The Week Between the Holidays

Thursday was a nice day at home celebrating Christmas with the family. Of course we ate too much but that is to be expected. LOL

The bar was ready for Christmas dinner

Sunshine Cindy continues to get better which has allowed us to get out a little. Friday we went to the harbor with Tiffany. We stopped in at Harry T’s in the middle of the afternoon. The bar was packed. It took a while for us to get some seats. Tad was behind the bar. Lou came by to say hello. It was a festive atmosphere in there.

When we left we walked down to Crab Island Cantina. I talked to Mike for a while then we made a stop at Margaritaville. Becca was working there. It was nice to see her and say hello. One thing about Margaritaville in Destin…the bar service is slow. It has been this way from day one. Even with almost no one at the bar it takes forever to get served and even longer to pay your bill. On top of that I heard them saying they were out of Miller Lite and Mich Ultra. How can a major bar be out of two of the top selling beers?

Sunshine Cindy and Tiffany

We walked down to AJ’s to watch the sunset. On the way we saw Tony and Amy and caught up on the latest news with them. Then a little farther down we talked to Matt at his booth where he books charters. When we got to AJ’s we saw Sami. It turns out her son Layne and his new wife Tasha were in town and there. I have not seen Layne in about 10 years. He is in the Army now and he and Tasha make a great couple. I am happy for them both. While at AJ’s we also ran into Tom from Fishheads. He was there getting some sunset pics too.

Layne, Sami and Tashi at AJ's

We made one last stop on the way home at Joe’s Crab Shack for dinner. I found it odd that at Joe’s they don’t serve Yunegling beer but they still have a big Yuengling sign on the wall. Leave it to corporations to make boneheaded decisions. After dinner we went home and played some board games before calling it a night.

Saturday was more laid back. Sunshine Cindy and Tiffany went shopping. I made a stop at Landshark Pizza to watch some football and have some wings. That was the excitement for Saturday. Sunday I was back at Landshark to watch the Browns game. They were competitive but still lost. Oh well, wait till next year. Landshark filled up with Packer fans for the second game. John and Deb were there to watch the game. They are big Packer fans. The Pack won so they were all happy.

Brian at Landshark Pizza

Sunshine Cindy and I met up with Alan and Jackie at the Ramada on the island for a few drinks in the evening. They had just got back into town. The Ramada had several touring basketball teams staying there. The lobby area was packed with kids. The kids were all nice and respectful. While we were there we heard the old Howl at the Moon is going to become a Mexican restaurant. Just what we need, another Mexican restaurant. That location should be some type of club like it was with Howl at the Moon. At least that’s my opinion! LOL

Have a great week. Be safe on New Year’s Eve. See ya on Thursday!

Merry Christmas from Destin

Sunshine Cindy and I want to wish all of our friends a very Merry Christmas from the Emerald Coast. We spent Christmas Eve with her parents and daughter and will have Christmas dinner with them at our house. We are truly blessed this year.

The weather in many parts of the country has been frightful but in Destin it has been warm but rainy. We hit 71 on Christmas Eve and it was still in the upper 50’s that evening. It was nice temps for Santa to make his run!

Sunshine Cindy and Santa

I am keeping this short and sweet today. We will be back to our regularly scheduled programming on Monday! See ya then!

Thankful in Destin this holiday season

Last week was a trying time for Sunshine Cindy and I. She had a minor stroke and spent several days in the hospital. But I am glad to say there was no long term issues and Sunshine Cindy is getting stronger every day.

Thursday was her first day back home. She took it easy and I kept an eye on her. Friday we got out and did some Christmas shopping. We stopped at Wal-Mart then went back home so she could relax. We went back out in the afternoon and hit several stores. We got almost all our shopping done. One of the stops we made was at Belk Department store. I am not a department store kind of guy. I joked that if they had a lounge in the store it would be a money maker as all the guys would gladly go there while the wife shopped. LOL

Merry Christmas from Paradise

We stopped at Friday’s on the way home for some dinner. We ran into Suzanne, Ruthie and several other friends. It was nice talking to them. The dinner was good and relaxing.

Saturday we made a stop at Beach Liquor for the last of our shopping. Booze is the universal gift! Our friend Julie stopped over the house to check up on Sunshine Cindy. She brought over some food and a beautiful bouquet of roses. That was so nice of her. In the afternoon Sunshine Cindy told me to get out of the house and go have a beer. I took her up on it and went to Landshark Pizza for some wings and beers. I didn’t stay long and got back home to keep a watch on her.

Beer, beer and more beer

Sunday I got another pass from Sunshine Cindy to go watch some football. I stopped in at Chip’s to watch the Browns. They lost again…what else is new. Then it was back home. We are not doing any real partying right now. We missed several parties some friends of ours had this weekend. But the important thing is to get Sunshine Cindy back to 100%

Here are couple of things going on in Destin right now. World of Beer will be opening at the Commons on January 19th. This has been a long time coming but they are almost ready to get the taps flowing.

One of the oldest restaurants in Destin recently closed. Sakura’s suddenly shut down. From what I heard they actually removed their equipment in the middle of the night and didn’t even tell their employee’s they were closing. They found out when they showed up for work the next day. That’s pretty rotten.

