DEBBIE AND BROCK HATTOX started their hunt for a second home with two conditions. “He wanted to play golf year-round,” Mrs. Hattox said, “and I wanted to be on some type of water.”
The couple were living in Atlanta when they began their search 10 years ago. They visited many spots, including Hilton Head, S.C., where they had lived in the 1970s, and various waterfront sites in Florida. When Mr. Hattox’s younger brother suggested Gulf Shores, Ala., Mrs. Hattox turned to the map. “I didn’t realize Alabama had a coastline,” she said.
She learned that Alabama does in fact have 32 miles of shoreline, the shortest among the five states that front the Gulf of Mexico. The Hattoxes visited the white beaches of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach next door, studying housing options that included condos and houses that were on the beach, as well as properties inland along golf courses, bays and waterways.
New York Times
