Sappy post alert! With all that’s going on in the world these days, it’s tough to recognize big events but life does go on.

Amy and Tyler are moving on from Mobile, AL in their journey. Julie and I have come to like and appreciate the city of Mobile and all it offers, and not just because our hearts were there!

Since we have thoroughly enjoyed our time there as we’ve visited Tyler first at college, and then as he and Amy have lived there, we made a list of favorite memories on our most recent visit. Because who doesn’t love a list! We do!

Here’s our random thoughts and feelings on Mobile, Alabama.

Food –

We love Cheese Cottage downtown. It may be my favorite place to eat there, naturally. You can get cheese boards and delicious sandwiches. Also, every first weekend of the month, there’s an Estate Sale across the street at an antique store. We may have purchased a few items, and always enjoyed browsing.

I’m not sure we had ever heard of Foosackly’s, but we can’t wait for one to open close to us now. They’re building one in Tuscaloosa, and we’ll dance in the streets when they get to Birmingham. It’s comparable to Zaxby’s and Guthries, but we love the Foo sauce even better. Plus it’s cheap.

Tyler and Amy took us at least once to a few great locations. Spot of Tea we loved for breakfast. We tried Dew Drop Inn. Panini Pete’s was another famous restaurant we visited in downtown Mobile, and they had a fantastic burger. Another place was Heroes Sports Bar and Grill. We watched the Bama – Louisville football game there which was Tua’s first start. We also visited Cammie’s Old Dutch Ice Cream Shoppe a few times, and it was excellent.

We had never ate at Dreamland BBQ, but Amy and Tyler had their wedding rehearsal dinner there. The food was good but it was a fantastic night getting all of the Jones’ and Runkel’s together.

We of course had known of Preister’s Pecan’s before but it became our halfway stopping point on every trip down and back home. Julie loved trying the sample pecans. We enjoyed just stopping and browsing. We finally tried their lunch when we met up with all of the family going down in a convoy for Tyler and Amy’s wedding. Seems like Aunt and Uncle Buddy would always beat us there when they went down and would get ice cream and sit on the porch in the rocking chairs.

Shopping –

There’s too many stores to list but we enjoyed by ourselves or with Amy and Tyler going to browse all the antique stores in Mobile and Saraland.

Mardi Gras –

We had never been to any Mardi Gras events but had the opportunity to go twice. We loved it both times. We went to day parades, and got so many beads which we still have. Everyone should go once and see a parade. We loved hanging out with Tyler and Amy and their church hosted lunch and places to view the parades each time. We may go back one day to see an evening parade.

Stay –

We have wonderful memories of staying at the Holiday Inn Express in Saraland. We started staying there when we were first visiting the University of Mobile. We got the know one of the workers there, her name was Allison, and she would always take care of any of the family that would stay there. She was super friendly. We always enjoyed the free breakfast, and just sitting around with family in the breakfast area. Good times.

University of Mobile –

Of course the reason we were always in Mobile was Tyler attending the University of Mobile. We had the great pleasure of attending five Christmas Spectacular’s put on by UM every November. It’s an almost 3 hour Christmas show and includes all of UM’s ensembles. So many talented people. We tell everyone they should go see it once. Dayspring TV shows an hour of it every Christmas.

One of our favorite days was UM graduation. All of the family and friends got to come down, and thankfully the graduation and speaker wasn’t too long! We were so proud of Tyler and of course Amy for completing their college education. All the Jones’ and family went to Barnyard Buffet after graduation to celebrate.

Best Weekend Ever –

We’ll never forget Tyler and Amy’s wedding weekend. We enjoyed the trip down and keeping up with everyone. We loved eating at Dreamland after the rehearsal. We all stayed at the Holiday Inn downtown and were lucky to have adjoining rooms with Michael, Chere, Avery and Michaela. We’ll never forget Avery surprising everyone Friday night by being there. We weren’t expecting him, as we thought he was going to miss the wedding by being in college in Tennessee. Amy almost cried when Julie told her Avery was there, and I remember Tyler seeing Avery walking up and the excitement on Tyler’s face.

The wedding at the Bragg-Mitchell mansion was beautiful. Everyone was beautiful that day! We’ll cherish the memories forever. The reception was fun, and we even got to watch the Bama – Ole Miss game on someone’s phone.

We’re also so thankful everyone got to be there, but especially glad Sonya and Nana were there to see it. They’ll always be in our memories and pictures of that wonderful, beautiful, amazing weekend.

So, as cheesy as it sounds, thanks for the memories Mobile. See you around.