Sunshine Cindy and I have received so many well wishes, prayers and offers of help that we are speechless. Our friends are the best in the world. Thank you everyone for your support. It means the world to us. As I mentioned above, Sunshine Cindy and I have plenty to be thankful for this holiday season! Merry Christmas y’all!!!!

Living in Destin

This week has been spent helping Sunshine Cindy get through a medical issue. She is doing well. I should be back to our regular Destin news on Monday!

Have a great weekend everyone. Only one week till Christmas!

Short blog today…

This is going to be a quick blog today. Friday night Sunshine Cindy and I were honored to be named as the Emerald Coast Parrot Head Club’s Volunteers of the Year! Wow and thanks is all we can say. We appreciate the honor!

Thank you ECPHC!

Saturday we hung out with our friends Alan and Jackie at Landshark Pizza for a while.

We missed the Destin Christmas Parade and the harbor lighted boat parade. We will make both next year for sure!

Life on the Emerald Coast

So far it has been a pretty quiet week in Destin. We have some snowbirds in town but the full brunt will not be felt till after the holidays. Otherwise we have very few tourist in town. There are some holiday parties taking place but not much else going on.

Sunshine Cindy and I had a fun time on Wednesday afternoon. Landshark Pizza was filming a TV commercial. Brian asked for folks to show up for crowd scenes. Sunshine Cindy and I got there and Alan and Jackie came in a little while later to join us. Brian, Sue, Austin, Paige and Jason made sure the food and drinks were flowing. A big crowd was there having a good time. The guy doing the filming worked for about an hour and a half getting all kinds of action footage.

Filming the commercial at Landshark Pizza

The commercial will air on Cox cable in our area starting early next week on a wide range of stations. It should be fun to watch. I hope we all don’t end up on the cutting room floor! LOL

Sunshine Cindy and the ladies met for lunch this week at Another Broken Egg Café in Grand Boulevard. She reports they were well taken care of and that the food was excellent. There are several of these restaurants around town now. They have grown from their original place along the harbor and are now a success story.

The dredging that has been taking place in East Pass looks to be about complete. East Pass is the way to the Gulf of Mexico from the harbor and bay. It is imperative the pass stays dredged and open as that is the fishing fleets only way to the Gulf. This current effort should be good for many years going forward.

Brian with one of his signature pizza's

This will be a busy weekend in Destin. Friday night is the Emerald Coast Parrot Head club meeting at Harry T’s. A big crowd is expected. For just $20 a year you can join in the fun too. We raise a lot of money for good causes. Saturday is the City of Destin’s Christmas Parade. It starts at 10 am in the Old Time Pottery parking lot and will go down Hwy 98 to the Community Center. Our friend Jack will be the Grand Marshall of the parade. It’s a great honor and we are glad for Jack! Then on Sunday is the Lighted Boat Parade in the harbor. Dozens of boats will be decorated with lights and will cruise up the harbor for everyone’s enjoyment.

We will be at many of these fun activities this weekend. We hope to see our friends out and about. I will have a full report on Monday! See ya then.

Living in Destin

I think I can honestly say we just finished one of the best weeks of good weather we could possibly hope for in early December in Destin. Every day was in the mid 70’s with lows in the 60’s. I wish it would stay that way till spring and then warm up. LOL

Sunshine Cindy and I got out a little this weekend. Thursday night we went to Harry T’s for happy hour and to watch the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game. The game was good and the bar area stayed pretty full. Of course it’s always good when the Lightning win.

Ready for some hockey

When we left Harry T’s we saw the new outside bar up the harbor across from Hogs Breath called, “The Other End” was open. We pulled in to check it out. They have a great set up. There is an Airstream trailer that they use as a kitchen for cooking food. There are several decks that look out over the water. And they have tons of craft beers available. We sat down and started talking to the bartender Clay. It turns out he is the son of a friend of ours. I remember Clay from his days behind the bar at Hogs Breath. It was cool running into him again. We finished our drinks and headed home for the night.

Friday was a day for Sunshine Cindy and I to relax. We didn’t feel up to doing much although Sunshine Cindy did work on decorating the house for Christmas. We were supposed to meet some friends at the Legion but we were not up for it.

The Crust Pizzeria

Saturday we had a little more energy. In the afternoon we headed to The Crust Pizzeria to talk to the owner Charlie about his ad on our Crab Island Mambo web site. Charlie has some new specials for the season that we are getting posted on the web site. While there Sunshine Cindy and I both had one of their pasta dishes. They do a great job with the pasta. I could eat them every day! We enjoy going to The Crust.

When we left The Crust we decided to make a quick stop in at Hogs Breath. Rikki was working the outside bar. A good group of locals were there watching the Alabama football game. Hogs Breath has great football drink and food specials. We love sitting at the outside bar watching the world go by on Hwy 98. One of the locals there was actually at our Holiday Chaos party last week at KC’s. That was fun talking to him. About the time we were getting ready to leave Cajun Mike and Terry walked in so we had to stay a little longer. We still made it home kind of early as we wanted to keep charging our batteries.

