We survived another Fourth of July holiday celebration in Destin. Sunshine Cindy and I were on the go the entire time. I worked Monday and Tuesday but took off the rest of the week. Sunshine Cindy’s daughter Tiffany flew into town on Wednesday. Our trip to the airport took us across the island and through Fort Walton Beach. I was amazed at the number of cars parked along the side of 98 on the island. It must have been a half mile back where people were parking. And of course Crab Island was packed in like sardines.
We picked Tiffany up at the airport and hit the ground running. First stop was to the grandparents to say hi. Then we went home to get freshened up before heading to the harbor for the fireworks display. We went to Tailfins. They were charging $20 to park but we understood it was for this special event. They have not charged any other time we have been there. Even with charging we got one of the last spots.
BT was playing and Wayne joined us. Ken was cooking up a shrimp boil. The crowds were huge. By the time the fireworks were ready to go off it looked like a Seafood Festival type of crowd with people everywhere. It was a good display and everyone seemed to enjoy it. We hung around about 30 minutes then headed home. The roads were gridlocked but we managed to get to a side street and made the three miles to our house in about 20 minutes. Not too bad!
Thursday and Friday Sunshine Cindy and Tiffany did mother/daughter things. They went shopping, got their hair done, did some shopping, bought some shoes, did more shopping etc. I did some work around the house and spent a lot of time in the pool.
Saturday we back to Tailfins. I wanted to watch the Croatia / Russia World Cup soccer match. It was a great game with Croatia winning on penalty kicks. I didn’t know it but our bartender, Victoria who is someone we have known for years is Russian so we had a friendly back and forth. After Russia lost she joked that I would not be getting served again. LOL
After the game we walked the harbor to Crab Island Cantina. It’s been a while since we were there. Johanna was working the bar and was glad to see us. Korin was just getting off and saw us and gave us a big hug. Geraldo was working too and stopped to say hello. It was good seeing them all again.
We then stopped in at the top bar at Margaritaville. Landshark Lookout is a place we have not been to in a long time. We were surprised to see a musician playing up there. I was even more surprised to see it was Bob Cushing. Bob is playing for the parrot heads in September. The view is still awesome up there as you can see way out into the Gulf.
Our last stop was back at Tailfins to listen to BT play some more. He is now playing Wednesday through Sunday there. Johnny loves him and so do the tourist.
Sunday we had a cookout at the house with Sunshine Cindy’s parents. I grilled up some ribs and corn. We ate and swam and just had a relaxing day to wind down the holiday weekend.
This is the biggest weekend of the summer season in Destin. The crowds around town showed that many folks still have money to travel. I heard it took about an hour a half to get into Destin from Fort Walton on Thursday. Everyone we talked with said it was even busier on Thursday on the harbor than for the Fourth. All in all it was a typical summer holiday in Destin.
One incident that happened was Thursday evening. About 10:30 pm someone was shooting off firework at White Trash Beach on the west side of the Destin bridge. Something happened and a brush fire was started. It burned about one and half acres before the various fire departments got it under control. Same thing happened last year at this spot when a firework from the display misfired and started a fire. Maybe next year have a tanker truck sitting there.
One last thing I noticed from our wanderings this past week. The Destin City Council has some members who claim Crab Island looks like a “carnival” out there. I beg to differ…the real carnival is in Harborwalk Village from Margaritaville to AJ’s. This stretch has more county fair type vendors from kettle corn to dogs to fries. It’s no different than a real carnival other than the carny workers. I don’t have a problem with this other than the city trying to say Crab Island is out of control when this is going on.
I will be traveling to Cleveland this weekend to help with a moving sale at my Mom’s house. She has moved into an assisted living place so her house needs to be cleaned out. Any Cleveland peeps, come out to Strongsville Friday and Saturday as I will be selling everything.
Have a great week. See you next Tuesday after I get back.
Destin Steve
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