Another Summer week in Destin

The holiday has come and gone in Destin but the Summer fun continues. Sunshine Cindy and I had a nice and relaxing 4th of July. Julie invited a few friends over to her house for a pool party and cookout. I was the grill master cooking up burgers and dogs. The water in the pool was a sultry 90 degrees but it was better than baking in the sun! lol  It was a nice end to the holiday weekend.

But it didn’t end there for me. I took off Tuesday too. Sunshine Cindy went to work and I was able to get some errands done and some work around the house finished up. I left the house about 12:30 to make my stops. The traffic was a nightmare. I decided to head to Landshark Pizza for some lunch. Sue was working the bar. We were amazed at the traffic backup. I don’t know why the tourist weren’t on the beach as it was a beautiful day. Oh well,  no telling about our traffic patterns.

Sue had told me her two sons were recently in Vegas. One of her sons went to an exclusive club on his last night there on a Sunday night. This just happened to be the club the Cleveland Cavs came to after winning the NBA championship. He got to talk and party with all the players. How cool!

Thursday evening some of the homeowners from our sub division met at the pool for a get-together. We rolled our red wagon with our cooler and some chairs down to the pool and enjoyed meeting some of our neighbors that we only wave too. This was also a prelude to a special HOA meeting we were going to on Friday.

Sunshine Cindy and I both worked a half day on Friday so we could attend the HOA meeting. The president of our HOA has made life miserable for folks. The homeowners are raising up to get her off the board. I could recite story after story about things she has done but they are mostly petty, vindictive and in some cases illegal. She is actually being sued by one of the owners. She has control of the board because her husband and a close friend are on the board but a new election will be coming up in two months. She will be gone. Then hopefully common sense will return.

The HOA meeting was contentious but no one got out of hand. After the meeting Sunshine Cindy and I headed to Landshark Pizza for a Parrot Head meeting. It was another fun meeting with Jeff and the Camaro’s playing for us. We had a good turnout despite the traffic and some folks heading to Pensacola to hear Southern Drawl Band perform. Our meeting ended about 8:30 pm. As we were finishing the restaurant began to fill up. It looks like most people don’t come out till later to eat.

When we left Landshark, Sunshine Cindy and I stopped in at the American Legion. Tony, John, Robin and some folks from the meeting showed up. Like always there were some good singers and some not so good. But we had fun and that’s what counts!

The rest of the weekend was kind of laid back. Sunshine Cindy and I went to the harbor and Brotula’s for lunch on Saturday. We had an interesting guy waiting on us. He was originally from the Ukraine. He worked on cruise ships for many years and then lived in Chicago for four years. He came to Destin on vacation and decided to move here permanently. His story is like many others. He was a nice guy and took good care of us.

As a public service announcement…If you want to save some money in Destin on your vacation make your lunch your main meal of the day. Prices are 30-50% cheaper than dinner and you get about the same amount of food. I had a big platter of fried Gulf of Mexico shrimp and fries for $8.99. That’s fresh gulf shrimp that was delicious. Your welcome…lol

Sunday was spent doing work around the house, giving Chaos a bath, some Crab Island Mambo work and just relaxing.

This week the new pedestrian cross walks will become operational. There are five up and down Hwy 98 to help get people safely across the highway. They claim they will be synched to the traffic lights but this will do nothing but make traffic move even more slowly. I know it’s dangerous to cross the highway but they should have spent money on some elevated cross overs. The city can spend 2 million on buying out a strip club but they can’t do the right thing on a pedestrian bridge or two. I don’t understand it.

This week our Trop Rock musician friend Brent Burns will be in Destin doing a backyard party for us. Julie is hosting the party so folks can get into her pool to keep cool. We are looking forward to having Brent join us as we “Embrace the Chaos.” If you have ever heard the song, “If it’s Snowbird Season, why can’t we shoot em” then you have hear Brent sing!

Have a great week. I will have a full report on our “Chaos” next Monday!

Destin Steve