Gulf Shores, AL is a beach resort city located on the Gulf of Mexico, about 33 miles west of Pensacola, FL and 54 miles south of Mobile, AL. Foley is a small city 11 miles to the North. We stayed at Bella Terra RV Resort which is roughly halfway between the two. We spent 7 days here in January 2018 exploring the area.
Holmes Medical Museum
Holmes Medical Museum is located in downtown Foley
What does one do on a rainy Saturday in Southern Alabama? Well, if you’re like us you visit a museum dedicated to early 20th medicine, because that sounds a little weird…which is perfect. This free museum, located in downtown Foley, AL, was originally a doctor’s office opened in 1916, and later a hospital run into the mid 50s. What makes this museum unique is that everything was left in place when the doors closed in 1958. It’s like a time capsule view back into medical history.
A 1950’s baby incubator
Dr. Sibley Holmes opened a clinic at this location in 1916 before going into politics and becoming mayor of Foley and later an Alabama senator. His son, William C Holmes, followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a doctor and also running his practice in Foley. In 1936, he greatly expanded the medical space by opening a hospital here, the first in Baldwin County. Dr. W.C. Holmes, along with his wife, ran this hospital until 1958, when a much larger one opened nearby and rendered this one obsolete.
This rack held surgical sponges until counted after the surgery. Sponges were wrung out into the glass jar so blood loss could be measured.
When he closed down the hospital, Dr. Holmes left everything intact, and the rooms remain largely undisturbed to this day. As you’ll find out, medicine back then was not a throw away practice like today. Instead of plastic IV bags that are tossed after a single use, glass IV bottles were used over and over. Needles were sharpened, sanitized and re-used, as were surgical instruments.
Glass jars used for blood transfusions
In the surgical room you’ll find an ether machine, which is primitive compared to today’s anesthetics, but after visiting a civil war hospital’s version of pain control (“put this musket ball in your mouth and clamp down real tight”), ether doesn’t seem too bad. They even had an X-ray machine. The pharmacy is fun to walk though, with period bottles still containing period liquids and tinctures.
Ether machine
Pharmacy area
Needle sharpener
The Holmes Medical Museum is open 10 am – 2 pm Monday – Saturday and well worth a visit. For further reading about 19th century medical practices, I highly recommend, The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris.
Model Train & Railroad Museum
The Foley Depot Museum & Model Train Exhibit is located in downtown Foley, about a block away from the medical museum. It’s also free and a fun stop while visiting. While the museum is open 10 am – 4 pm Monday – Friday/10 am – 2 pm Saturday, you really want to go when they’re running the model trains, which is only 10 am – 2 pm Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday. The museum itself is fairly small and contains a number of displays about model trains and sample trains from the 1930s – 1950s.
Outside is an engine and caboose you can explore from the L & N line
The model train display
But the real star is the working model train exhibit, which is fairly large (24 ft x 60 ft) and contains a quarter mile of tracks. The base of the exhibit is an “O” gauge model railroad layout donated by Mr. Alan Goldman of Montgomery, Alabama in 2004. A local group of enthusiasts disassembled the entire thing, moved it here, and re-assembled it. The exhibit opened to the public in 2007.
The Main Street section of the model train display
From their website, “Much detail has gone into this exhibit. There is a Main Street USA; complete with a fire station, car wash, church, bus station, and a city park with an “N” gauge train that carries children around the park. You will find a farm, a sawmill, and a coal company on one end of the layout and an oil refinery on the opposite end. There is a line shack with working pulleys on lathes and other machinery as well as a man welding on trucks. “Thunder Road”, an old Robert Mitchum movie, is playing at the Hub Drive-In. Just about anything that pertains to a community is in this exhibit.”
There’s even a circus and a drive-in
Gulf Shores State Park
Gulf Shores State Park is a large, coastal state park that is an excellent public space for residents and tourists alike. We hiked portions of the 25 mile long paved Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trail, which is broken up into seven trails among six distinct ecosystems. The trail goes right next to the very large campground, which contains 496 full hookup campsites and 20 cabins and 11 cottages. We also explored part of the 2.5 miles of public beach, although the cold weather and rough seas prevented us from going in the water.
We walked along the Catman Road Trail & Cotton Bayou on our first visit to Gulf Shores State Park
Gulf Shores State Park trails include access to wildlife viewing
There are many benches along the trails
The multi-use trail system is plenty wide for bikers & walkers to share
We also walked in the Lake Shelby & Middle Lake region which have boardwalks over the lakes and wetlands for viewing a wide range of habitats
There’s a canal between the two lakes (Middle & Shelby)
We checked out the Gulf Coast beach area across from the lakes
The seas were rough on the day of our visit
Lambert’s Cafe
When driving by this very large restaurant we couldn’t help but notice their tagline, “home of the throwed rolls”. We joked that meant they threw rolls at you, but obviously it means something else because what kind of restaurant would throw rolls at you? Well, it turns out they do indeed throw rolls at you…kinda sorta. I would describe it more as a gentle underhand toss from 1-2 feet away. But I think if a kid puts his hands up across the room, the roll thrower will chuck that roll.
Outside of lobbing rolls, the food at Lambert’s Cafe is standard home cookin’ fare served in very large portions. All meals include 8 “pass arounds” which are constantly being walked around and served as much as you can eat. Before we even opened our menus a lady was offering us fried okra, which she served onto a paper towel. Of the pass arounds, Karla and I really only enjoyed three: the rolls, fried okra and fried potatoes & onions. Of the rest, the macaroni & tomatoes were surprisingly, and disgustingly, sweet; the boiled cabbage was, well, boiled cabbage; the black eyed peas were bland; and the apple butter and sorghum should not even count as pass arounds.
As for main meals, I ordered chicken pot pie and Karla had chicken and dumplings. Both were perfectly fine, just not setting any new culinary trends. Portions were large enough we took home enough food for an entire dinner the next night. The main reason to go here is watching rolls being thrown around, although the namesake rolls are legitimately good. Outside of that it’s just ok. At least it’s not expensive.
