Typical Destin Weekend!

It is funny how even when we don’t have any plans there always seems to be something to do in Destin. Thursday evening Sunshine Cindy and I decided that after we fought the traffic getting home to head over to TGI Fridays for some dinner. It is always comfortable there. Friday night was the only real plans we had for the weekend. There was a Parrothead club meeting at the American Legion. We had a small turnout but a number of us stayed around for the Karaoke. Judie and Kelly were the stars of the evening!

Saturday was one of the typical “let’s go to the harbor and see what happens” kind of evenings. We got parked, stopped at the Tipsy Turtle to get a beer and say hello to Becca and Turtle then headed to Steve’s Hawaiian Ice Booth to see how Steve was doing. He continues to do a great job selling our Crab Island Mambo “Embrace the Chaos” T-Shirts. We chatted for a while and then Sunshine Cindy and I decided to go to Crab Island Cantina. Our usual bar stools were open and Scotty was behind the bar. Sunshine Cindy got a Margarita and we watched as they were getting set up for a busy night. They were having $5 Mojito’s and a DJ. This place makes you feel like you are in south Florida with the Latin flavor. Carlos stopped by to say hello to us and we also talked with some tourist who were in town from the Jersey Shore. No, they were not TV stars but Tom(?) and Jackie were nice down to earth folks.

Sunshine Cindy with Tom(?) and Jackie  who are from the Jersey Shore

Time to move on. As we were leaving Dominic was just coming in. Dominic was our bartender of the month in June. Always good to see him. We stopped at the Crazy Lobster. Jesse was working the outside bar. We were going to sit there but it was hot, humid and crowded so we went inside. That was a good call. It was comfortable at the bar. We could hear the band play and I was able to have a couple of Abita beers. We also had some food. Sunshine Cindy had a shrimp cocktail and I had a half dozen raw oysters. Every once in a while I get a taste for them and Saturday was the day. They were great. We also split a burger. For a seafood place they do wonderful burgers. Harper was behind the bar and he took good care of us as always.

Oysters at Crazy Lobster

The crowd in Harborwalk Village was huge. They had a band playing for “Rock the Docks” that had folks packed in. We went back down the boardwalk towards AJ’s. We saw Scott, a local guy who runs one of the beach umbrella concessions. We chatted with him and his lady friend who’s name escapes me. After talking to them we ran into Steve again. He had gone to the Boathouse for a while to hear Rusty play. In front of AJ’s Ronnie was playing to a big crowd. We enjoy listening to Ronnie. He plays great country music. When the crowds die down a little we will stop by to listen to him. Off to the Turtle. It was really dead at that end of the Boardwalk. Turtle’s musician didn’t show up so there was no one there to draw the people in. While we were sitting there, Joan who worked in the same office Sunshine Cindy did, and her husband Mark walked by. We BS’d with them for a while. They headed to the Boathouse. A few minutes later I glanced down the Boardwalk and saw Loujean kind of crouching down then I noticed Jan trying to sneak up on us. I busted him. LOL  We talked with them for a long while. Turtle decided it was too slow and he was going to close for the night which is okay because we were ready to move on again.

Steve has his surfboard sign up and looking good!

Where to next? We decided to stop at Burrito del Mar to see what was going on there. Bridgette was behind the bar. She is another hard working bartender in this town. This is an open air beer and wine bar. There was no air moving. Tough conditions to work in. We chatted with her and a guy sitting next to us. We finished there and now it was time to start to head home. But wait, one more stop at the Rotten Apple. A good crowd was there. Rose was there with her husband. Rose bartends there at the Apple and at the Legion. Small town Destin - you always run into people you know. From there it was time to go home. What started out as no plans ended up being a fun evening.