Hogs Breath Saloon

We decided that Sunday we would head to Chips to watch the Browns football game. I wish I had not subjected myself to that torture. The Browns are real close to being a good team but the quarterback play is holding them back. It is frustrating watching them but it could have been worse. Tommy was there to watch the Saints and they got killed. After the game we stopped in at Landshark Pizza. As we walked we were greeted by Kenny and Becky. There were there having a pizza so we joined them. Then Alan and Jackie came in and joined us. It was a good time chatting with everyone. Jason was working our table and he was his usual funny self.

This weekend I published the Crab Island Mambo monthly recap. This is pictures of the Chaos we had in November. You can read it here: http://www.crabislandmambo.com/November-2014-Crab-Island-Mambo-recent-events.html

Have a great week. See ya Thursday!

Life on the Emerald Coast

This has been a very quiet week for us. Sunshine Cindy and I have stayed in so we can work on Crab Island Mambo things. I published the Weekly Update. You can read it here: http://www.crabislandmambo.com/Weekend-Update.html

This is the time of the year when we have local places close down for the winter. It was not too long ago that you would have almost all bars and restaurants in Destin close for the entire winter season. But with Destin now becoming a year round tourist destination and many snowbirds staying all winter, we only have a few places that close for a while and only one, Gilligan’s that shuts down for the entire season. Gilligan’s will open back up in February right before Spring Break hits.

Destin

Our friends at The Boathouse are closed from December 1st through December 17th to give everyone some much needed time off. They will though open for a while on Sunday December 14th for the Holiday Boat Parade that goes through the harbor. The Donut Hole in Destin is also closed till almost Christmas. But other than that, I have not heard of anyone else closing for any significant amount of time. I wonder if they will all survive?

A new mescal and tequila taco bar is opening in downtown Fort Walton Beach soon. I don’t know much about this place other than the sign I see in front of the building. It will be taking over the old Salty Duck location just down from KC’s Sandbar. With construction getting ready to get started on the new Landmark Center hotel and restaurant complex downtown, this area is taking off.

Destin harbor

The new Town Home development on Airport Road in Destin where the Racquet Club used to be is now coming out of the ground. It looks like they will be ready sometime in the late spring or summer.

Over at Lucky’s Rotten Apple in Destin, they have now opened their restaurant, Mother Cluckers. It is a pizza and wing place that will be serving the late night crowd till 4 am. Rotten Apple is a hit with the after hours party crowd. They pack them in for a late night Power Hour they do each night. We will have to check out the food one of these days.

One other new place that has opened in Destin is a Thai restaurant. It is called Thai Tanic and is in the old Noonie’s location. They are right on Hwy. 98 across from the harbor. I have to give them props for creativity on the name!

Not much happening this weekend. See ya Monday!

Holiday Season in Destin

We are officially into the holiday season. Sunshine Cindy and I spent an enjoyable Thanksgiving Day at her parent’s house. Of course we ate too much food but that is to be expected. We drove home about 8 pm. As we passed the Destin Commons the parking lot was already packed with people out doing pre-black Friday shopping. There were a lot of complaints about stores opening on Thanksgiving. How can those poor people be forced to work on Thanksgiving they said. It is real simple, if people didn’t flock to the stores then they would not open. But the crowds are huge so they open.

Plus I can think of a lot of people that have to work on holidays with none more important than our service members who are deployed across the globe protecting us. Say a prayer for the Army, Air Force, Marine and Coast Guard folks that protect us so we can complain about some retail clerks that are working.

Mambo party

Saturday was our Crab Island Mambo “Holiday Chaos” party. But on Friday we were running around getting all the final details worked out. Sunshine Cindy is the creative one who makes sure we create a fun atmosphere and attitude for the party. In the afternoon as she was in full “party mode” I took off to run some errands. When I was done I made a stop at Landshark Pizza for a few beers. A decent crowd was there. Brian, Glen and Bruce were heading to Grayton Beach Brewery to visit their new Tap Room. They asked if I wanted to go but I passed. I can’t wait to hear how it was.

I hung out for a while talking to Tommy, Pops, Capt. Browning, Jason and a guy I had not met before, Dominic. He was a nice guy. I am sure I will run into him there again. Steve came in about the time I was leaving. I talked to him for a bit. He and his wife went to Harbor Docks for Thanksgiving dinner. Harbor Docks gives away free meals…all they ask for is a donation to Habitat for Humanity. Last year they raised over $20,000. Steve said they served about 1800 meals this year so I know they will raise a lot of money this year too. It is all done by volunteers. This is a great example of a community coming together.

Good friends

Saturday was the party and it was a big success. We had about 80 folks join us for music, food and a good time. We raffled off a bunch of prizes and Corlee won the 50/50 drawing. There were Parrot Heads from Arkansas, Pensacola, Panama City and Illinois show up to party with us. KC’s Sandbar’s staff did a fantastic job. The food we had was great and no one was waiting for service. Matt and Tia worked  their butts off for us. We hope to do a bigger party next year.

