Water, water every which-way around Alabama’s Gulf coast gave my October beach vacation more dimensions than imagined.

Going to the beach generally offers up an inter coastal waterway as well as an ocean but this stretch of Alabama also has five bays plus the big Mobile Bay, several lakes and a lagoon named Little which looked pretty big to me.

Want to stay on the water? Better be specific when you book a condo or rent a house since there are so many kinds of water to enjoy.

Best I could tell, they all lend to sitting and staring, strolling and resting up to get ready for the next meal. The food is every bit as abundant as the waters and even though I concentrated on seafood every lunch and dinner, I saw plenty of beef choices on the menus.

Gulf Shores and Orange Beach are the big town names in Alabama’s enormous Baldwin County; Magnolia Springs is the tiny treasure and I never got to Foley to check it out.

I did get out in the waters, looking at the Gulf and bays from two of the many boating options.

Skip Beebe is the captain of Sailaway Charters; park in his Orange Beach driveway, cut through the backyard, pet the dogs and feel like a family friend on his 24 foot pontoon boat.

He’s a natural teacher so when he pulls up a crab trap or uses his old-fashioned tong-like device to grab some oysters, he’s explaining life cycles, blue crab swimming styles and oyster shell replanting.

Skip stops the engine for bottle nose dolphin and doesn’t restart until they swim away. Alabama’s dolphin watch guidelines are strong, he says, and he’s all about respecting them.

The dolphin swimming by on my two-hour sail he called Mr. Friendly and Nicky. Skip doesn’t name the brown pelicans, terns, Great blue heron and Florida laughing gulls, but he certainly spots them and interrupts whatever he’s saying to point them out.

If a pontoon isn’t your fancy, book a couple of hours on the 48-foot ketch he lived on for 10 years; it’s docked behind the house too.

Ever build a little model of a boat? Mike Broussard built a big wooden boat in 1976 and delights in taking six people at a time in Perdido Bay, serving fine meals including very fresh shrimp every time.

The Corsair, he says, is typical of shrimp and oyster schooners sailing the Gulf of Mexico in the 1800s. He has sails on his because “If I can’t make a living selling shrimp, I can take visitors out to see what I do.”

Capt. Mike lowered the shrimp net for my group to see the process, and admire the catch. I understand the fishing challenges better after seeing how many creatures other than shrimp invited themselves into that net.

The captain of this “60 foot on the king plank” vessel sets a relaxed, glad-to-be-here-myself tone, and it’s catching. He even stops completely for a while in a quiet cove to share the tranquility and the songs of local birds.

Considering the fact he lost his house in Pass Christian, Mississippi, and other hand-hewn boats to Hurricane Katrina, his serenity adds a good example to the afternoon pleasures.

Gulf coast waters abound even with a walk in the woods! I hiked a brisk four miles one morning in a maritime forest, and ended up at the beach.

A quiet pristine beach. The only other person there was a man with abundant belly fat, sitting in the lotus position gazing out to sea. I didn’t disturb him even though I really wanted to take his picture.

The Audubon Society likes this national wildlife refuge too, setting up safe areas for migratory birds and monitoring terns that lay their eggs in sand and could be easily disturbed.

Bon Secour is the name, meaning safe harbor. Five miles of beach are included in the 7,000 acres. You can drive and park to pick up a trail, or book yourself into the Beach Club resort and walk along the hotel beach to end up on the pristine stretch I got to.

Eat often and abundantly in between each Gulf coast water experience. Royal Red local shrimp and raw oysters are a good place to start at King Neptune’s, a modest unassuming place owned by the Sawyer family for 14 years. The owners shares seafood stories easily and readily, chatting as I savored yet another morsel.

The patio at Cosmo’s with live music and starry skies is pet friendly and my fresh catch wrapped and cooked in banana leaves was every bit as wonderful as my dinner mates’ crab cakes and Ahi tuna.

Lulu’s burger is all-natural grass-fed beef from Boutwell Farms in south Alabama; Jimmy Buffet’s sister Lucy is the owner and she perched Lulu’s right on the Intracoastal Waterway. I recommend sitting on the porch to eye the barges and sailboats while you eat.

Water watching and eating combine well at the Hangout too, a boisterous fun-loving place with three outdoor bars, open-air tables facing the beach and plenty of floors pace for dance contests.

Restaurant is the unpretentious name of the dining room at The Beach Club, a fine dining place with superb service and presentation to match the skills of the chef but you can dress comfortably.