Cajun tourist partying hard

By the time Sunday rolled around Sunshine Cindy and I planned to take it easy. And we did, for most of the day. Then about 5:00 we headed to the harbor. We needed to drop off some Crab Island Mambo T-Shirts with Steve at his Hawaiian Ice Booth. We got him restocked and then we walked down to the Tipsy Turtle. The plan was only to have a couple and listen to JB and Summer play. Well, we had been there only a few minutes talking to Matt when Darla and Erika came by. They were getting ready to go on the Seablaster and wondered if we were there. Surprise, we were! We talked to them before they had to leave. Then a group of Cajun’s came in off of a pontoon boat. Cajun’s can really party and this group was no exception. It was fun listening to them. Julie showed up and then Darla and Erika came back after their boat trip. It was another great time on the harbor and the perfect end to the weekend.

See ya Thursday….

Destin snapshot

Living and Playing in Destin is a snapshot of our life here in paradise. We do have to actually work for a living so it is not all play. This week has so far been quiet on the play front. I did get out for a while on Wednesday evening as I headed over to Landshark Pizza for some wings and a few brews. Sunshine Cindy decided to stay home so I was solo. Wednesday evenings they have wings on special for 49 cents each. I love their wings with a blackened dry rub instead of a sauce. I ran into several folks I see at the Tipsy Turtle at Landshark Pizza. Paul was in there. Steve was sitting next to me and we chatted the whole while. He is an interesting fellow having retired from his job as Captain of the prison guards who work on death row. Brian and his Landshark crew stayed busy all night. Paige took good care of me and I was able to watch one cook do nothing but fry wings all night. They were going like hot cakes. It was a nice relaxing time there.

Cool Destin cloud formation

As we continue to be in the middle of our busiest tourist season Destin has ever seen I want to relate a story I heard on the radio the other day. We have a great watery playground in Destin. With the harbor, East Pass into the Gulf of Mexico and Crab Island in the bay this area is a boaters paradise. There are dozens of places where tourist can rent pontoon boats and jet skies to enjoy the water. The problem is no one bothers to check to see if the person renting the boat actually knows how to operate it. Add alcohol to the mix and it could be a disaster. The story on the radio was a pontoon boat that was running full speed under the Destin bridge and into the harbor. This is all a no wake zone. When someone caught up to the guy and told him it was a no wake area he claimed to not know what that meant. How can you not know that is beyond me.

Summerbreeze playing the Tipsy Turtle

Last summer I was heading back to Niceville from Crab Island. I have to get into a marked channel from Crab Island that will get me into the bay so I can make the run across the bay. I was running with a couple of other boats in the channel when from the right a rental pontoon boat shot right across the channel in front of all of us. It was impossible to have not seen all of us so I can only assume he was drunk but he almost got cut in half. Luckily all the boats in the channel were able to get slowed down and avoid the idiot. Whenever I see a boat with a number on it, I try to stay away! 

Okay, we are all looking forward to the weekend. See you on Monday….

Typical weekend of playing in Destin

Last Friday was one of those typical Destin days. We didn’t have any plans beyond heading to the harbor. The weather was threatening rain all day but that did not stop us. First stop was the Tipsy Turtle. We talked to Becca and Paul for a while then headed down to see Steve at the Hawaiian Ice booth. He was having a beer at the Shark Shack and told us he needed a large tank top for someone who was coming back over the weekend. I went and got it, we chatted for a while longer then off to Crab Island Cantina Sunshine Cindy and I went. Scotty was behind the bar and there was a tourist couple from St. Louis having a few beers before they were going on a dolphin cruise. We chatted with them for a while. Carlos came by and we had a chance to talk to him about trying to do some type of music event at the Cantina. I told him I would put a proposal together and see where we go with it. Wayne joined us there and Dominic came in to work the bar.  The Cantina has a nice vibe to it now and you can’t beat the view.

Tourist couple from St. Louis

Time to continue our journey. We went back to the Turtle. Julie was there and Matt was behind the bar now. We weren’t there for 15 minutes and down the boardwalk came Marilyn and Dave. They had been at AJ’s and saw us at the Turtle. As we were talking to them we see Kenny and Terry coming down the boardwalk from the other direction. A few minutes later another friend of theirs, JP came and joined the party. We all got some food from the new burrito stand and the party was on. Matt and Mindy showed up to play their music. Kenny joined them for a few songs. Then Julie had a friend, Shannon come down to join us. And finally Bridget who works at Burrito del Mar and her boyfriend came by and chatted with us. Like I said, you never know how a day might go.