And on Sunday we rested! LOL  The biggest activity we did was get the Christmas decorations out of the attic. Other than that we were slugs. I watched football all day while Sunshine Cindy worked on putting together a new jewelry case.

Even Kenny won a raffle prize and he was stoked! LOL

Today is another one of those made-up retail kind of days that stores like Wal Mart push so they can sell more Chinese made junk to us that we don’t need. Yes, it is Cyber Monday. I read a great quote about this day. This sums it up: “Because so much online shopping occurs at work, Cyber Monday simultaneously stimulates the economy and curtails productivity, creating a zero-sum economic game in which we are too busy getting things to make things others might want to get.”

Tonight (Monday) Sunshine Cindy and I will be interviewed on the award winning “Island Time Radio” show out of Cleveland, Ohio. We will be talking about the 21st Annual Phlocking of the Phaithful Trop Rock event we will host next June in Put in Bay, Ohio. We will be on the air about 11:15 pm EST or 10:15 pm Central. You can listen here: http://itrshow.com/

DK and Amo with their Trop Rock award for best Radio Show

And you can get all the registration information for Phlocking of the Phaithful right here: http://www.crabislandmambo.com/Crab-Island-Mambo-presents-Phlocking-of-the-Phaithful.html

Have a great week. See ya Thursday!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

It’s a beautiful day in Destin. The sun is up with clear blue skies and temps that will warm into the 60’s. It is a perfect day to give thanks for all I have…my beautiful wife Sunshine Cindy, my family, my friends and my health. Life is good!

With Sunshine Cindy

Not much was going on this week. Wednesday I made a stop at KC’s Sandbar on the way home from work. We are having our big Crab Island Mambo “Holiday CHAOS” party on Saturday. Everyone is invited so I dropped off some flyers that were posted around the bar area. It is going to be a fun party with music, food, raffles and a lot of good times. Come join us 3-7 pm at KC’s in Fort Walton Beach. https://www.facebook.com/events/652545271528596/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming

When I got home Sunshine Cindy showed me all the stuff she had bought for the party. She has a lot of snacks, some booze for a raffle prize, more snacks, some decorations for the tables and finally more snacks! LOL  We then took off for a while. We stopped at Rotten Apple. It turns out Mindy was getting ready to play some music. We talked to her and also talked to Tony who was there. When Mindy was playing her ex Matt came in. I guess they are still on speaking terms as he was there to help her with the sound. Matt was looking good as he was getting ready to head to Maine for a week.

Stephanie and Sunshine Cindy at last year's Holiday Chaos party

We left the Apple and stopped in at Hogs Breath. The outside bar area was packed. Chris Hays was playing music. At a back table was Jack and his lovely wife Lynn. They had some friends with them who just into town from Columbus, Ohio. They were glad to escape the cold and ice. Andy was holding down the one end of the bar. Folks were coming and going. We had some food and enjoyed ourselves but it was a long day so we headed home.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone. We hope to see you on Saturday at KC’s!!!!! I will have a full report on Monday.

Living and Playing in Destin

The weather continues to be the story in Destin. Sunday we had a front blow through and it brought with it some strong thunderstorms. The wind was blowing right in off the Gulf of Mexico. We are about two blocks from the beach but we could hear the waves crashing on shore at our house. When the storms hit on Sunday the winds was blowing so strong the rain was horizontal. Stuff was blowing all over the neighborhood. Luckily it didn’t last too long.

Sunshine Cindy and I got out a little this weekend. Thursday night we went to Bonefish Grill. It has been a while since we were there. We had a nice relaxing dinner. They had a good happy hour crowd for off season.

Landshark Pizza

Friday afternoon we headed to Landshark Pizza. Tommy and Pops were there and we talked to them for a while. Sue was working as was Austin. We also got to talk to the salesman for Landshark’s beer distributor. He was a nice guy. About the time Tommy and Pops left “B” came in. We ended up talking to him for a long while. B always has some fun stories. When we left Landshark we made one more stop at The American Legion. We didn’t plan to stay too long but we knew a bunch of folks in there. When Capt. John came in we knew we were there for the long haul. I ended up singing a few Karaoke songs too. It was not a pretty sight. LOL

Saturday was a stay-at-home kind of day. We got some things done around the house and I was able to do some Crab Island Mambo work…but mostly I watched football and hockey games. Tampa played a great game against Minnesota and won. It was an exciting game.

Tampa hockey

Sunday we stayed in so I could watch the Browns game against the Falcons. It was a back and forth game. Neither team played all that well but the Browns did get the win. We will take it. After the game Sunshine Cindy and I went to Landshark to watch some of the afternoon games. When we walked in Brian was sitting by the door. He said the storm earlier had knocked out his Dish TV. They had rigged a laptop to pull in the NFL redzone on the big TV so we were able to watch some of the games.

Just as we sat down in walked Alan and Jackie. They had the same idea that we had about getting out for a while. We all shared a table. Cheryl waited on us. She always asks how Tiffany is doing in Atlanta. She is proud of her for taking the leap and moving to the big city. We had a good time. Jason is a big Falcons fan. He gave me a hard time about the Browns winning the game. Of course I gave it back.

