Travelogue: Mobile

Alabama’s port city and its Battle House Hotel

During a recent road trip, I decided to stop and stay the night in the city of Mobile on the Gulf of Mexico in the south of Alabama. For full disclosure, I had never been to Alabama. I associated the state with various points of particular interest: a Confederate-themed state flag, coach Bear Bryant, Governor George Wallace, the rock song “Sweet Home Alabama”, NASA, the protest march on Selma and the Birmingham newspaper that bought and published my articles early in my journalism.

Mine was a lovely night in Mobile. While driving into the city, the first thing I noticed was its dramatic landscape. As I drove into Mobile from the east, roads seemed to float on water. There are several oil rigs, bridges, vistas, waterways and, then, Mobile rises at the water’s edge. I pulled into a downtown parking garage near a place called the Battle House Hotel. It’s branded and managed as a Renaissance hotel for the Marriott company, though it’s owned by a government workers’ pension fund.

This compli…