Kenny and Dave at the Tipsy Turtle

Saturday was the day we had Jeff Brewer coming over from Panama City to play at the Tipsy Turtle. He started at 7:00. By 7:15 some dark clouds rolled in and it looked like rain. But as quickly as they came they broke up and it turned into a great evening. We had a good group of friends show up including SinCity Lisa and Deron from Panama City. There were some tourist who stopped and stayed for hours to listen to Jeff. He is a good entertainer. Not often you get to hear Buffett one minute and the Hooky Pokey the next! lol  Jeff did his last song and was ready to pack up but the crowd wanted one more. He was half way through this “last” song and it started to rain. I guess he went one song too many. It only lasted for a few minutes but was enough to get everyone wet. It was still fun.

The girls singing with Jeff to "Pencil Thin Moustache"

Sunday was a relaxing day. The weather was hot and humid, perfect for the pool. I spent a couple of hours catching a few rays and having a few brews. Sunshine Cindy passed on going to the pool so she could get some stuff done around the house. After the pool, I headed back down to the harbor and the Turtle. I needed to drop off an invoice and get them signed up for another month of advertising. While there a guy I had talked to in the past, Ken stopped by. He is crazy. He had a friend with him and they were prowling the harbor. Ken cuts up with everyone. They left and then Barry came by with a co-worker. If Ken is crazy, Barry is insane…but in a good way. He is a lot of fun. He was giving Summer, from the band Summerbreeze a hard time about her Dad who makes us the other half of the band. He left to go the Red Door and an older couple came and sat down. Matt was giving him a hard time. This guy was just as funny as the previous two were. I asked Matt if there was a sign for the crazy folks to come and join me. About this time the sky was getting dark, the wind kicked up and I headed for home. The end of another fun weekend. See you Thursday….

Wheel goes around and around…

Living in Destin you get used to our weather pretty fast. Living right on the water means we do not have wild swings in temperature. On any given day the difference between our average temps and our record temps might only be 10 or 15 degrees. This time of the year we stay pretty steady in the upper 80’s during the day and upper 70’s at night. All in all, it is pretty comfortable. Of course we do get our usual pop up thunderstorms. It seems like they always hit about 3:00 or so in the afternoon, last for a few minutes and then before you know it, the sun is out again and everything is steamy. Our normal weather forecast is a high of 87, low of 77 with a 30% chance of rain. About the middle of September that will start to change.

Destin sunset

Sunshine Cindy and I spent the early part of the week staying in. I am working on a special Crab Island Mambo video project. It is in the conceptual stage right now but I think it will be fun when it is completed. We are also working on an advertisement for the MOTM convention guide. We have bought a full page ad in an attempt to get our name out there in front of more Parrotheads. It will be cool to see our company alongside others like Margaritaville and Landshark Beer.

Thursday night we met at Anglers Beachside bar on the island. We were working on the details with JP of our big “Trop Rock Chaos on the Island” music event. Sunshine Cindy got there early and finalized all the details on food and drink specials, stage rental, placement of merchandise tables…all the small details that have to be taken care of. JP will be posting flyers for us. Everything is coming together for our August 25th party on the beach. With musicians from the British Virgin Islands and Atlanta it will be a fun time. We ended up staying at Anglers and getting a bite to eat. We had Nate and Justin behind the bar. A big dinner crowd was in the place. About 7:00 a brief storm blew in and it chased everyone off the pier and many into the bar. Made for a fun time.

Sunshine Cindy at Angler's

This weekend will be fun. We have our good friend from Panama City, Jeff Brewer coming to the Tipsy Turtle to play for us on Saturday night. Come out to the Destin harbor to hear Jeff from 7-11 pm. Hope to see you around….