Jackie and Alan

I did hear some news about the new World of Beer that will open soon in the Commons. I had heard it might open about December 8th but now it might be a few weeks later…maybe not till the first of the year. When you have hundreds of beer on tap and several hundred more different bottles available from almost every known beer maker you have a lot of work to do. I am looking forward to them opening though.

This is a short week with the Thanksgiving holiday. Be safe if you are driving to Destin for the holiday. See ya Thursday!

The weather

Like most of the country the big story in Destin this week was the weather. We didn’t get anything severe, just some cold temps. Destin got down to the low 30’s but north of the bay the temps were down into the mid 20’s. I know for someplace like Buffalo that had some areas get up to 8 feet of snow, a little cold weather with sunshine is perfect winter weather but here in Destin we had to actually put on long pants and socks! Oh no…..

Yep, winter is around the corner

This has been a quiet week for Sunshine Cindy and me. We stayed in each evening. I did some Crab Island Mambo work but I mostly just relaxed.

Things are kind of quiet around town too. There was an announcement that Goodyear is opening a service center store on an empty lot in front of Home Depot. I have used Goodyear for tires so it will be nice to have a place closer to the house.

I want to remind everyone about our Crab Island Mambo “Holiday CHAOS” party on Saturday November 29th. We will party down at KC’s Tapworks Bar (or out at the Sandbar if the weather cooperates) from 3-7 pm. Music will be provided by Stevie Hall. We will have food to munch on and you will receive a wrist band to get 20% off your entire tab during the show. We will have a 50/50 raffle and some special surprises. No cover charge either.  Everyone is welcome to join us to celebrate the holiday season. https://www.facebook.com/events/652545271528596/?ref=2&ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming

Holiday CHAOS party at KC's 11/29/14

Short and sweet today. Have a great weekend. See ya Monday!

Living and Playing in Destin

Sunshine Cindy drove up to Atlanta for a few days to visit her daughter so I was a bachelor for a while. Thursday was an odd day. One of my employees in the morning saw a truck with a pole in the bed of the truck hit some power lines on the island. Sparks flew and power went out. Then in the afternoon someone must have hit a pole near my plant and we lost power. Lines were down and a transformer blew. We sent everyone home early instead of having them sit in the dark. Finally as I was heading home the fire department had a hydrant open on the island. It was spewing water and add in a strong wind and all the cars going by were getting drenched.

Mike from KC's

After all that I decided to stop at Landshark Pizza for some wings. As I was finishing Ken walked in. He was going to Beach Liquor. They have about a dozen craft beers on tap and they do a two for one for happy hour. He asked I wanted to join him. Sue was also going. We had a good time having beer in a liquor store!

Friday night I went to the Parrot Head meeting at Harry T’s. It was chilly but we had a good crowd show up of almost 100 people. I stayed for a while then headed home to work on the Crab Island Mambo Mullet Wrapper.

Sunshine Cindy got back home on Saturday. We stayed in after she got home. She was tired and I was still working on the Mullet Wrapper. We decided to head out on Sunday instead.

Dolphins in the harbor

Sunday morning we went to the harbor and Crab Island Cantina for brunch and to watch some football. They have the package so all the games are available. The Cantina has a special football menu but we opted for the brunch. The food at the Cantina is fantastic. We filled up and then watched the Browns game. I am sorry to say the game was ugly for the Browns. We watched the first half and then walked down to Harry T’s. There was a big crowd at Harry T’s watching the games.

As the early games were ending our friends Alan and Jackie came in. They were going upstairs so we joined them. It was a nice afternoon. Jackie said they were there a few days earlier and they saw some dolphins putting on a show in the pass. They were jumping out of the water and a couple times there were two that jumped together. That had to be so cool to see.

Harborwalk Village

When it got dark they headed home and so did Sunshine Cindy and I. When we got home we decided to take a walk. Well, we walked all the way to Chip’s! We had a bite to eat as it was now dinner time. JD and Tami came in. JD had been playing at the Legion. We did not realize it at first but the bartender was their daughter Summer. We have not seen her in over a year. She looked like she was doing well. We finished up and walked back home.

I did publish the Crab Island Mambo Mullet Wrapper on Sunday. You can read all about our trip to Key West in this issue. http://www.crabislandmambo.com/Mullet-Wrapper-November-2014-edition.html

Have a great week. See ya Thursday!!!

Here comes winter

For those who have been reading this blog over the years you know I hate cold weather. I don’t like it. I want to be in flip flops and shorts all the time. Well that won’t be happening the next few days. Tonight and Friday night we will be down into the 30’s around Destin. By the end of the weekend we will be back to a more normal temp but winter is letting us know it’s on its way!

I actually had to break out the long pants already the other night. Tuesday night Sunshine Cindy and I went to KC’s Sandbar in Fort Walton Beach. We needed to finalize our plans with Mike for the Crab Island Mambo “Holiday Chaos” party. The party will be Saturday November 29^th at KC’s. We plan to be in the Tapworks bar but if the weather is nice we will be in their new tented area. 

