You know what's really weird about the coronavirus shutdown? It's not that it makes all the days of the week seem the same. It's that it makes life the same no matter where you live.

Think about it. If you can get out and about, living in Hawaii is different than living in Seattle. Life in Austin is different than life in Chicago. The vibe in Miami is different than the mood in Boston.

The shutdown quashes all that. We're all living in the same blurry continuum, cut off from things that make life different. That hurts more, when home is somewhere like Mobile. The history is different. The natural environment is different. The rhythm of life is different. Life shouldn't feel the same.

Here are a few things that we're missing.

Chris Harress | Charress@AL.com

The Beach

For most of the state’s residents, going to Alabama’s beaches means visiting a sunny place full of happy people who are there specifically to relax and have a good time. For residents of the coast they’re all that, but they’re also a mental health resource on the blustery days when the volleyball players and beer drinkers stay inside. Jimmy Buffett shared the secret glory of the so-called “off season” in the song “When the Coast is Clear.” We want all of that back.

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Sharon Steinmann/AL.com

The Mobile Saenger Theatre

We could fill up this list with favorite coastal music venues, so to an extent the Saenger’s inclusion represents all of them. Thanks to the ‘Rona we’ve missed shows by Buddy Guy and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Rodrigo y Gabriela and Jason Isbell, soon to be not-followed by Wilco on April 16, which is a real bummer. We’ve also seen the cancellation of Mobile Symphony Orchestra concerts, which underscores the Saenger’s unique place in Mobile culture. When we can once again rub elbows with 1,900 of our closest friends in the Jewel on Joachim, that’s when things are definitively back to normal.

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Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com

Art walk

If we approached downtown piecemeal, we could fill up this list with music venues, restaurants, purveyors of fine cocktails and other attractions. You know what sums it all up? Art walk. We’re missing the prime season for Mobile’s second-Friday art walks (and for the first-Friday version in Fairhope). We’ve missed the chance to have an early meal or at least a snack from the Peanut Shop, get a drink and circulate through a few art galleries while continually running into friends and acquaintances. Art Walk was the rug that really tied our room together.

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Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com

Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo

Picture this: You’ve spent more than a decade on the push to move a popular coastal attraction to a more secure home out of reach of the kind of surge that flooded it during Hurricane Ivan. Your new home is bigger and better, with new attractions including a very impressive restaurant. Just as you cut the ribbon and throw the doors open, a pandemic shuts down all the traffic that you’d expected. Then all of a sudden, the hottest thing on TV is suddenly a show involving tigers. At any other time it’d be a free advertising windfall, now it's just insult added to injury. “The Little Zoo That Could” deserves better. This isn't really about going “back” to the old Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo, it’s about getting to discover the new one.

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Sharon Steinmann/AL.com

Dauphin Island

We already covered beaches, so why add Dauphin Island to the list? Because it's different in good times -- and different in bad. Recent announcements from Mayor Jeff Collier have included news that town officials went all the way to the governor's office to verify that, as they thought, they did not have the legal authority to restrict island access under the same procedures used after hurricanes. Reading between the lines, Collier and other officials have been under pressure from some residents to raise the figurative drawbridge. They had to make clear that some things were just out of their hands. It'll be nice when we can once again visit the sunset capital of the state without raising such tensions.

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Mike Kittrell/AL.com

Breweries

Mobile’s breweries have adapted to the shutdown as best they could, offering growlers and/or crowlers to go. (Most have been experimenting with their days and hours of operation, so check before you head their way with an empty jug.) They’ve also gotten innovative. Fairhope Brewing Co. jumped on the “Tiger King” bandwagon with some special offerings. Braided River launched a series of curbside beer-and-food-to-go pairings in conjunction with local restaurants. So far they’ve matched their Hoppy by Nature with Blind Mule Shrimp & Grits (April 3) and their Hazy Bay IPA with the Shrimp Po-Boy from Callaghan’s Irish Social Club (April 10). Stay tuned for more. That said, the best craft beer pairing often is the social experience found in taprooms and brewpubs.

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USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park

The COVID-19 epidemic has hit a lot of beloved coastal Alabama tourist attractions hard. Bellingrath Gardens was in full bloom. Waterville USA, Alligator Alley, OWA and other Baldwin County attractions were braced to cater to spring break crowds. Battleship Park stands out literally, thanks to its eye-catching location just off the Bayway, and figuratively, thanks to leaders’ proactive decision to close and keep staff paid so they could go on a maintenance-and-repair spree.

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Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com

Flora-Bama Lounge, Package and Oyster Bar

As with the USS Alabama and the Mobile Saenger, the Flora-Bama appears on this list both in its own right and as a representative of others. There are other food/drink/music establishments on the Alabama Gulf Coast with abundant character and legions of loyal fans -- Pirates Cove, the Hangout and LuLu’s, just to pick three. But you could fill an album with songs that have been written about the 'Bama, and its owners were proactive about shutting down in the face of spring break. They’ve regularly streamed “Live from the Line” performances for those who need a singer-songwriter fix. And they had to postpone the Interstate Mullet Toss, for crying out loud.

