Guntersville, Bear, And A Covered Bridge

Av loves Wintzell’s Oyster House in Mobile. Me too.

The original location, the one we always go to, is on Dauphin Street, and we think that right across the street was where Av’s family’s first business in Mobile was. This was back in the ’20s, I think. They were all from Russia and wound up in Mobile. I imagine they went to the dock every day and bought produce straight off the ships and brought it back to Dauphin Street (which would be an easy walk) to sell to everyone. Anyway…Wintzell’s has opened a location in Guntersville so recently we drove over to have lunch and spend a little time on the water with the boys. Lunch was pretty good, and afterwards we went over to the docks:

In the very back of the picture above (isn’t Shug a cutie!?) you can see some little reddish-colored buildings – those are the Tennessee Valley Floating Condominiums. Some pics of the interiors are here. We were thinking that when the boys get a little bit bigger, it might be fun to rent one for a weekend. So much more interesting than a hotel room! Of course, staying in one of the state park chalets or cabins in G’ville might be fun for them too.

Next we went downtown to Fant’s, which has been there *forever*. Forever-forever. It’s still got the old creaky wooden floors and it’s a *real* department store, with men & women’s clothes, home furnishings, toys, fabric, you name it.

There were so many things to see on the way back home…this old house falling in:

And who else but Bear Bryant carved out of a poplar log standing guard out by Highway 79 about 20 miles south of Guntersville, at Liberty Produce in Blount County:

The last time we had gone to the Swann bridge was before either of the boys were born, so we drove over to show them – this is the longest surviving covered bridge in Alabama: