Flightworks Alabama

This past weekend my oldest and i headed to Mobile, Alabama to visit the Airbus Assembly line tour. You can see how we travel free on points here. He has been passionate about aviation since he was a toddler. While I love a beach and relaxation trip my family loves a good factory tour or museum.

Thanks to my travel rewards hobby we made this trip with minimal out-of-pocket expenses. Our biggest travel expense was the $60 I spent parking at BNA garage. I started getting nervous about using my valuable points for a two-day trip to Mobile Alabama. My oldest assured me it would be worth it. After seeing him smiling and talking to me after the tour I agree it was worth it.

Our flight to Pensacola was quick. We had a full day before our tour. I grew up in the Florida panhandle and love fresh seafood so we decided to detour to Gulf Shores for lunch. We stopped at the Oyster House in Gulf Shores. We arrived a couple of minutes until 11 (when it opened). There was already a line. We took this to be a good sign.

I had stuffed shrimp with red beans and rice. While he had popcorn shrimp and a crab cake. We both loved our meals and devoured them quickly. We had no room for dessert.

After our meal, we headed to Mobile and checked into our room at the Battle House Renaissance Mobile Hotel & Spa. This hotel was established in 1852. We love historic hotels and this one was perfect. The lobby was gorgeous. I didn’t realize that Mobile shuts down on Sunday and Monday. We decided to do some walking around and nothing was open. Luckily one of the hotel’s restaurants was open for dinner, the Joe Cain cafe. Our waitress mentioned they were the only thing open in the area on Sunday nights. Luckily it was good and affordable. I had the Shrimp and Grits while my son had a huge pizza. I even got a local beer from my husband’s hometown there. After dinner, we headed back to the room. We were both exhausted from the early flight that morning.

Monday morning we got up and headed to the Airbus tour. This is the first time they have offered tours on a weekday. We arrived 15 minutes early as suggested and the parking lot was full. We quickly checked in and explored the exhibits until we lined up for the tour. We took a quick bus over to the Airbus facility. We were given headsets to wear and lanyards with our passes to enter the facility. The tour lasted 90 minutes and we were not allowed to use our phones while on Airbus property.

We returned to Flightworks to explore their 15,000-foot aerospace and exhibition center. I would say this would be a must-do for any aviation lover. My son enjoyed all the hands-on exhibits including cockpit simulator, Virtual Reality simulations, and many more. The staff was extremely knowledgeable and passionate about Airbus. We left knowing more about Airbus and even talked to them about job prospects for future Computer Science majors.

We had a few hours to kill before our flight we headed to Fairhope, Alabama for lunch. I had my son Yelp this while and he picked out the cutest restaurant at the Marina, called Sunset Pointe. I had a seafood bouillabaisse that I am still craving. This was our favorite meal of the trip. Since i knew we wouldn’t get home until around 9 that night we decided to have dessert. This turned out to be a very wise decision. I had the key lime pie, and my son had chocolate cheesecake. We both devoured them so we could finish them before we realized we were no longer hungry.

Overall, this was a fantastic quick getaway. My son and I had the best time together. As he assured me it was totally worth the points I used for the trip.