Monday, February 26, 2018

Spring Break is starting in Destin

Yep, it’s that time of the year again. It’s time for drunken underage drinkers to get arrested and our beaches to get trashed. Be careful where you walk as some of these kids can’t hold their liquor…or at least hold it in! Luckily it is just a small minority who cause problems. Most are here to get away from their studies for a few days. All we locals ask is that you don’t leave your common sense at home! Oh yeah, and clean up your crap from the beach as we are not your Momma!

Sunshine Cindy and I had a fun week last week. I took the week off and did a bunch of work in the yard. You don’t realize how old you are getting till you start doing yard work with a lot of bending up and down.

We did take one day and went to Biloxi for a night. I got a suite at the Hard Rock Casino and Hotel. It was an awesome room. We managed to bring home about 2/3’s of the money we took to play with too. Not too shabby. We like Hard Rock as it has a fun vibe. While there we ate at Half Shell Oyster Bar. We have not visited the one in Destin yet but we enjoyed the food and drinks at the casino location.

During the week we got out and about. Monday evening we went to Island Wings. Tim the bartender used to work at The Red Door Saloon and he made us his signature drink called a Purple Gecko. It’s made with Tequila so you know it had to be good…and it was! We had a good time there.

Tuesday I went to Landshark Pizza for lunch. There were some snowbirds in there plus Pops and Jason. Brian was working the bar. Curling was on the Olympics and we were all getting into it. We might not know all the rules but sure had fun living and dying with each shot. It was the US women’s team and they lost but it was a blast watching it.

Thursday was National Margarita Day. When we got back from Biloxi we headed to Margaritaville to partake in a couple. The weather was great and there was a steady crowd coming and going from Margaritaville.

Friday night the Parrot Heads had our monthly Phlocking at Brotula’s. We had well over 100 people show up. Paradise Bayou band played and had everyone up and dancing the entire evening. Then Saturday was our chili cook-off in Harborwalk Village. This is the club’s biggest fundraising event of the year. I was once again a judge. There were 18 entries and none were terrible. Landshark once again was voted the best. I had them and Crab Island Cantina as my two favorites.

Jeff and the Camaro’s were playing at the Cantina till 6pm. We had a big crowd stick around and party with Jeff. He is a great entertainer. All in all it was a fun day.

And on Sunday we rested!

Around town the road construction on 98 has been extended to the east towards the Commons. This will be a mess this summer. The new auto parts store where the original Funky Blues Shack was is now under construction. That will be the second big auto parts store to open in Destin within a couple months of each other. What’s next, another mattress store???

The new Moe’s BBQ is now open. They took over the old Buck’s location. I have been hearing it is very good. We will have to check it out soon.

Have a great week. See ya next Monday!

Destin Steve

Monday, February 19, 2018

Presidents Day Weekend in Destin

This past Thursday in Destin we started to see an increase in our traffic. Then on Friday it was like a busy spring break week. Cars and tourist were everywhere. It took me a while to connect the dots between the traffic and the holiday weekend. More and more people from Atlanta and NOLA are getting this day off and making it a long weekend in Destin. I’m sure the restaurants and bars loved it.

Sunshine Cindy and I got out a little this weekend. Saturday we had to go into Fort Walton Beach to Fed Ex to pick up a package then we went to her parents’ house to celebrate their anniversary. We had Chaos with us and she loves their big back yard. A couple hours later we headed home and to drop off Chaos so we could go out to eat. We went back to Ciao Italia Bistro. We really like this place. The bartender even remembered us and what we drink. Hell, I didn’t even recognize her and she remembered us AND what we drink. That’s impressive. Oh yeah, the food was fantastic like always.

Sunday we ran some errands to Home Depot and Home Goods. Back home we did some yard work then got ready to go to the harbor. We went to Tailfins. Only the top floor was open but it was a picture perfect day. We were driving with the top down and wearing shorts and tank tops. Spring has sprung in Destin.

