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Gulf Coast Hot Air Balloon Festival

Balloons Soar over Baldwin County, Alabama

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Baldwin County, Alabama, is pretty scenic from  the ground, but for visitors who want to  literally take their experience up to the next level, there’s nothing like floating over the Gulf Coast in a hot air balloon. Tommy Rachel of Taking Off Hot Air Balloon Company has been taking passengers aloft for eighteen years now, though his interest in ballooning started more than thirty years ago when he went to help a friend in Orange Beach set up a balloon.

Part of the sale route includes these cabins in Mentone, Alabama

Yard Sale Covers Lookout Mountain

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Every August, the World’s Longest Yard Sale snakes its way 690 miles from Gadsden, Alabama to Hudson, Michigan. With such an embarrassment of riches, the shopper may not know where to start. (The stopping part is easy: you run out of money and/or room in the car). Here’s a suggestion: the southernmost part of the route follows the scenic Lookout Mountain Parkway 93 miles from Gadsden through a corner of Georgia to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Since the Alabama portion of the route alone boasts some 1000 vendors, you will probably be throughly over the whole experience by the time you hit Chattanooga. If not, no problem. Just keep following the U.S. Highway 127 Corridor from Chattanooga for another 600 miles.

Cecil B.Day Butterfly Center at Callaway Resort and Gardens

Georgia’s Callaway Gardens Celebrates Butterflies

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Georgia’s Callaway Resort and Gardens, 2500 acres of flowering woodland beauty located southwest of teeming Atlanta, is home to the Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center, one of North America’s largest tropical butterfly conservatories. This year the Center celebrates its thirtieth anniversary, and Callaway has declared 2018 the Year of the Butterfly, with special events scheduled all year. Monday through Friday the Center presents Butterflies 101, a slide show and discussion hosted by resident butterfly experts.

Port D’Hiver, a local treasure of Melbourne Beach

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With the help of local Melbourne Beach artisans and tradesmen, the couple spent the next few years returning the residence as closely as possible to Walter Brown’s 1920’s home. Port d’Hiver (Port of Winter) officially opened in 2007.

A retreat that is both comfortable and elegant, the B&B offers ten bright, spacious accommodations each uniquely decorated with a tropical Key West/British Colonial flair. The Sunrise room in the north cabana offers fabulous ocean views and a mahogany four poster bed along with a private balcony for cocktails or just relaxing with a good book. Handcrafted Peter Reed British linens made from the finest Egyptian cotton percale add to the luxurious experience.

Boat Parade at LuLu's

Life’s a Beach at LuLu’s in Gulf Shores, Alabama

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The beachfront town of Gulf Shores, Alabama, is headquarters of Lucy Buffett’s LuLu’s, a combination restaurant, gift shop, fun park, and way of life perched on the edge of the Intracoastal Waterway. LuLu’s,which is getting ready to celebrate its 19th anniversary, heads into Mardi Gras with a party involving a boat parade, live music from New Orleans’ Big Fun Brass Band, birthday cake and a couple of thousand well-wishers. “Mardi Gras is in the Buffetts’ blood,” says Marketing and Communications Director Gabrielle Barnett, who as she spoke was getting ready to go to Destin, Florida, which has its own LuLu’s. Lucy Buffett agrees: “Mardi Gras is special to me because I was born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, where Mardi Gras originated.”