Andy MacDonald has a particular vision for his guitar shop in Stapleton, the iconic Picker’s Paradise. It should have a warm and welcoming vibe, for sure, and a strong focus on vintage instruments and traditional music.

Sometimes, we meet people who’ll rescue us from that earthly purgatory of sameness. 

Who remembers the story we did called Fish Christmas? Probably not many, I’d guess… It was early in our life as a newsletter. Ever since, I’ve wanted to catch up with Dr. Sean Powers, Director of the University of South Alabama's Stokes School of Marine & Environmental Sciences to learn more about their impact on the Scenic 98 Coastal area.

For generations of anglers, sailors, and shippers, the image of Middle Bay Light, as the locals call it, means you are about halfway across the Bay of Mobile. Built “up north,” the prefabricated house arrived in Mobile in 1885. Mobile Bay itself is quite shallow, and before the arrival of the lighthouse, the channel was marked with wooden stakes and barrels. n In the early 1880s, a 17-foot channel was dredged so large vessels could reach the Port of Mobile, and a lighthouse was deemed necessary to mark the channel.

I ran into Jimbo Meador at a grocery store a few weeks ago. After exchanging pleasantries, we decided to meet for coffee and a visit. I left looking forward to it like a kid waiting for Christmas. I wasn’t sure what we would discuss. I planned to listen and learn and relish in the moment. Any time spent with Jimbo is memorable.

Connect to Your Coast, is the motto of the Alabama Coastal Foundation, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Mobile. It makes a coastal impact message throughout the state of Alabama and beyond.

As a young boy growing up on the coast, Fairhope resident Don Bates’ favorite spot was the family fish camp in Manchac, Louisiana, built by his grandfather in the 1940s, where he ran his Uncle Charlie’s fishing lines usually tied to an old cypress tree that, more often than not, was also home to an osprey nest. Back when he was young, Bates says, “sighting an osprey was about as common as sighting a unicorn,” due to the threat of extinction posed by DDT usage.

I’m beginning to better understand the nuances and relationships of the many organizations involved with conservation efforts in the Scenic 98 Coastal area. One that has been on my radar for a while is Coastal Conservation Association-Alabama. I met to get up to speed with its Executive Director, Blakeley Ellis at The Sloop in Gulf Shores.