 Jan and Kenny at KC's Sandbar

Sunshine Cindy and I had heard about the big tent they put up over the sand but it was even more impressive once we saw it. It covers about 2/3’s of the sand. They have tables, a plastic floor down and sides that come down. There are several heaters inside too. If the weather looks like it will be half way decent we will be outside in the tent otherwise we will be inside at Tapworks.

We will have Steve Hall playing music for us. We will also supply some food for everyone to enjoy plus the entire KC’s menu will be available. Everyone is welcome to join us. We will give armbands that will get you a 20% discount on your entire tab the day of the party. It starts at 3 pm. Come out and join us!!!

Stevie Hall

We had fun at KC’s. Jan and Kenny were playing music. It was open mic night. A couple of young guys were there for their first time on any stage. They had about a dozen of their friends there. The kids were not too bad. It was a kind of mellow music and not some head banging noise. Melissa was behind the bar, Matt was working the tent and a bunch of regulars were there too. We had a good time.

The rest of the week was spent working on the Crab Island Mambo Mullet Wrapper for November. I will be publishing this weekend. It will be a day by day account of our recent trip to Key West.

A couple of things from around town. Fisherman’s Wharf has officially closed. Reports say they are looking to put in another restaurant that will open by the Spring. I hope they get a local to own it and not a chain. 

Good times at KC's Sandbar and Grill in Ft. Walton Beach, FL

The old Destin Diner is about to be resurrected. The owners of The Red Bar from Grayton Beach are remodeling it and plan to open this Spring too. They are keeping the diner concept but with beer and liquor and it will be open 24/7. This should be interesting.  

The snowbirds are coming. We are seeing some already in town with more coming by Thanksgiving. To quote our friend Brent Burns about this time of the year, “If you have a car with Michigan plates pass you….It’s stolen!”

Have a great weekend. See ya Monday!

Destin is Quiet

This time of the year is probably the quietest time of the entire year in Destin. The fishing tournament is over, fall breaks have been completed and the snow birds have not descended on the town in full force yet. This is when you can walk into almost any restaurant and get a table at dinner time! LOL

Sunshine Cindy and I didn’t do much this weekend. We are still winding down from our Key West vacation. Thursday night I headed to Landshark Pizza to watch the Browns football game. It was a big game for them against the Bengals who were heavily favored. Paige, Jason and Austin were working. I settled in at the bar with a pizza and a beer. I watched the first half at Landshark. The Browns were kicking butt. I got home in time for the second half and they continued their domination. Wow is all I can say. They look like a real team this year.

Landshark Pizza

Friday Sunshine Cindy and I ran around town doing a bunch of errands. It was mid afternoon when we were done. We decided we wanted some lunch so we headed to the Boathouse. As we walked in someone was waving at us. It was our friends from Southern Illinois. Alan and Jackie are back for the winter. They also had Kistin, Jeff, Cathy and Dale with them. We knew they were in town but we never expected to run into them at the Boathouse on a Friday afternoon. We had a good time catching up with them.

We saw some other friends there too. Gigi was running around making sure everyone was doing their jobs, Kerby was there fixing some things, Paige stopped by with Lela and Bree was there with her child. We had a nice relaxing time there. We left and headed home for the evening. As I was driving home on Main Street, some old guy riding a bicycle in the right hand lane was weaving a little so I moved over to the outside lane. Just as I got to him he turned right in front of me. Good thing I was watching. I slammed on my brakes and avoided the old guy but it scared the crap out of me.

Fun at The Boathouse

On Saturday Sunshine Cindy and I worked around the house and on Crab Island Mambo stuff. Plus Sunshine Cindy cooked up a pot of potato soup to take to a party we were going to that evening at Julies. The soup turned out fantastic. The party was a lot of fun. It was nice hanging with friends.

We didn’t go to the harbor on Saturday for the Blues, Brews and BBQ festival. From what I have heard they had big crowds. We were there last year and had a fun time so I am sure everyone had fun this year. I have not seen who won the best BBQ but there are some real good BBQ in this town so I am sure it was deserved.

Blues, brews and BBQ last year

We were very lazy on Sunday. I watched some football. Sunshine Cindy cooked up a great brunch. The only place I went to was Landshark Pizza to visit with our Southern Illinois friends. I wanted to drop off some flyers for Kirstin to take back to her parrot head club for our June "Phlocking of the Phaithful" Trop Rock party in Put in Bay, Ohio. We would love to see some of their club come up and party with us. In fact we love for everyone to join us for this fun time. Here is the link for all the information: http://www.crabislandmambo.com/Crab-Island-Mambo-presents-Phlocking-of-the-Phaithful.html

As I mentioned it is real slow around town right now. Driving home Saturday night there was almost no one on the road. This is such a far cry from just a few weeks ago. But don’t get me wrong. I am not complaining. It is a nice break.

It looks like some colder weather is coming in again later this week. I am ready for summer!!! Have a great week. See ya Thursday.

Back home in Destin

Sunshine Cindy and I got home Monday night from our trip to Key West. We had a great time partying with our Trop Rock friends from all over the country. We plan to do it again next year.

