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I can't believe I ate that on Alabama's Gulf Coast

I can’t believe I ate that on Alabama’s Gulf Coast

The trouble with eating raw oyster isn’t the taste (it’s delicious) or knowing where it’s been (filtering water on the bottom of the bay) but that it’s alive. “If you open it right, you can still see the heart beating,” says oyster farmer Lane Zirlott, who co-owns the perhaps appropriately named Murder Point Oysters in Bayou La Batre, Ala. Zirlott pries open a fresh oyster, recently scooped out…

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I can't believe I ate that on Alabama's Gulf Coast

The trouble with eating raw oyster isn’t the taste (it’s delicious) or knowing where it’s been (filtering water on the bottom of the bay) but that it’s alive.

“If you open it right, you can still see the heart beating,” says oyster farmer Lane Zirlott, who co-owns the perhaps appropriately named Murder Point Oysters in Bayou La Batre, Ala.

Zirlott pries open a fresh oyster, recently scooped out of Portersville Bay, and shows my kids the soft, white flesh, pointing to the veins and other organs of the still-living mollusk.

Then he eats it.

“Ohhhhh,” exclaims my 10-year-old daughter.

On Alabama’s Gulf Coast, you’ll have a lot of “I-can’t-believe-I-ate-that” moments, from Zirlott’s murderously tasty oysters to the farm-to-table restaurants that serve bycatch fish, the alternate seafood that helps stocks stay sustainable.

(OK, I can’t believe I just used the words “farm-to-table” and “sustainable” in the same sentence. Forgive me!)

Murder Point is part of a fledgling movement, just now springing up on this state’s shores, to nurture more environmentally viable food sources. Oysters used to be abundant in the estuaries that flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, but over the decades, development and pollution decimated the colonies.

The answer: oyster farming.

In these shallow waters, they use the longline method — PVC pipes spaced at equal distances on a premeasured length of wire — to raise the oysters. The line is submerged off a dock, anchored on hard bottoms, and hung on a rack. Looks a little like a maze in shallow water.

This is one of several new farms that have sprung up in the last few years. Zirlott, whose family owns a 2 ½-acre farm capable of of growing 1.4 million oysters says the mollusks raised in these waters have a unique taste: sweet, buttery meat with a subtle, briny aftertaste.

I admit, I was reluctant to try a live oyster, but then, I’d do anything for a good story. I grabbed a live mussel and sucked it down. No discernable movement in my mouth. I channeled my inner Andrew Zimmern and swallowed quickly.

Zirlott is right. I’ve had oysters before, but never like this. It’s said that chefs from Charlotte to New Orleans phone him frantically when they run out of Murder Point oysters, begging for more. He can’t keep up with demand, he says.

Oyster farming is more than a novelty for his family. They’re fifth-generation shrimpers and were looking for something new that kept them near the ocean. When his mother, Rosa Zirlott, took an aquaculture class at Auburn University, something clicked. They could be close to the water, doing what they loved, without spending weeks at sea. That’s when they decided to try oyster farming.

But that’s not the only unusual item you’ll eat here. A short drive and a ferry ride away on the more touristy Orange Beach, you’ll find an unusual experience at Voyagers, a fine dining restaurant overlooking the Gulf. The restaurant’s executive chef, Brody Olive, participates in a program called NUISANCE Group, which served “trash” fish.

I know what you’re thinking. No, a “trash” fish isn’t something they plucked out of the dumpster. It’s a fish my daddy used to call “not an eatin’ fish” like bonita, pigfish, pinfish, hog snapper, butterfish or the highly invasive lionfish. Only, it turns out they are eatin’ fish. (Sorry, Dad.)

“The bycatch used to get thrown back into the ocean,” explains Olive. “We keep it.”

Focusing on these lesser-known fish, he notes, allows the more popular stocks like Red Snapper to replenish, which is good for the environment. But also, it lets you take a culinary expedition through the ocean to try something a little more unusual.

I ordered one of the more exotic Strawberry Grouper and braced myself, but I shouldn’t have worried. It was excellent (and definitely not alive) and to make things more interesting, they even showed my kids the exact location of where they caught the fish with an iPad and geotagging software.

Why such detail? Well, the NUISANCE Group wants you to know the fish is local and that your seafood came from the Gulf and helped make the world a better place. When’s the last time your dinner did that for you?

Reality check: This part of Alabama is still known for deep fried seafood and oysters imported from Louisiana or Florida. But like a tide slowly moving up the white sands of Orange Beach, change is coming. The next time you visit this area, you might be surprised by what you eat.

If you go …

Where to stay For a resort experience amid all the vacation rentals, book a room at Perdido Beach Resort, a pink hotel right on the Gulf. Need more room? Check out Turquoise Place, a luxury beachside condominium by Spectrum Resorts, which offers breathtaking ocean views and more creature comforts than your home.

