Photo by Paul Christiansen
Colonial Fort Condé
Colonial Fort Condé, a partial replica of the 1723 fort around which the city of Mobile was built.
All eyes were on Mobile, Alabama, last March when the SS United States, with its dual smokestacks in faded red and white, slid into Mobile Bay with the help of a few tugboats. As the ocean liner progressed into port, the city’s skyline stood as a dramatic, modern backdrop against this symbol of the last glory days of ocean travel. Within the ship’s rusted walls, countless stories glided, suspended in the air, joining the ones that lay beneath the glittering, metal-clad skyscrapers rising above it.
Much of this history can be explored downtown, in the port city’s National Maritime Museum of the Gulf, a glass-covered monument to the nautical world on the Mobile River waterfront. This is where our family began our rediscovery of “The Azalea City”—only a two-hour drive from our home in New Orleans.
Inside, we encountered the SS McLean, a life-sized replica of a container ship stacked high, commemorating Waterman Steamship Corporation owner Malcolm McLean and the Port of Mobile’s notable involvement in the first retrofitting of ships to carry containers. The idea transformed the shipping trade, reducing costs for transporting goods around the world. The hyper-realistic SS McLean floats in a pool of water, which ripples beneath the ramps that lead deep into the bowels of the ship, where an interactive seafaring playground awaits. Over the next several hours, we tested our skills at reading latitude and longitude, learned how to use propulsion to sail, and brushed up on our maritime myths. Inside a glass-bottom boat simulator, we cruised above the virtual remains of El Cazador, one of more than two thousand shipwrecks that lie at the bottom of the Gulf. On the top floor, the kids “piloted” a ship along Mobile Bay, while we ventured outside onto the balcony for 360-degree views of the Port and downtown. Before us, the Mobile River flowed past the Alabama Shipyard and Little Sand Island to reach the Bay, while to our west, cars rounded the I-10 curve near the Civic Center before disappearing into the tunnel traveling beneath the river.
After emerging from the ship’s hull, we headed to historic Dauphin Street for lunch. Across from the famed, single-screen Crescent Theatre, advertising its current showing of Casablanca, at Rooster’s Tacos and Tequila we feasted on Latin tacos overflowing with seasoned chicken and beef—until the sounds of a parade beckoned us back outside. Singers and dancers in brightly colored costumes partied down Dauphin on their route to Mardi Gras Park to celebrate the Gulf Coast Caribbean Festival. We quickly paid our bill and followed the procession, joining in the revelry until they conveniently dropped us at our next destination.
The Exploreum Science Center is a kids’ dreamland, where they can spend an afternoon doing kid-sized grown-up jobs. Under the guise of fun, the installations teach lessons like how the body’s organs work, how to use physics through levers and pulleys, how to design paper parachutes and let them fly, and even how to cook up a virtual shrimp and grits. There was a time when all three of my boys would have begged to stay longer. Now, however, I stayed behind with my youngest, while the teenagers went in search of other diversions, such as the sci-fi book collection in the Haunted Book Shop down the street. This, naturally, was followed by mocha iced coffees around the corner at Great Day Latte.
From here, we walked the short trek to the Convention Center, puddle jumping our way to the backside, where the Perdido Queen riverboat awaited us. We filed up the gangway to an air-conditioned room with tables and chairs, a perfect setup for their nightly sunset dinner cruises. It was still afternoon though—we were here for their Mobile River tour, looking forward to a close-up viewing of the SS United States. Larger than the Titanic, the grand ocean liner debuted in 1952, and on its maiden voyage, became the fastest ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. With propellers designed by a top-secret Pentagon program, the ship made it from New York to Southampton, England, in three days, ten hours, and forty minutes.
“It hit the speed record, and no ship has ever met that record [since],” said Perdido Queen Captain Michael Dorie, while he steered the riverboat past the hulking ship. “It operated from 1952 to ’69. Then it was shut down for maintenance and never fired back up. Commercial airlines eventually led to its demise.”
Photo by Paul Christiansen
The USS Alabama
The USS Alabama at Battleship Memorial Park.
In 1996, the ocean liner arrived in Philadelphia, with an ambitious plan to one day be returned to service. Unfortunately, the dream never became a reality, and nearly thirty years later, Okaloosa County, Florida, bought the ship for a million dollars with plans to sink it off the coast in late 2025 or early 2026, to create the world’s largest artificial reef. Before it was to be submerged, though, the ship had one final stop in Mobile, where it was to be stripped of any hazardous materials.
Accompanying us below deck on the Perdido Queen was Pam Paflas, a resident of nearby Foley who sailed on the SS United States in 1963 at the age of eleven. Surrounded by paraphernalia from her sixteen-day cruise to the West Indies, Paflas regularly accompanies the tour to share her story with other passengers. While a black-and-white video of waving passengers rolled beside her, she passed around sixty-year-old dinner menus and her father’s photographs from their family’s journey on the once luxurious ship.