It was a 13 hour drive as we drove straight through. Needless to say we were wore out. I took one last day off from work on Tuesday to recover. The only thing I did was make a stop at Landshark Pizza in the afternoon. Brian was working. He had followed a lot of our exploits in the KW from our Facebook page. James also stopped in. Brian and James were planning for the upcoming “Blues, Brews and BBQ” event that will be held on Saturday on the harbor. Landshark won one of the divisions last year.

Landshark Pizza will be  back to the festival this year

Jason came in to start his shift. He is a new proud papa. He has a beautiful baby girl. You can see how happy he is. Good for Jason!

Our friends Alan and Jackie are back in town for the winter. They got here last weekend. We have not seen them yet but we will soon. They are great folks and have become good friends. Welcome “home.”

There were big crowds last year

Only in Destin can a sign cause a ruckus. For a few weeks a sign was up and then gone on an empty lot next to Big Kahuna’s. The sign said the lot was going to be the future home of “GI Joe Amusement Park.” People were wondering what the sign was about. No one seemed to know.

It turns out the original developer of Big Kahuna’s, Max Brunner is buying the land with the intent to develop some type of amusement park. Now everyone in town is up in arms as Brunner is not the most respected person in the area. It will be interesting to see if this development will happen.

I have heard some rumblings that World of Beer will open in the Destin Commons December 8th. Sunshine Cindy and I visited the WOB in Key West and her daughter has gone to work at the WOB in Atlanta. If you are in Atlanta stop by the Mid-Town location and say hi to Tiffany.

World of Beer in Key West had a "cup of bacon"...Yep, I was in heaven

It was also just announced Whole Foods Market will open a location in the Destin Commons too. It seems like the Commons is getting a little of every type of retail outlet now.

While we were in Key West at our Crab Island Mambo Welcome to the Island Party, we held the drawing for our Phlocking of the Phaithful special raffle. We are pleased to announce Capt. John from Destin was the winner of the prize package. Congrats Capt! For registration information for the “21st Annual Phlocking of the Phaithful – 21 and Legal, Let the CHAOS Begin” here is the information. http://www.crabislandmambo.com/Crab-Island-Mambo-presents-Phlocking-of-the-Phaithful.html

Have a fun weekend. See ya Monday!

Still in Key West

Things have been hectic but we are having a great time on our trip. We have been to the Punta Gorda area and then drove down to Key West on Monday.

The weather has been perfect, the music off the hook and friends from all over the country make this a perfect vacation.

Our "Crab Island Mambo Welcome to the Island Party" on Wednesday was a fun time. We had several hundred friends show up to party with us. We will do it again!

This is a short update today. No pictures and nothing about Destin but we will get back to our regularly scheduled program next week. See ya then!!!

Short and Sweet today

Sunshine Cindy and I are getting ready for our trip to Key West so this will be short today.

We got out Wednesday evening for a stop at Chan’s Craft Bar. The place was not as busy as we have seen it in the past but they still had a decent crowd with many folks sitting on the outside patio. I had three different craft beers. Each one was good. One was a Founder’s IPA, one was a Cigar City brew and the last one was a Sweat Head Big Nose or something like that. I enjoyed each of them even if I can’t remember their names.

Craft Bar

Sunshine Cindy and I also split a burger. Their burgers are fantastic. It’s a half pound of grain fed beef. We asked for it to be cooked “medium” and it came out perfectly cooked. That is unusual for a burger especially one that was as thick as this one was. They have made The Craft Bar a nice relaxing place.

We are close to being ready for the trip. This is always a fun vacation for us. It’s like a giant family reunion when we get to Key West. Once again Crab Island Mambo will be sponsoring a “Welcome to the Island Party” on Wednesday October 29th at Dante’s from 11 am to 3:30 pm. Everyone is welcome to join us for this free Trop Rock party. Here are all the details: http://www.crabislandmambo.com/Crab-Island-Mambo's-Key-West-4th-Annual-Welcome-to-the-Island-party.html

Fun at Dante's for the Welcome to the Island Party

I will try to send out the next couple of blogs with updates on our adventure but you never know how things will go. Have a great weekend. If you can, get over to KC’s Sandbar in downtown Fort Walton Beach on Sunday. Michael Allman, son of legendary rocker Gregg Allman will be playing with his band. Gunner opens at 1 pm and Michael goes on about 4 pm. I think there is a $5 cover charge. We are sorry we will miss this show.

See ya down the road!

Destin in the Fall

Not to sound like a broken record or anything but the weather continues to be just about perfect in Destin. It’s about 80 during the days and 60’s at night. The chamber of commerce loves this weather and so do the locals!

Sunshine Cindy and I had a busy weekend. We started out Thursday night at Chips. We wanted to get out of the house for a while and with Chips being right across the street it is perfect for us. We sat inside where Becky was behind the bar. Stephanie was working the outside bar. Friday night was her last night at Chips as she is moving to Utah where her husband is working. We have known Stephanie since her days at Baby J’s. She will be missed.