Summer weekend in Destin

One of the cool things about living in Destin is you never know where the day might lead to. Friday night was a Parrothead meeting at Harry T’s. I was able to get home between the traffic tie ups. The weather was threatening when we left for the harbor. We found a parking spot and walked over getting there right as it started to rain. We were nice and dry to watch the rain. There was a good crowd show up. Everyone had a good time. A group of us decided to head to the Tipsy Turtle to enjoy the night. Surprise, they were closed. When the rain hit they shut it down. Oh well, we went down to Burrito del Mar. We ended up with a big crowd come and go. Wayne, Bobbie, Darla, Anny, Kenny, Jim, Betty, Jan, Tommy…you get the picture.
We knew some folks had headed to the Legion so off we went. Julie, Suzanne, Capt. John, Candy and Larry were all there. We had a fun time with karaoke. Capt. John had a handheld bubble machine so of course Sunshine Cindy had to sing Tiny Bubbles with the girls! Too funny. When the Legion was closing up we were not ready to head home yet so off to the Waffle House for some late night breakfast. Perfect ending to a fun night.

New fun in Destin, "Jet Man"

Saturday the girls decided to go see the movie Magic Mark. Their review as don’t waste your money. At least the popcorn was good. I met up with them after the movie at Landshark pizza. Wayne also came out to join us. Stephanie taking care of us. We had a great pizza. Time to head back to the harbor. This time the Turtle was open. Pete Henderson was playing and Matt was his usual funny self behind the bar. There were two biker couples across the bar. One of the guys heard us mention Parrotheads and said he wanted to join. They were from Arizona so I hope he does. We also talked to a lady who works part of the year in Key West. That was cool. It was the usual fun time at the Turtle. 

Matt playing at the Turtle

And on Sunday we rested! LOL Actually I had to make a few trips to the harbor to see our new friend Steve at the Hawaiian ice booth. He is selling our tee shirts and doing a good job with it. I had to restock him. It is a lot of fun working with him. Keep it up Steve! Finally, on Monday the traffic was bad as there were several wrecks around Destin. I got lucky as it mostly cleared up by the time I got home. We went down to the harbor to hang out for a while. We met Julie at the Turtle. Pete was behind the bar. Jack was playing music. We had our usual good time people watching. We ended up at Landshark Pizza for a late night pie. Brian stayed open a little later just for us.

Have a great week. See ya Thursday!

Slow week in Paradise

We have slowed down a lot this week after being on the go so much the last 2 weeks. We did go out to Landshark Pizza on Tuesday. This is turning into one of our favorite “locals” place in town. Once again we had wings and cheese balls. Both excellent. Of course we also had some ice cold beer too. I found out one of the servers there is originally from northeast Ohio. And she is a big Browns fan. As she said after hearing I am also a big Browns fan, “now I have someone to cover my back during the season.” Yes, we have to stick together!

Hogs Breath

We also got to talking to a couple of guys at the table next to us. One is from Atlanta and a Falcons fan. Having lived in the ATL for 20 years the Falcons are my second favorite team. It was fun talking to them too. We finally got a few minutes of Brian’s (the owner) time to finalize the ad he is putting into the Mullet Wrapper. It will look good and even have a coupon everyone can use.

The rest of the week was kind of slow as I mentioned. We did hit Hogs Breath this evening. We wanted to talk with Cam one of the bartenders. He is our bartender of the month. Cam is a good bartender and a fun guy to be around. We also had a call from our friend Steve at the Hawaiian Ice booth. He sold another T-shirt. Way to go Steve. Then we ended up talking with Candy. She is a local who was waiting out the traffic at Hogs. LOL  We have a few things in store for this weekend but nothing too much. Enjoy and I will see you Monday….

Holiday weekend continued…

These five days I have had off is like a mini vacation in the middle of summer for us. As Howard Livingston would say we did a “StayCation!” Friday the plan was to head to Panama City Beach. We wanted to hear Trop Rocker Gene Mitchell. It should have taken us about 45 minutes to get there. But the traffic was a nightmare. I think every tourist in town was on Hwy. 98. It took us over an hour a half to get to Pier Park. We wanted to stop there for a while. We went into Tooties, had a beer and listened to a guy playing the guitar. We then went to Margaritaville to make a donation to Buffett’s shrine. We had a beer there and then headed to the Barefoot Beach Club.

