Chili Cook-Off in Destin

It has been an adventurous weekend in Destin. It started on Friday morning with the mother of all thunderstorms. Thunder, lightning and monsoon rains hit in the early morning hours. The lightning was intense. But by the time I got to work, it was down to a drizzle. By lunch we had strong winds but the sun was out. At quitting time I drove home with the top down on Badass. If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes and it will change.

Ruth's booth at the Chili Cook-Off

Sunshine Cindy and I went to Landshark Pizza Friday night. Our northern friends Alan and Jackie were heading back to Illinois on Saturday. We wanted to have a chance to see them before they left and they wanted one last Landshark Pizza before they left. These two have become great friends. They are wonderful people who love to have a good time. We will miss them but they will be back in June and hopefully for the wedding in May.

Landshark was busy. Jason and Paige were working. Ken came and we chatted with him for a while. He invited us to a NASCAR party at his house on Sunday. Ken manages liquor stores and always has some good stuff! Steve also came in for a while. A typical fun time at Landshark.

Larry hard at work!

Saturday was the big Parrot Head Chili Cook-Off at Harborwalk Village. This has become a huge fundraiser for the club as all proceeds are donated to Relay for Life. The weather was perfect. Bright blue skies and temps around 70 degrees with a slight breeze. They had about 28 restaurants entered and several individuals as well. Music was scheduled for the entire day. Our friend Jan Patton was playing at Crab Island Cantina. Hundreds of people walked along Harborwalk tasting the various chili’s.

Sunshine Cindy and Mandy

Sunshine Cindy and I volunteered and we were put in the Margaritaville tent to help serve. It was actually just a server from Margaritaville, Mandy who is also a Parrot Head and us doing all the serving. They made 10 gallons of chili and we served it all 3 ounces at a time!!! We had fun being honorary members of the work team but we didn’t get a chance to sample any of the chili as we were in the booth the entire time. I also was not able to participate in the tamale/tequila contest. I was ready to win that thing! At least we got paid well….no, wait we had to buy our margarita’s on national margarita day too. Hopefully the management of Margaritaville appreciated our efforts.

Jan Patton at Crab Island Cantina

After the chili was all served we went to Crab Island Cantina to listen to Jan play. A bunch of friends were there. A big crowd of folks were eating and enjoying the sunshine. Jan with some help from Kenny did a great job. The Cantina will be bringing them back. When they finished we all headed to The Boathouse. That became a big party. Jenny was behind the bar. Bree was working and Gigi was there too. Rusty was finishing up inside and a couple of guys were setting up outside to play. Their names escape me but they did a good job. It turned out to be fun night. We “Embraced the Chaos!”

Loujean having fun at The Boathouse

Sunday morning we had another batch of storms blow through. It rained on and off most of the day. Sunshine Cindy and I took Tiffany’s car to have brakes put on it. Other than that, we didn’t do much else. We decided not to go to Ken’s for the party due to the rain and the fact the race was also in a rain delay. I was able to get a lot of Crab Island Mambo work done. The upcoming events page was updated. You can read it all here: http://www.crabislandmambo.com/Happenings.html 

Have a great week. We are going to get cooler here mid week. We shall survive! See ya Thursday!