The 300-year-old Gulf Coast port city of Mobile Alabama sits a few miles east of the Mississippi state line and offers a mix of culture and tradition as diverse and tangled as the nearby Mobile Bay delta waterways. Founded in 1702 by French settlers as Louisiana’s first capital, Mobile is the birthplace of Mardi Gras in America, a history celebrated at the Mobile Carnival Museum. The delta wetlands that attracted early fur trappers are still so rich that wildlife-spotting kayak tours barely range outside the city limits. Historically an economically important port, Mobile’s WWII shipbuilding heritage is highlighted by the Battleship USS Alabama and the submarine USS Drum at Battleship Memorial Park.