When the riverboat pulled into port, we hoofed it to the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception for Saturday evening Mass. Completed in 1850, the Cathedral is a fixture in downtown Mobile, with its Greek Revival façade overlooking the picturesque greenspace of Cathedral Square. Inside, the exquisite gold and red ceiling compliments the stained-glass windows, which were created in Munich, Germany, and frame a beautiful space for spiritual reflection.
Larger than the Titanic, the SS United States debuted in 1952, and on its maiden voyage, became the fastest ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. With propellers designed by a top-secret Pentagon program, the ship made it from New York to Southampton, England, in three days, ten hours, and forty minutes.
After Mass, we joined back up with the now-tired-but-determined Caribbean Fest revelers and followed them to Loda Bier Garten for dinner, where we were greeted with more than one hundred beers on tap and allegedly some of the juiciest burgers in town. Mustering one more burst of energy after our jam-packed day, we drove the short distance out of town to Bellingrath Gardens & Home for an evening viewing of their Gulf Coast Chinese Lantern Festival. Built by Walter and Bessie Bellingrath, the famed gardens, which opened to the public in 1932, sprawl majestically across sixty-five acres along scenic Fowl River. As the sun set, the inaugural Lantern Festival brought a new level of wonder, illuminating the main paths through the gardens with brightly colored dragons, flowers, lanterns, and more.
On Sunday morning, we continued our mariner’s voyage, descending steeply into the bowels of the World War II battleship, the USS Alabama. Ducking beneath pipes and weaving our way through the warship’s vast interior, it was hard to imagine a crew of 2,500 living and working here for months at a time. The ship was literally a floating city, complete with galleys (that’s kitchens for you landlubbers), mess halls (dining areas), dentists and doctors’ offices, a store, barber, chapel, blacksmith shop, and—in every nook and cranny—yet another bunk bed. Tucked away was also a room filled with artillery, a reminder of the ship’s true purpose. In 1943, the crew of the USS Alabama saw both the North Atlantic and South Pacific seas and led the American fleet into Tokyo Bay in 1945.
Photo by Paul Christiansen
The SS United States
The SS United States, currently docked in Mobile Bay before it is sunk as an artificial reef off the coast of Destin.
Today, the ship dominates Battleship Memorial Park, a complex that includes the World War II submarine USS Drum—the oldest American submarine on public display, an Aircraft Pavilion, tanks and artillery, and a recreational park. A short jaunt down Battleship Parkway sits Ralph & Kacoo’s, our lunch destination overlooking the water. Our waiter, “Miles the Magnificent,” brilliantly convinced me to try the snapper topped with both a crab cake and lump crab meat, while the others in our crew went for the equally delectable brunch menu offerings of eggs, crab cakes, and cheese grits.
Back downtown, we stepped off South Royal Street into the Italianate showpiece that once housed a bustling public market and the seat of city government. Opened in 1858, today the building serves as the History Museum of Mobile, offering visitors a glimpse into the area’s past through exhibits spanning the city’s three-hundred-year history, including a fourteenth century Native American dugout canoe.
Wandering between the placards and exhibits, we learned about how—after sailing to the Gulf Coast in 1698 to secure land for France—Pierre Le Moyne Seigneur D’Iberville left his twenty-two-year-old brother, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne Seigneur de Bienville, in charge of building a settlement on the Mobile River. The wooden fort he oversaw was completed in 1702 farther north, but after repeated flooding, the town moved twenty-five miles south to present-day Mobile in 1711. A wooden fort built here was replaced in 1723 with a brick one, which lasted until 1818, when it was dismantled to make room for the growing city. You can still get a sense of what the fort would have looked and felt like though, via a visit to Colonial Fort Condé (entry included with admission to the History Museum), a partial replica of the 1723 structure. Costumed staff beckoned us inside, where we explored the vaulted tunnels and scaled the walls for expansive views of the city.
To round out the weekend, we headed down Government Street to the Oakleigh Garden Historic District, home to Historic Oakleigh House Museum. The restored 1833 Greek revival mansion was closed on Sunday, but we drove by for exterior views of the white-columned mansion, before stopping at our final destination, Callaghan’s Irish Social Club. The traditional Irish pub has sat on the corner of the crowded Charleston and Marine Streets since 1946, tucked away in the Garden District neighborhood. Known for its award-winning bar and burgers, as well as the largest St. Patrick’s Day celebration on the Gulf Coast, Callaghan’s frequently features nightly live music. Luckily, we made it in time to secure a booth beside a memorabilia-bedecked wall and place our order before the evening band kicked off. Against the backdrop of lively folk music, we wrapped up a weekend of new memories, submitting ours to Mobile’s rich collection of stories created by generations of travelers before us.
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