What to do You mean, besides the beach? Try a flying lesson from BeachFlight Aviation, which offers a 20-minute powered hang-gliding experience over Orange Beach.

What to eat Stop by The Gulf, a restaurant made almost entirely of repurposed shipping containers. It serves seafood in a relaxed beachside experience. For barbecue — hey, it’s the South — try Hog Wild BBQ. Warning: Their hot sauce burns real good!

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Alabama getaway

My daughter is a Grateful Dead fan, so she made me write that headline. We’re on Alabama’s Gulf Coast, the first stop on our grand tour of North America. Looks like fun, but what you don’t see is the almost 9 hours we spent in the car yesterday and all the homework the kids had to get through this morning before they could hit the beach. It’s a beautiful beach, though, and well worth the extra…

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http://awayishome.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/At-the-Turquoise-1.jpg Alabama getaway http://awayishome.com/6451/alabama-getaway/ AWAY is HOME

Alabama getaway

My daughter is a Grateful Dead fan, so she made me write that headline. We’re on Alabama’s Gulf Coast, the first stop on our grand tour of North America.

Looks like fun, but what you don’t see is the almost 9 hours we spent in the car yesterday and all the homework the kids had to get through this morning before they could hit the beach.

It’s a beautiful beach, though, and well worth the extra effort.

This is the view from our room. Wow.

We’re at the Turquoise Place, a condo development right along the coast. It’s the first vacation rental we’ve stayed in that has its own lazy river, which is where the kids will probably try to spend their entire visit.

But they have to take a break to eat every now and then, and we stumbled upon a great little restaurant called The Gulf that’s built out of shipping containers and serves a really nice burger. Iden likes his well-done with cheese. He had help from his siblings with the fries.

I recommend the freshly made hummus. I know, not what you’d expect from a comfort food place like this, but it’s very good.

So far, the kids have really enjoyed the views from high above the beach. We’ve seen fighter jets from the nearby Pensacola Naval Air Station and are hoping to catch the Blue Angels on a practice run later this week.

There’s a lot to do here — more than we have the time for.

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The kids go wild in Kenya. Try to keep up.

The kids go wild in Kenya. Try to keep up.

Want to kiss a giraffe? You’ve probably never asked yourself it you wanted to — let alone if you can can. But you yes, you can, as my kids discovered on a recent visit to Kenya. Head over to the Giraffe Centre just outside Nairobi, more formally known as the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife, a breeding center of the endangered Rothschild’s giraffe. Our whirlwind tour of two Kenyan wildlife…

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http://awayishome.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Giraffe.jpg The kids go wild in Kenya. Try to keep up. http://awayishome.com/6420/the-kids-go-wild-in-kenya-try-to-keep-up/ AWAY is HOME

The kids go wild in Kenya. Try to keep up.

Want to kiss a giraffe?

You’ve probably never asked yourself it you wanted to — let alone if you can can.

But you yes, you can, as my kids discovered on a recent visit to Kenya. Head over to the Giraffe Centre just outside Nairobi, more formally known as the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife, a breeding center of the endangered Rothschild’s giraffe.

Our whirlwind tour of two Kenyan wildlife attractions took place in a single morning, the ideal day trip if you happen to be in Nairobi for a day or two. If nothing else, it’ll allow your family to appreciate the conservancy efforts being made in Africa, or just to get in touch with your wilder side.

What giraffe saliva feels like

Here’s how the Giraffe thing works: You pay the $9.65 admission to the center, and that gets you close — very close — to these rare giraffe. A guide will offer you a pellet. It’s not for you, it’s for the giraffe. Open your hand and one of these gentle creatures will swoop down and gobble up the pellet.

Got that?

My daughter, who can follow basic instructions when she wants to, decided to cooperate. She’s only 10 and fairly short. The Rothschilds must have looked like monsters to her. Good call.

After a few false starts (she dropped the pellet and the annoyed giraffe retreated into the sky) she made contact with tallest terrestrial animal on earth. Specifically, with the animal’s long, gray tongue.

What does giraffe saliva feels like? Glad you asked. In order to find out, I grabbed a pellet and offered it to the nearest animal. It gratefully accepted, leaving a generous amount of warm, think, translucent substance behind. It felt a little sticky.

What does it taste like? Ask this woman. Brave soul.

She did not reveal any details of this intimate moment to the group. Then again, we were so shocked by it, no one could say a word.

But it’s settled: You can kiss a giraffe.

Elephants, mud and a cautionary tale of getting too close

At the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, Kenya’s famous elephant orphanage,  you can get close to one of nature’s cutest creations: baby elephants. The trust helps rescue and raise mostly elephant and rhino orphans. Guides parade the babies into a large viewing area, where the orphans receive milk, water and leafy vegetation.

But the question isn’t if can you get close, but do you want to. With signs like this, the kids had second thoughts, understandably.

Just to be clear, the elephants didn’t look dangerous at all. On the contrary, they were adorable. Maybe a little messy, rolling around in all that red mud, but still adorable.