Sunshine Cindy with Vicki and Tammy

Gene was setting up. He was schedule to play from 5-9 pm. Sunshine Cindy and I settled into a table near the front. We ordered some steamed shrimp that was steamed to perfection. Gene played and the crowd grew as the evening went on. Our new friend Steve stopped in. He was on his way to Ft. Walton Beach and came in to have some fun with us. A group of four sat at a table next to us. Sisters Vicki and Tammy were there from Perry FL if I remember right. Their friends Jean and Robert from Gainesville were getting married on Saturday and they were all out celebrating. They were fun folks. We stayed till about 9:30 and Gene was still going strong. It is always fun with Gene.

Sunshine Cindy with Gene

Saturday was a day we stayed in to recharge the batteries. I got a lot of Crab Island Mambo stuff done. Sunshine Cindy’s parents came by. It was a nice relaxing day. Sunday we planned to play it cool but about 3:00 we got the itch to head to the harbor. I wanted to check in with Steve at the Hawaiian Ice booth to see if he needed any more Crab Island Mambo T-shirts. We stopped at the Tipsy Turtle to grab a ice cold beer before heading down the boardwalk. While there Steve showed up there. He said he was looking for us because he was sold out of all of his green shirts. We were pleasantly surprised at the success he is having. I had shirts in the trunk of the car and I was able to restock him. Pretty cool.

New pirate ship in Destin

We hung out for several hours at the Turtle watching the world go by. Matt was working and we got to meet Paul, who is Turtle’s dad and one of the owners of the place. A real nice guy. Julie come out to join us. And our new friend “Alphonse” also stopped in. Suzanne even stopped by for a while. Matt and Mindy were playing some music and there was a great breeze.

Well, today it was back to work to slow down and rest! lol  Have a great week. See ya Thursday…..

Independence Day

What a great Independence Day celebration we had. Sunshine Cindy and I got an early start of it Tuesday. The traffic was terrible trying to get home from work. I think half the country was in town. We decided to not try and get out except to head for Landshark Pizza to eat and hang out a little. As we pulled into the parking lot it was crowded. The place is not very big and as we walked up we could tell it was packed. We were surprised to see Julie, Kim and Kathy were there at the bar. I guess we all had the same idea. There was one seat that Sunshine Cindy took and I stood. Our friend Matt from Tipsy Turtle was making the pizza’s. They do it right in front of you so we had fun with him. We had a lot of fun there and the food is great. Matt told us later that was their busiest night ever. He made 69 pizza’s in just a few hours. Wow. When we left we hit the Rotten Apple as we had not been there for a while. A good crowd was there as it was poker night. After a couple of beers it was time to head home.

Landshark Pizza - That's our group to the right

On Wednesday Wayne came over to join us. We decided to hit the harbor before going to a party at Rick and Jane’s house to watch the fireworks. We stopped, got a beer from Becca at the Turtle then headed to Harry T’s. We stopped and talked to Steve at the Hawaiian Ice both. He told us he sold another of our Crab Island Mambo T-shirts. Look out world, here we come! lol  We hit the upstairs bar at Harry T’s and watched the boat traffic on the harbor. It was clouding up as a storm was coming. Boats started pouring into the harbor. There was some lightening off in the distance. It started to rain but not heavy. And it keep raining. We walked back to the Turtle. Matt was now behind the bar. They were having a band that night and was nervous because of the rain. But the rain stopped and it looked like it was going to be a good night.

Off to Rick and Jane’s for the fun there. Wayne decided to head home to miss the traffic since he had to work Thursday. Rick and Jane live right off the jetties where they shoot the fireworks off from. We had a front row seat at the pool from the condo that is in the sub division. Larry, Mort, Mary and Larry’s son and daughter in-law who live in Hong Kong all were there. We had plenty of snacks and drinks. It was a great time. The fireworks were great. We enjoyed ourselves.