Wayne and Tommy joined us. We have not seen either of them in a few weeks so it was good to catch up. We heard all about Wayne’s trip to Belize. He loves going there. Nicole took good care of us. We all decided to go to Hogs Breath for a while. The outside bar filled up fast but we had a table. it was a fun time there too. After a few beers Wayne headed home, Tommy was waiting for a friend to arrive and Sunshine Cindy and I went to Landshark for some dinner. Josh was working the bar. I had my usual awesome pizza. It was a nice end to the weekend.

I have been waging war against fire ants the last week or so. These little suckers are all teeth. But the dam ants took the battle to a new level during our monsoon rains last week. I went out one evening while it was still raining hard to check on the pool. I walked into a couple of deep puddles. After I got back into the house my foot started hurting and I could see welts coming up. It was fire ants that must have been wearing scuba gear or something. Either that or those bastards are real good at holding their breath! I have been hitting each mound all week with fire ant killer. Today I got another mound but while I was sprinkling the stuff on some of the scouts snuck up behind me and get me again. The war continues…

Florida is getting closer to approving a bill that would seek congressional approval to put Florida on year-round daylight savings time. The only problem is the Senate and House bills differ in one wants us to go from Central Time to East Coast Time. No one that I have talked to wants to leave Central Time. Whichever bill has that in it, those folks need to listen to the people. I’m sure it was someone from Miami or Orlando who have no idea about this part of the state who is trying to ram rod this for some reason. We shall see what happens.

Around town Gilligan’s has reopened. They are one of the few places that still closes down for the winter.

Make plans to come to Harborwalk Village this Saturday for the Emerald Coast PHC Chili Cook-off. This is one of our biggest fund raisers of the year. The chili is always awesome and they always have good entertainment too. It starts at noon.  Come help us raise money for The Arc of the Emerald Coast.

Have a great week. See ya next Monday!

Destin Steve

Monday, February 12, 2018

Ark building in Destin this past week

So much rain fell in Destin this past weekend I saw animals lining up two by two. From Saturday afternoon through Sunday night almost 10 inches of rain fell in Destin. It just kept coming and coming. Thankfully our sandy soil drains pretty fast. This week we will be drying out I’m glad to say.

We can also tell that Spring is on the way to Destin. Pollen is collecting on the cars already. You drive off and a yellow cloud blows off the car. But I am ready for Spring. It can’t get here too soon.

Sunshine Cindy and I had a fun weekend. Friday night was our monthly parrot head meeting at Landshark Pizza. A big crowd partied to Cajun music as we warmed up for Mardi Gras. A good time was had by all and a lot of money was raised for our charity.

Saturday was the Mardi Gras parade in Harborwalk Village. With the threat of rain, they cancelled the parade on Friday night. But the parrot heads decided to still show up and do a Mardi Gras pub crawl. About 15 of us started at Crab Island Cantina then we moved on to Harry T’s.

When we left the Cantina, some kids saw us and wanted beads. Their mothers were so appreciative of us giving them some beads they wanted to take a picture of us and the kids. About this time the little train that rides around Harborwalk Village came by and instead of waiting 20 seconds so the picture could be taken, the lady driving the train kept ringing her bell and just about ran us over while hollering for us to move. She could have easily hit one of those kids as they were excited and not paying attention to her. We will be having a chat with Harborwalk management about the actions of this driver. It was uncalled for and could have caused injuries.

Harry T’s was crowded but Dan was happy to see us. From there we went to Jackacuda’s where the bartender accused me of not paying for my beer even though others saw the money on the bar. After we left she found the money and sent word to apologize. It was only her second day and I thought she was going to walk out when our rowdy group came in. I hope in the future she looks closer before accusing someone.

The rest of the crawl was uneventful. We made stops at Margaritaville, AJ’s and Tailfins. It was a blast and a few of us ended up at The Crust for dinner. It was a fun day!

