Monday, February 6, 2017

Chili and football weekend in Destin

There are times you can cram a lot into a two day weekend. This was one of those weekends for us. We actually started out slow on Friday evening. As I headed home from work traffic came to a stop in downtown Ft. Walton Beach. There was obviously something happening up ahead as no cars were on the westbound lanes and we were crawling along eastbound. The problem was a five car pileup on top of the Brooks Bridge. Someone stopped and the cars behind didn’t. They were mangled up pretty good. With rescue vehicles blocking the road no one was getting by going west. One of our lanes was blocked too but at least we were moving.

It took me an extra 25 minutes to get home but that was easy compared to those stuck westbound. It was already backed up halfway across the island and it was not long before it was backed up into Destin. What a mess. When I got home we decided to stay there. LOL

Saturday was the Emerald Coast Parrot Head clubs Chili Cook-off in Harborwalk Village. This is one of the clubs largest fund raising events of the year. 19 restaurants and individuals cooked up their best chili to try and get bragging rights as the best. I was one of the judges and it was fun trying to decide which chili was the best. We didn’t know who made the chili we were tasting. One by one they brought up cups for us to taste. Yes, we had all 19.

They were all good but of course some were better than others. After we were done we were told the order they brought up the samples. My personal favorites were Landshark Pizza’s, Margaritaville and Crab Island Cantina. The other judges had similar scores. It turned out Crab Island Cantina won first place, Margaritaville was second and Harry T’s and Landshark tied for third. Some of the samples came with beer so that was cool. It didn’t change our votes but we loved the thought!

After we were done I walked around for a while then headed to the Cantina as BT was getting ready to play. BT played from 2-6 pm and the Cantina stayed packed the entire time. The weather was perfect and folks were enjoying the music and sunshine. We meet a fun Parrot Head couple from Minnesota. They had helped form the Minneapolis club years ago. They are in Destin for a couple months. I am sure we will see them again at one of our meetings.

I also talked to a couple from Marblehead, Ohio. BT did a Pat Dailey song for me so they asked if I knew Mad Dog Adams. Mad Dog plays at The Roundhouse in Put in Bay, Ohio and he does a fun show. We talked for a while. They were nice folks.

When BT finished I headed home. We still had Super Bowl Sunday coming up! Sunshine Cindy and I watched the game at Landshark Pizza as we paid for the special they were running. We had 12 of us at our table and we were all rooting for the Falcons. The Falcons had an epic collapse. They were up 28-3 in the third quarter and lost in overtime. Dam that hurt. But we had a fun time. Brian took care of us. Sunshine Cindy got a round of peach schnapps for our table and we put a close to this football season. We took Uber home and got ready for the work week.

I am on the board of the Emerald Coast Parrot Head Club. We had a board meeting last Wednesday. Now that the chili cook-off is complete we have plenty of other fun activities coming up. The big one is our “Tailgates Down, Phriends All Around” event that will be held may 20th at the Mattie Kelly Cultural Arts Center in Destin. It’s going to be a big time. I will have more details as we get closer.

Around town I saw the DOT is going to do work on Hwy 98 between Airport Road and Holiday isle. Sewers will be replaced as they are leaking and causing big dips in the road. The work is supposed to be done by the end of June. It is long overdue.

The Starbucks in Harborwalk Village has closed and a small local coffee shop is moving into that location. I like to see local owners instead of a big corporation. I hope they do well.

The various winter concert music series are in full force now. You can find music at The Market Shops, Harborwalk, Baytowne and probably a few other places too. Then you have musicians like Rusty and BT playing for the snowbirds too. Check out BT on Wednesday’s at Crab Island Cantina from 4-7 pm. He does a fun show.

No more football…What will we do with our Sunday’s now??? We will come up with something! See ya next Monday.

Destin Steve

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