Monday, August 10, 2015

Destin…The tourist season is almost over….

The weather continues to be hot and humid in Destin. We are having heat indexes of 110 -112 most days. It is definitely the dog days of summer now. Schools around the southeast are going back into session. That means our tourist season is about over for this summer. I could tell a big difference in the traffic last week.

There was one day that traffic backed up in Destin though and it was because of a fire in Niceville. Tisa’s Lounge burned down Wednesday afternoon. Hwy 20 was down to one lane. Eglin shut down their Val-P gate too. With a huge traffic jam many folks came through Destin to get to the Mid-Bay bridge to make it over the bay. That jammed Destin up. Oh well, I have the Gulf and beach to look at while I am in traffic so I can’t complain too much!

Sunshine Cindy and I had a great time Friday night. Crab Island Mambo worked with Crab Island Cantina to sponsor a Trop Rock show with Jimi Pappas performing. There were some birthdays in the house including Wendy. She is the sister of the COO of Harborwalk Village. They are all nice folks. Jimi put on a fun show. Some thunderstorms just missed us too so that was nice. We had a good group of friends there for the show.

Jimi Pappas

The Cantina was busy with big groups coming in all night. We got to talk to Carlos and Mike about their new sports bar. Charley’s Sports Bar should be opening soon. It will be a burger bar with about a dozen TV’s. It should be a fun place. It’s located at the inside bar of the Cantina. Back in the day it used to be a Pat O’Brian’s sports bar but they never made it. With a successful Cantina, Charley’s will do great. We are looking forward to it opening.

We saw Stephanie who works for Carlos at the Cantina. She did all the decorating for our wedding last year. Stephanie informed us she is now engaged. I joked that I knew a good wedding decorator. Congratulations Stephanie!

We ended upstairs at Harry T’s for a while after Jimi finished playing. Flash Flood was playing. We had a chance to talk to Rusty for a few minutes. She told us Flash Flood is going back to being the house band at Harry T’s. They will be playing each Friday and Saturday nights going forward. They do a good job. It will be fun to have them back. 

Sunday Sunshine Cindy and I went to the Red Door Saloon. On Sunday’s they have the cheapest beer in town with a great happy hour. We had some food and enjoyed a decent breeze blowing through the place. David and Kelly came in and sat with us for a while. We have not seen them in a while so it was nice catching up.

Sunshine Cindy outside the new Landshark location

We parked behind the soon to be new home of Landshark Pizza. It’s official, they are taking over the space that was La Familia plus a space next to it. They will have a nice big restaurant now. One thing they are still going to do is have a pizza oven in the open so folks sitting at the bar can talk to the folks making the pizza’s. That’s cool that they are keeping this. They should be open sometime in October.

Just when I think they can’t possibly put any other commercial business out at Crab Island then I am proved wrong. The Destin Log had pictures of a zip line that is being built there. It is actually a barge with a tower that will have line running down into the water. I keep saying it but eventually there won’t be room for any boats out there.

Zip line tower on Crab Island. Photo from Destin Log

Some of the hardest working people in Destin this summer has been the service industry people that have to work outdoor bars and restaurants. With the big crowds and the heat and humidity, they are wearing down. It’s hard enough to just be out in the heat but when you are running around making sure people are taken care of that just adds to the work load. They all deserve big tips for putting up with all of us!

Have a great week. See ya next Monday!!!

No comments:

Post a Comment