13-January-2024. Mobile, Alabama

Today I had the great pleasure of finally meeting my former colleague Allison in person. We met over a year ago when she joined Bottomline as a remote employee and finally got to hug when we saw each other today.

Allison's friends Kim and Lina joined us for a "girls day" which turned out to be an amazing foodie tour that Alison devised.

We started at the famous Wintzels Oyster House on Dauphin Street, which was founded back in 1938. The decorations were hundreds of slogans on the walls – you could spend a whole day here just reading all the quotes.

My hosts had a lot of explaining to do for all the southern items on the menu this Yankee was not familiar with. I learned that a Po'Boy is a hero or sub, gumbo is a delicious seafood soup/stew, and Moon Pies are cookies from Chattanooga. We feasted on chargrilled oysters, hush puppies, shrimp and grits, Po'boys, and gumbo .... all DELICIOUS!

After lunch we headed to the Mardi Gras Museum. I initially thought there wouldn't be much to it but I obviously had no understanding of how huge a tradition Mardi Gras is here. Although often associated with New Orleans, Mobile is actually the birthplace of Mardi Gras and dates back to 1703. We watched a 20 minute movie about the history and traditions of Mardi Gras - I had known it was a big party on Fat Tuesday that involved beads and debauchery .... but there is so much more! There are huge parades, floats, treats thrown out to parade viewers, and most notably a king and queen and their court. Each year the king and queen and their court are adorned with or Renate and enormous robes, each with a unique design and theme. These ropes are so large that two robes often took up an entire display room at the museum. I can only imagine how long it takes to make these works of art and how heavy it must be to pull it behind you! There were many pictures and videos of kings and queens in there beautiful robes and attending fancy masquerade balls - quite a tradition!

After the museum the foodie part of our tour continued and we headed to Mo'Bay Beignets - another food my hosts had to explain. For you northerners it's like a small rectangular pillow of fried dough – light, fluffy and delicious and covered with lots of powdered sugar - be sure not to inhale when you bring it close to your mouth!

We popped in to a beautiful local cathedral and ended our day on the top floor of the Trustmark building, where Daphins Restaurant features stunning views and delicious cocktails.

It's so fun to not only discover new places but also new traditions and local specialties. My cup runneth over with friendship, food and fun today!