Serendipity! Our First (and Second, but Definitely Not Our Last) Visit to Jesse's Restaurant and the Cold Hole in Magnolia Springs

Serendipity...the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. That word perfectly describes how we wound up at Jesse's Restaurant and the Cold Hole in Magnolia Springs last week. It was our first week in the wild since the coronavirus locked us all in our rooms for an extended time-out. My friends and I headed to Gulf Shores for, what we considered, a well-deserved trip to the beach. To be honest, we consider ALL of our trips well-deserved, but that is neither here nor there. We planned a relaxing week with much lolling about, book reading, binge watching, eating, shopping and doing exactly what we want. In other words, our idea of a perfect trip.

The schedule went something like this...

Saturday:
Left Scottsboro between 6:30 and 7:00a.
Stopped in Clanton for peaches.

Stopped in Greenville for lunch and to pick up sliced turkey at Bates House of Turkey.

Checked in at condo in Gulf Shores by 3:00p.
Unloaded bags, made grocery list and headed to Publix for groceries.
Stopped by King Neptune's to pick up dinner.
Returned to condo, unloaded groceries, ate dinner, read, began rewatching Sanditon for the hundredth time, and got ready for bed so we could get an early beach start on Sunday. If you haven't watched Sanditon, I can't recommend this enough.

Sunday:
Perfect beach day! We read our books, ordered pizza from Mama Lottie's, Merri made strawberry daquiris and we ate dinner on the beach. Then we finished Sanditon and headed for bed.

Monday
Shoe shopping at Jane Loves Shoes in Sand Roc Cay in Orange Beach,

This was just the first trip! Apparently Jane is not the only one who loves shoes!

then back to condo for more beach, more reading, and dinner at Louisiana Lagniappe, where we had pecan crusted grouper, scallops, fried shrimp, and key lime martinis.

Then home again for daquiris, watching Beechum House, and bed.

Tuesday
Headed to Fairhope to shop and visit our friend, Kathy,

The Fairhope flowers are always spectacular.

A new place in Fairhope, Provisions. We are looking forward to a return visit!

It says, "This is going to be your year." We weren't sure what it was our year for, but truly hoping for better things to come. 2020 hasn't shown itself to be very encouraging.

Yes, she is!!

 and to eat the amazing beignets at Panini Pete's.

On the way, we drive through Magnolia Springs and Tracy says, "There's Jesse's!" Serendipity, because that is the happy chance that brought us to Jesse's Restaurant and the Cold Hole for a late lunch on our way back home.

Y'all, it was so delicious! Merri and I split an order of fried green tomatoes and bbq shrimp. Tracy had fried green tomatoes and a blackened steak salad. Julie had a wedge salad and fried green tomatoes. Julie, Merri and I all had rosemary raspberry martinis and Tracy had a lemon drop. For dessert, Julie and I split a lemon posset with blueberry coulis and Merri and Tracy split a pecan cheesecake. We were so impressed with our food and the service.

                            

Side note...Rob had gotten into my purse the last time he was home and switched a hundred of his one dollar bills for the tens and twenties I had, so I had a purse full of one dollar bills, which I dutifully counted out for our server. He asked me if I was a stripper! After much laughter and many assurances that I was not, we made our way back
to the condo for more tv, reading and sleeping.

Wednesday
Perfect beach day! I made Chef Jean Paul's yummy pickled shrimp, so we had that for lunch in the room.

Then it was back to Jesse's Restaurant and the Cold Hole for dinner. I am not kidding! This time we started with lemon drop martinis for Tracy, Merri and me, and Peach Sidecars for Deborah and Julie. Actually, Julie started with something else, but she didn't realize it had bourbon, which she doesn't care for, so the server changed her drink. Our appetizers were the fried green tomatoes and fried squash blossoms. The squash blossoms were my favorite thing of the night.

For dinner, I chose tile fish on a bed of mashed potatoes and asparagus. Deb had wreckfish with risotto. Julie and Tracy had roasted beet salads. Tracy and Merri had Wagyu steaks and Julie had a filet.
The food, the service and the company were wonderful. We headed back to the room for more of Merri's yummy daquiris.

Thursday and Friday
More relaxing beach fun. On Friday we grabbed steamed shrimp and gumbo across the street at S&S Seafood. It was delicious.

Saturday
Packed up to head home, but first, back to Jane Loves Shoes...no joke! Then to FloraBama to look at Maho sunglasses. Shout out to a hometown Arab girl, Alex King Anderson and her husband, for starting this great company. The sunglasses are well-made and fashionable. Julie, Merri and I all came home with a new pair of sunglasses. Next lunch at Wolf Bay in Orange Beach. The shrimp at Wolf Bay are consistently the best on the beach. I had fried butterfly shrimp and oysters. Julie and Merri had fried coconut shrimp.

On the way home we stopped again at Bate's House of Turkey for sliced turkey to bring home and in Clanton for more peaches.

All in all, I'd call it a successful, serendipitous and relaxing trip to the beach. The laughter alone was chicken soup for our souls. And our feet will be looking good!

                                                                           Cheers!