Needless to say with all the rain on Sunday we never left the house. I had to empty the pool a couple times as it was about to overflow. Other than that we watched a lot of TV and just relaxed. 

Last week the Destin City Council approved new hours on when you can and cannot buy alcohol in the city. It used to be you had to wait till 1 pm on Sunday to buy any kind of alcohol from a store. They have amended it so you will now be able to buy alcohol on Sunday the same as any other day of the week which is after 7 am. Finally Destin takes a positive step forward.

There was not much else new around town this week. It’s a slow time with just snowbirds in town. Enjoy Fat Tuesday and don’t forget about Valentine’s Day on Wednesday. I don’t want anyone getting into the dog house! See ya next Monday!

Monday, February 5, 2018

Top Down Riding Around in Destin

Yes, the top went down on Badass for the first time this year on Sunday. Sunshine Cindy and I went to World of Beer for brunch and when we left it was so nice out we put the top down. It felt great! We stopped in at the Patio Depot to price some furniture. As we pulled in Don, who is Cindy’s boss at Honey Baked Ham was loading up some items. We talked to him for a few minutes. Then when we left Julie pulled up. She said she was envious of us having the top down. Hopefully there will be many more top down days coming up!

It was a quiet weekend around town. Friday night I stopped at Landshark Pizza to bring home a pie. Paige, Sue and Jason were all working. And yes, the pizza was as great as always.

On Saturday we did some more shopping for things for the house. Our last stop was Home Depot in the early afternoon. We decided to go to McGuire’s for some lunch. We found a couple of seats at the bar. I had sushi. (Doesn’t everyone go to an Irish Pub for sushi???) As it got closer to happy hour the bar filled up. We talked to a retired guy who is from the Huntsville area of Alabama. He and his wife come to Destin often and he loves McGuire’s.

Then we started talking to Bobby. He is a local who frequents McGuire’s a lot too. He runs some type of limo service. He wants to talk to the Parrot Heads about some type of cross promotion. He said he is going to be at the Chili Cook-Off at the end of this month. I told him to look me up.

We enjoyed our time at McGuire’s talking with everyone. Sunshine Cindy and I decided to stop in at the Rotten Apple on the way home. It’s been a while since we were in. Tracy was working the bar. Tony was sitting across the way. He just got back from Northern Ohio where Amy’s family live. He saw a lot of snow and cold weather. He said it was nice but he is glad to be back in Destin. It appears the Rotten Apple has been sold again. Tracy made a comment about it. That was the first I had heard that.

Sunday evening we stayed home to watch the Super Bowl. It was a great game. Congrats to the Eagles!

The painters finished up with our house. It is now a perfect deep blue color. It looks great. The guys did awesome. We are now planning to have them do our pool deck area. It is discolored and has chips in spots. Time to get it up to par with the rest of the house.

Last Wednesday was the full, super, blue, blood (I think that was all the descriptions) moon with an eclipse. We were lucky we had perfectly clear skies. The moon was like a spotlight shinning down on us. In the morning the moon was in the west sky. It was huge. The eclipse took place as I drove to work. It started out as only about 10% of the moon was covered but by the time I got on the island over 60% of it was covered. That was an awesome sight.

Around town Shake’s ice cream place by the Waffle House is being remodeled. They are always crowded in the summer. I also saw where the old Golden Corral is going to reopen as an Old Time Buffet or something like that. They should not have to do a lot of remodeling as it is going from one buffet restaurant to another.

Gilligan’s is also having some remodeling done. They have been closed for the season but plan to reopen this month.

Traffic in Destin was a parking lot this morning. A truck took down power lines in the construction zone on 98. They had to close the road in both directions. What a mess that was.

A fun weekend is coming up. We have a Parrot Head meeting this Friday at Landshark. Then on Saturday is the Mardi Gras parade in Harborwalk Village. That is always a fun time. The Parrot Heads will be marching in the parade. Come out and party with a purpose with the Parrot Heads.

I will have a full recap of all the fun next Monday. See ya then!

Destin Steve