Wes and Thomas at the Cantina

We had some food while watching some sports. I had something I never had before…a Boudin Po-Boy. Chips has authentic Cajun food and their Boudin is like what you get in Louisiana. I loved it. The place was pretty busy. They had a special on wings for $.10 each. A lot of folks were there having them. We talked to Tommy and a few others and headed home.

Friday night was special. It was our last “Embrace the Chaos! Trop Rock Music Series at the Cantina” show of the season. We had from Nashville, Wes Loper playing for us. He brought Thomas Jenkins with him to play the fiddle. They put on a fantastic show. We had about 40 people show up and it was a real party. The sunset Friday night over the Bay was perfect. There were even some Parrot Heads from Oklahoma and Mississippi who just happened to walk by stop and party with us. We could not have asked for a better close to our music series.

Group pic from the Cantina

Saturday kept the good times going. Sunshine Cindy and I went to her parents house to take the boat out. Her Dad has it running again so we all went out for a ride. We rode over to Bluewater to have lunch at Schooners. We tied off and went in for lunch. When Sunshine Cindy lived in Bluewater we would go to Schooners all the time but it has been a year or two since we were there. Lindsey worked there when we used to stop and she is now the bar manager. She remembered us and gave us a hug.

Lunch was good and we were able to relax and enjoy the weather. We got back in the boat and cruised around some of the bayous. As we came out of one of the bayous we saw something in the water. We passed right by it and it was a Manatee. They are very rare in our area. We tried to spot it again but we could not but just seeing it once was pretty special. We got the boat back into the boat house and we didn’t even need to be towed! LOL

Dancing to Wes' music

As Sunshine Cindy and I headed home we decided to stop at Hooters for some wings and drinks. Hooters is right around the corner from our house so we would be close to home. College football games were on as we sat at the outside bar. You get a different type of crowd at Hooters. There were some bikers at the bar, a local guy who seemed to have every waitress come up and sit with him for a while and then you also had some families and grandma types. We talked to the chick magnet guy and enjoyed our food. By now it had been a long day so we got in Badass and headed home. We slept well that night.

Sunday was spent working on a multitude of Crab Island Mambo things. We are preparing for our trip to Key West and our “Crab Island Mambo Welcome to the Island Party” on Oct. 29th. (http://www.crabislandmambo.com/Crab-Island-Mambo's-Key-West-4th-Annual-Welcome-to-the-Island-party.html) This is going to be another great party at Dante’s. Everyone is welcome to stop in and join us!

Southern Drawl Band in Key West last year

Sunday evening I was watching the NFL national game on NBC between Denver and San Francisco. At one point Peyton Manning through a touchdown pass. As they were getting ready to head to a commercial and showed Peyton in the background you could hear the song “Rocky Top” playing. Peyton played at Tennessee so that was a logical tie-in. But as I heard the few seconds of the song I thought it sounded like our friends at Southern Drawl Bands’ version. They have a great version of the song that is like an anthem in Tennessee now.

About an hour later Facebook started to explode with comments about the song. It was the Southern Drawl Bands version. Someone had a 10 second recording and you could clearly hear Mike Nash singing and the guys playing. How cool. Move over Hank Jr. and Faith Hill….Southern Drawl Band is coming!!!

Okay, this week we will finish our preparations for our trip down south. We will try to sneak in a trip to Juana’s on Thursday to hear Thom Shepherd perform. We shall see if we can do that.

Have a great week. See ya Thursday!!!

Wes Loper playing in Destin

Picture perfect weather in Destin. Let’s see…The humidity is low. Temps are comfortable. No clouds in the deep blue sky. Light winds….Yep, it is almost perfect weather. And it is supposed to last for the foreseeable future. Reason 8,981 why I love living in Destin.

Destin weather has been perfect

The only stop out and about this week was Tuesday night. On my way home from work traffic was at a standstill on the Island. I turned around and made a stop at Fudpucker’s to ride it out. It turns out a car had flipped on the Island. The driver of the car was the mother of a manager at Fud’s. Turns out she was fine but traffic was a mess for a while. I had a few drinks, watched my traffic app and headed home when it was all clear. You have to love modern technology.

This week I published the October edition of the Crab Island Mambo Mullet Wrapper. This issue has a lot of Key West features and video’s in it. This is in honor of our upcoming trip to Key West for Meeting of the Minds in a few weeks. Read the Mullet Wrapper right here: http://www.crabislandmambo.com/Mullet-Wrapper-October-2014-edition.html

Love the water here

The town is still kind of busy with Fall Breakers here. Destin is getting closer to a year round season with just some peaks and valleys. I like it when the valleys happen!

This Friday we have the last “Embrace the Chaos! Trop Rock Music Series at the Cantina” show of the season. Wes Loper from Nashville, TN will be performing for us at Crab Island Cantina down on the harbor. Show time is 5-9 pm. Make sure you see us for your “Mambo Member” card to get 15% off your entire bill the night of the show. Wes mixes Trop Rock, Country, Blues, and Folk music to create his own style with a funky, beach side feel. You will love his music so please join us.

Wes Loper

That’s about it for today. Have a great weekend. See ya Monday with a recap of the Cantina show.