Can we stay on the topic of messy for a moment. Elephants can squirt water over long distances. You probably know where this is going, right? Now scroll to the top of this story and look at my daughter’s shirt. Notice anything? Yep, nailed by a baby elephant. I got splattered, too. Those pachyderms can spit!

But, awwww. How could you stay mad at something like this?

Like the Giraffe Centre, the Sheldrick Trust is doing this for a good cause — in this case, offering hope for the future of Kenya’s threatened elephant and rhino populations against poachers, loss of habitat and human conflict. That’s well worth the $7 contribution to get into the orphanage.

If you don’t have the time or resources for an African safari, this day trip may be the next best thing. Your kids are guaranteed to see giraffe, elephant, rhino and other species in an almost-natural environment.

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When you're cycling through Savannah, the second wheel's optional

When you’re cycling through Savannah, the second wheel’s optional

The circus hasn’t come to Savannah, but it sort of looks like it. That kid you saw dodging tourists and on a unicycle last week in Georgia’s oldest city was my 11-year-old son, Iden. The guy chasing after him — well, that was me. I kept thinking: Either he’s going to end up in the hospital or an innocent bystander is. Can’t figure out which is worse. Savannah is a cycling city, but it’s not a…

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Help, my kids are #avgeeks. What's the cure, Southwest Airlines?

Help, my kids are #avgeeks. What’s the cure, Southwest Airlines?

On a recent stopover in Dallas, our friends at Southwest Airlines invited us to tour their corporate headquarters. Here we are! The kids are world travelers, but little did Southwest know that they are also secret aviation geeks. OK, so is their father — but you already knew that, didn’t you? Our guide was Southwest’s corporate historian, Richard West. Here he is letting us into a large aircraft…

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Would you hit a man with glasses?

Would you hit a man with glasses?

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Feeling Calgary's energy -- and edginess

Feeling Calgary’s energy — and edginess

There’s a moment, when you’re standing at the top of the 90-meter ski jump at Calgary’s Olympic Park tethered to a steel cable, when you ask yourself, “What am I doing?” And it is at that instant, when you look to your right, and see your eight-year-old daughter — also tethered to a steel cable – that you think, “If she’s about to take the the leap, how bad can it be?” In a place like Calgary,…

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Finding Manhattan's Ghostbusters haunts

Finding Manhattan’s Ghostbusters haunts

Remember the original Ghostbusters? It’s been a generation since that blockbuster showed us a spookier side of New York City. With the third sequel only a few days from being unleashed on the world, we had to return to Manhattan to revisit those haunts and to educate our kids (who, ahem, weren’t even alive in the 80s) on Ghostbuster lore. [googlemaps…

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Ottawa starts the party early for its "big year"

Ottawa starts the party early for its “big year”

Ottawa is in a celebratory mood. Canada’s 150th anniversary of confederation is just a few months away — they’re calling it Canada’s “big year” — plus a round of smaller commemorations, including the 50th anniversary of the famous Ottawa swans and the 10th anniversary of the Rideu Canal as a World Heritage Site, are happening now. What better time to check out Canada’s capital? On the canal The…

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Don't do this when you travel with kids

Don’t do this when you travel with kids

You don’t have to spend 300 days a year on the road with your kids to know the ins and outs of family travel. But it helps. (more…)

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We're on the Travel with Rick Steves show

We’re on the Travel with Rick Steves show

We had the pleasure of meeting up with Rick Steves at his recording studio in Edmunds, Wash., during our Most Epic Road Trip a few months ago. We were half way though the two-month-long adventure. Our interview starts at the 00:13:00 marker.…

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In Lake Tahoe, spring snow gives way to summer adventure

In Lake Tahoe, spring snow gives way to summer adventure

If you’re a skier or snowboarder, then the winter of 2016 will be one not just for your record book, but also for the record book. And that’s particularly true of the Lake Tahoe region in California, which got slammed with ridiculous amounts of snow. Turns out that was just the opening act. As the spring snowpack slowly surrenders to green, the areas mountain resorts are revving up for a summer…

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How to become America's largest ski resort

How to become America’s largest ski resort

Creating America’s largest ski resort looks simple on paper. Take two ginormous ski areas — Park City and Canyons — build a connecting lift, and behold: America’s biggest mountain destination! It’s not that simple in practice. Sure, you can add a quickie gondola, rebrand the mountain as One Park City and come up with a catchy slogan (“There is Only One”), but changing the way people think about…

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In coastal Georgia, a toll worth paying

In coastal Georgia, a toll worth paying

No one likes highway tolls, but imagine driving down miles of rural Georgia road, only to be confronted with a gate. You’d probably wonder if it’s worth paying the $5 to visit a place like Jekyll Island. I did. Now add three screaming kids in the back of your SUV to the picture, and you know why I wanted to make a U-turn and head home. But I’m glad I didn’t. Jekyll Island, a private enclave south…