Living and Playing in Destin

Our weather this week has been perfect. Monday morning was strange as it was 75 degrees in Destin as I went to work but about six miles down the road in Fort Walton Beach as I got to my office it was 60 degrees. That was really weird. Since that though the temps have been in the low 80’s during the day and low 70’s at night. Perfect!!!

I have also noticed the traffic in town has been heavier this week than the past few weeks. I think it has to do with the fishing rodeo down on the docks at AJ’s. Each evening I see many cars pulling into the parking lot by the Grande and traffic on Hwy. 98 has been heavy too. The whole idea of the month long fishing tournament was to bring in more tourist and it is sure working.

Destin from the water

On the beach on old Hwy. 98 is a restaurant called Pompano Joe’s. It’s a neat place right on the water. They have good food and a deck area where you can sit outside. For a long time they have had live acoustic music for happy hour. Now I have been told they have moved the musicians down to the beach level off the deck because some old lady who lives across the street complained about the noise. Let me get this right…we are talking about music in the late afternoon and early evening. And it’s acoustic music not some type of head banging rock and roll. So one cranky old lady can dictate how an establishment can legally operate? I will have to get over there to get the real scuttle.

Early this year I was reporting how The Lighthouse restaurant had moved into the old Calhoun’s location in front of the Destin Cinema. Well the movie theater closed a few weeks ago and now The Lighthouse has also closed. I am not surprised as I never saw many cars in the parking lot and it was hard to know when they were open. But this was an old time Destin standby and it’s sad to see it go.

Fishheads on the harbor

Our friend Tom who is co-owner of Fishhead’s beer and wine bar on the harbor was in front of the Destin City Council to argue about changing the city’s Sunday liquor sales law. Unless you sell food, you cannot sell beer or liquor before 1 pm on Sunday. This old archaic law needs to go. We are a world class resort town but the old farts on the city council told Tom they didn’t like the idea. The morality police are out in full force. So they can approve using two million dollars of tax payer money to buy off a company that wanted to open a strip club and now they want to make sure you don’t get a beer before 1 pm on Sunday. Except you can still drink in restaurants though. Maybe one day they will figure out how to get people safely across 98 before someone gets killed. I bet two million dollars would have built a nice skyway over the road.

Getting to Destin from Memphis might be getting easier. Southern Airways is hoping to start flying directly to the Destin airport from Memphis this spring. They fly small planes but they can turn the 7 hour drive into a flight of about an hour and a half. They just started up a Memphis to Knoxville flight. If that goes well then Destin should be next. Good luck to them.

Destin sunset

Sunshine Cindy and I have a busy weekend coming up. The ECPHC meets on Friday at Harry T’s. We always have a good time at Harry T’s. Then on Saturday we will be on the beach at The Pointe. We will have a memorial for our friend Tropical Wayne who passed away several months ago. Wayne was one of the original Pointe Bums. We will have a party in his honor. Come out and join us. Also…I am sure we will be watching a football game or two and of course some hockey games now that the season has started.

Have a great weekend. See ya Monday!!!