show a fracture, so I bought a soft cast/boot thing that looks like a robot foot, borrowed my sister-in-law's crutches, and got a wheelchair from the church. With all that equipment and lots of rest, I was able to hobble around a little by Thursday night. After the doctor visit Matt asked if we were going to be able to go on our much anticipated trip. I told him the doctor had said just to try to stay off it as much as possible, so I was going and I was going to have fun. So there. ;)

We left the house at about 10 am Saturday, grabbed breakfast in town and headed to Mobile. On the way I remembered a Blockbuster Movies $5 gift card I've had in my wallet for at least a year, so we stopped in and got some snacks. It was so fun to be able to get away, and it take only an hour to get there. That gave us the whole day to have fun instead of using our precious "just us" hours driving to the place.

We stayed in the only downstairs bedroom, Mobile Bay Room. I had originally wanted to reserve the Barber Room upstairs, because it had a fancier looking tub (okay, sounds silly, but that high-back slipper tub looked so neat), but after my foot injury was thankful it had been booked

Saturday night we ate at a little place called the Royal Scam (on Royal Street) and had some amazingly Delicious food. We had spicy shrimp appetizers with a mango salad, Matt had trigger fish with a fabulous cheese/crawfish tail sauce on it, I had a tender Petite Filet steak with veal Demi-Glace, and each meal came with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus that were both perfectly done. We agreed that we'd have to eat cheaper for our other meals, but it was worth what we spent.

From there, we went to a theater and used our two-for-the-price-of-one tickets I'd gotten online to watch a movie.

Taco Bell seemed to be calling our names on the way back to the B&B and I remembered one that was on the way. We took our food and dined "at home" and watched a couple of episodes of "The Cosby Show" on our laptop. I used to like it as a kid, mostly because of Rudy, the youngest daughter on the show, but now, as a parent, I love it. I hear the parents saying the same ridiculous things to their kids we say to ours, and laugh till I hurt at the comments Bill Cosby makes about things.

After a delicious breakfast Sunday morning and a leisurely visit with Mr. Bill the innkeeper and the other couple staying there that weekend, we checked out and headed to see some sights in Mobile.

~~Egg Souffle, peppered bacon, fresh orange slices and cantaloupe, and after I took the picture he brought out biscuits baked on top of fresh berries.

We wanted to tour Fort Conde, mainly because there is no admission charge, but also because it is a historic site. I couldn't remember for sure where it was, so we enjoyed driving around finding parks and streets we'd not seen before. When we did finally find it and were sitting in the parking lot, I glanced down to our right and saw, just one block away, the restaurant where we'd eaten the night before. The fort turned out to be not much to see, as most of it is being re-restored, but the little we saw was interesting.

~~~Me, saying in my best hick voice, "Thar's a bullet in thar!"

There's a shopping center we both like to go to just across the Mobile Bay, about a 20 minute drive, so we finished out the day there. We shopped a while, and then went to the Marble Slab Creamery for some delicious icecream.

A few hours after we were home Matt was hugging me and said, "Thanks for planning such a fun weekend for us. I'm ready to do it again. Let's go right now." Too late. Katie was already long gone. Bless that girl for giving us a weekend out. (And I'm already checking prices at some other B&B'....just to be ready. ) ;)