2,288 Miles, Day 2

On Sunday we woke up late with a cool breeze coming in off the Gulf and with overcast skies. We got dressed and drove to Hazel's Nook for breakfast. Now I didn't grow up in the South, but I did have the pleasure of eating southern cooking my senior year of high school when I boarded with the LaFountains after my father moved away from Mesick. Joyce LaFountain was a foster mother with three adopted children of her own. Her son Ken and I were classmates in school. When I lived with the LaFountains, Joyce cooked up huge batches of pancakes, eggs, bacon and grits. I had never had grits before, so Joyce's breakfasts were extravagant and exotic to me. Hazel's has breakfasts like that. They have a buffet that includes homemade biscuits, bacon, sausage patties, scrambled eggs, grits, potatoes, corned beef hash, pancakes, french toast, and fresh fruit. They also have a cook standing by to make omelets with any ingredients you want. It's just sensational! One of the things I like to do at Hazel's and have already passed on to Sera is to eat a plate of breakfast and then split some biscuits on my plate and cover them in fresh strawberries from the fruit bar. The strawberries in spring are just so sweet!

Later on, we headed up to Magi's father's bay house. He and his wife Nora had the house built after Hurricane Katrina, which slowed its construction, but was it ever worth the wait! Huge cathedral ceilings, an office/loft overlooking the living room, lush bedrooms, a screened in deck, everything was luxurious! We dined on freshly caught crab, followed by steak and fish on the grill. Magi's sister Kati and her family came over (they had caught the crabs in traps off their dock next door) along with Magi's mother, who also lives in Mobile, and we spent the evening there together. I didn't have the greatest time, only because I had to watch the Tigers get blasted by the White Sox on the plasma TV. After that, though, we watched the Tennessee (Nora's alma mater) women's basketball team come back and defeat LSU for a trip to the NCAA women's finals.

We picked up milk for the condo and made our way back home. Once again, the surf and the breeze made it easy to go to sleep after a full day.