Visiting Forrest Gump
Visiting Forrest Gump
Bayou La Batre Alabama
Bayou La Batre is mesmerizing. As soon as you arrive at the first traffic light (one of two) at Highway 188 and Padgett Switch Road, it’s not hard to let yourself reminisce about days and places long gone. Speed limit signs in Bayou La Batre need to be replaced with big red caution signs: “Caution. Wonder & Astonishment Ahead!“
Turn left. Turn right. Go straight ahead. Regardless of which way you choose to go, the sights and sounds of the Bayou are inescapable. Spanish moss and oak trees to the left. Bayous and shrimp boats to the right. Straight ahead – turn of the century architecture and Mom & Pops right out of the 50’s.
Bayou La Batre – A Real American City
A real American city. Americans from Vietnam, Cambodia and France. Americans from far away places like Louisiana. People everywhere working with their hands and their spirit. Mending shrimp nets, washing decks and building boats. Boats. Boats are built here that leave and travel the world. What a story if those boats could write home. Letters from the North Sea, The North Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific. And, of course many stay right here and fill our tables with seafood and our homes with fishing tales.
Bayou La Batre – A Photographer’s Paradise
Bayou La Batre is a photographer’s paradise. If you’re looking for human interest action photos start clicking. Just before the draw bridge, on Davenport Street to the East, is a little bayou bridge from which the seasons will shout at your camera. Docked boats patrolled by cranes and gulls always pause as if aware you have the perfect photo opportunity. Back to Highway 188, take a right and then a quick left on Little River Road and you will find another bridge across Carls Creek with no less than 200 boats posing patiently for photos. The boat house on the North side of the creek has a dozen or more facades that are waiting to be photographed and shared.