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Mike Kittrell/AL.com

Hangout Fest

Maybe you go to Hangout Fest every year. Maybe you never go and your idea of fun is cracking wise about how you don’t recognize any of the headliners’ names. Either way, the event has established its own gravity over the last decade. You know when it’s happening, because of the surge of activity it drives as far away as Mobile. And if you have gone, you know there’s an absolutely golden time between five and eight p.m. when the heat has broken but there’s still plenty of light, some of the hottest acts in the world are giving it their all before the headliners come out, and every crash of the surf against the shore drives home how distinctive the experience is. That moment in time is one we need to get back to.

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Marc D. Anderson/AL.com

The Fairhope Pier

Fairhope’s public pier is a famously good place to watch the sun set across Mobile Bay, and the city’s leadership resisted the shutdown trend until March 22 when it finally bowed to the inevitable. Mayor Karin Wilson said officials had been monitoring traffic and crowds and she had wanted the pier and other city parks open “with the intention of keeping a healthy option open for citizens to get fresh air and exercise while also maintaining their distance.” The closure was a bitter pill, and the best we can say is that someday the sun will set on it.

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Mike Kittrell

Historic Blakeley State Park

Blakeley is a lot of things to a lot of people. You can go there for the natural beauty, and with 2,100 acres on the Tensaw River, there’s a lot of it. You can go for the history, which includes the rise and fall of the town of Blakeley and the Battle of Fort Blakeley; for the camping; or for the relatively new 10-mile biking trail. Blakeley held out until April 6 before shutting down, weeks after after Mobile County’s most comparable site, Chickasabogue Park, did so.

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Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com

Basketball courts

In recent years Mobile City Councilman Fred Richardson has been among those championing the addition of new public basketball courts in city parks. They’ve been wildly popular, as anyone who’s driven through the busy intersection of Sage and Dauphin streets can attest. But in March, Richardson found himself in the position of calling for the courts to be closed to enforce social distancing. The city ultimately removed the goals. It’ll be a happy day when they go back up. Even if you don’t play, they’re a symbol of a city serving the needs of its residents.

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Dave Martin/AP

Jazz Fest

Maybe this is cheating, because it's not an Alabama thing. But Mobile’s proximity to New Orleans, and Jazz Fest’s daytime-only schedule, mean you’ve got options unlike any other fest. You can spend a weekend in New Orleans, enjoying both the festival and the array of collateral events that take place throughout the city in the evening. Or you can have breakfast in Mobile, be there as the gates open, stay for the headliners, and be back home by 10 p.m. If you're not going, you know someone who is. And you know they're going to come back with stories.

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Buc-ee's

Remember how much more easily amused we were in 2019, when a gas station opening was one of the biggest stories of the year in Baldwin County? When this Texas chain’s gargantuan outpost at I-10 and the Baldwin Beach Express was a destination, and everybody seemed to think the brisket sandwich was just as good as everybody else said it was? Happy times. You can still go, but it’s no longer cool to go just so you can say you’ve been there.

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Callaghan's Irish Social Club

If you’re looking for a place with true neighborhood pub feel, Callaghan’s is Exhibit A. But it also has a well-deserved reputation for bringing in future musical stars before they break big. And anytime you take a straw poll on who has the best burger in town, they’re going to be a likely winner. (The L.A. Burger in particular, with Conecuh sausage ground into the beef, has a fervent cult following.) You can still get the burger on a takeout basis, but the atmosphere is what we miss the most.

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Felix's Fish Camp

They’re doing takeout, but nobody goes to the Causeway just for the food. You go for the view and because somehow seafood just tastes better when you can see the water it came from. Felix’s blend of upscale dining with an anything-goes dress code makes it a favorite for locals and tourists alike, and a go-to place if you’ve got visitors in town and want to be sure they’ll enjoy the experience.

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Mike Brantley/AL.com

Brown Bag in Bienville

Catt Sirten is keeping his 35-year-old tradition alive with a new virtual format, and that’s a great thing. That said, spring is in full bloom and downtown office workers are accustomed to being able to tote their lunches down to Bienville Square and enjoy al fresco dining to the accompaniment of some of the area’s most talented performers. Things better be back to normal by fall. Meanwhile the virtual all-star shows “air” at noon Wednesdays, and you can get the lineup at www.facebook.com/catt.sirten.

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Mike Kittrell/AL.com

The People's Room

No disrespect to the area’s mainline live music venues. We miss Soul Kitchen and The Blues Tavern and Cedar Street Social Club and The Alabama Music Box and many more. But Jim Pennington’s tiny room-for-listening is something special, where the focus is put on the music like nowhere else. It occupies a niche, to be sure, but it makes sure that tiny space in Mobile’s musical ecosystem is cram full of beautiful experiences.

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G.M. Andrews/AL.com

The Dew Drop Inn

Why does the pink color from the hot dogs transfer to the buns? Some things we may never know, but we know this Midtown diner is a touchstone you just have to go back to every once in a while, and getting takeout just isn’t the same.

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Bill Starling/AL.com

The carpool line

This isn't unique to Lower Alabama, obviously. But you’re never going to complain about being stuck in one again, are you?

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