The Pointe was packed on the 4th

Thursday ended up being a boating day with Sunshine Cindy’s daughter. We took the boat out to Crab Island. It was not too crowded. There were a couple of boats tied off close to us. They were blasting Buffett music. Of course Sunshine Cindy had to go talk to them. There were some locals and they had friends from Shreveport, LA. Somehow the conversation mentioned the BVI’s and Cindy mentioned our friend Eric Stone. They heard him play there and loved him. When she told them we had booked Eric for August 25th they were excited and said they would be there. Pretty cool. We ended up going into the harbor and parking on the Pointe and swimming there for a while. Another storm was brewing so we headed back across the bay. We got back, got the boat cleaned up and was on the patio right as the rain hit. It was a monsoon for a while. Then like normal Florida weather it was over and home we headed.

Sunshine Cindy talking to a tourist from Savannah, GA

The weekend continues. Check back Monday for a full report. Till then…..

Typical Weekend in Destin

This has been a non-stop couple of days. I took a few days off from work to enjoy this fantastic weather we are having. Thursday morning I went to the harbor to drop off some T-Shirts to Steve at the Hawaiian Ice booth next to AJ’s. He is going to try and sell some for us. The harbor was packed and it was hard to find a spot to park at 11:30 am! I found a spot and dropped off the shirts. Steve thinks he will be able to sell some for us. We hope so. In the afternoon Sunshine Cindy and I went to Miller’s Ale House for lunch. We had not been there since the winter. We had a couple of bad experiences back then but decided to give it another try. They have a big outside covered patio. This time around everything went fine. Good food, cold beer with a good special (bucket of Bud Light for $7.95 on Thursday’s) and just a relaxing time. Thursday evening we spent it at our pool. It was a beautiful night. Talked to some neighbors and swam till we shriveled up. 

Red Snapper season in full swing

Friday we spent the afternoon back at the pool. Friday night we went back down to the harbor. We hit a new popcorn place that has all types of gourmet popcorn. We bought a big bag of regular popcorn for later. Over to the Crazy Lobster we went. We sat inside at the bar. Jesse took care of us. He is a good guy we have talked to over the years. I had my Abita beer and we split a burger. For a fish place they have great burgers. Walking back to the Tipsy Turtle we saw some of the charter boats come in. They were loaded down with Red Snapper. We stopped by Steve’s place and he told us he had just sold a T-Shirt. One day and he already sold one. Pretty cool.

At the Turtle we ended up with a big crowd. Wayne came by. Julie and a couple of her girlfriends who just flew into town came by. Then Judie and Kelly, Kenny, Jan, Dave and Marilyn all come by to party. Matt and Mindy were playing and Matt was behind the bar. We talked to Turtle about having Jeff Brewer come and play one night. It was determined July 21 would be the best night. Put it on your calendar. Jeff will come over from Panama City and play from 7-11 pm. We had a fun night. For some reason we were spilling beer tonight. Jan and Kenny got up on stage to do a couple of songs. There was fun on new table they have. I can’t describe it but it had something to do with a seesaw. Anyway, we had fun as usual.

Jan and Kenny with Mindy and Matt

Saturday we made a stop at Landshark Pizza in Destin. Owners Brian and Sue are great people who have a wonderful place that is a combination pizza/wing house and sports bar. It is a true locals spot. Sunshine Cindy had a ham and cheese sub while I had wings. The wings were dry with a blackened rub on them. They were huge and to die for! With ice cold glasses to hold cheap beer, you can't beat the place. In the evening we went to a party on Rocky Bayou. Neighbors of Sunshine Cindy's parents threw a party. It was fun as the house sits right on the water.

Landshark Pizza of Destin

Sunday we loaded up BadAss and headed to the Turtle to try and sell some merchandise. SummerBreeze played and we had Julie and some of her friends from Chicago show up. We had another good time. Sami and Barry were there and they were the first ones to buy a couple of T-Shirts. We sold a few other things during the evening but being there with good friends was priceless. Even Kenny showed up for a bit.

Only one more day to work this week then it is time to have some fun...okay, more fun! See ya Thursday...