Fairhope is awesome.
Yup. It is often mentioned as one of the best small retirement cities.(Crime,enviroment, education, income, etc) The east bay is best...doesn't have the minorities and ghettos like the west bay does.
Check out Dauphin Island though....and, If you liked Forrest Gump go to Bayou La Batre and see the shrimping fleet where the shrimping scenes were filmed.
I've compared Fairhope to Mobile as Sausalito is to San Francisco.
The beaches beginning at Dauphin Island going south are the whitest beaches in the world for a hundred miles or more.
A nice day trip is to take the ferry from Dauphin Island across the bay to Fort Morgan/Gulf shores and drive down the coast to Destin, Florida. You'll see what I mean by white sandy beaches. (BTW, the fort on Dauphin Island, Fort Gaines is worth a look too.)
Fairhope and Dauphin Island have Mardi Gras parades too.