The Week Between the Holidays

Thursday was a nice day at home celebrating Christmas with the family. Of course we ate too much but that is to be expected. LOL

The bar was ready for Christmas dinner

Sunshine Cindy continues to get better which has allowed us to get out a little. Friday we went to the harbor with Tiffany. We stopped in at Harry T’s in the middle of the afternoon. The bar was packed. It took a while for us to get some seats. Tad was behind the bar. Lou came by to say hello. It was a festive atmosphere in there.

When we left we walked down to Crab Island Cantina. I talked to Mike for a while then we made a stop at Margaritaville. Becca was working there. It was nice to see her and say hello. One thing about Margaritaville in Destin…the bar service is slow. It has been this way from day one. Even with almost no one at the bar it takes forever to get served and even longer to pay your bill. On top of that I heard them saying they were out of Miller Lite and Mich Ultra. How can a major bar be out of two of the top selling beers?

Sunshine Cindy and Tiffany

We walked down to AJ’s to watch the sunset. On the way we saw Tony and Amy and caught up on the latest news with them. Then a little farther down we talked to Matt at his booth where he books charters. When we got to AJ’s we saw Sami. It turns out her son Layne and his new wife Tasha were in town and there. I have not seen Layne in about 10 years. He is in the Army now and he and Tasha make a great couple. I am happy for them both. While at AJ’s we also ran into Tom from Fishheads. He was there getting some sunset pics too.

Layne, Sami and Tashi at AJ's

We made one last stop on the way home at Joe’s Crab Shack for dinner. I found it odd that at Joe’s they don’t serve Yunegling beer but they still have a big Yuengling sign on the wall. Leave it to corporations to make boneheaded decisions. After dinner we went home and played some board games before calling it a night.

Saturday was more laid back. Sunshine Cindy and Tiffany went shopping. I made a stop at Landshark Pizza to watch some football and have some wings. That was the excitement for Saturday. Sunday I was back at Landshark to watch the Browns game. They were competitive but still lost. Oh well, wait till next year. Landshark filled up with Packer fans for the second game. John and Deb were there to watch the game. They are big Packer fans. The Pack won so they were all happy.

Brian at Landshark Pizza

Sunshine Cindy and I met up with Alan and Jackie at the Ramada on the island for a few drinks in the evening. They had just got back into town. The Ramada had several touring basketball teams staying there. The lobby area was packed with kids. The kids were all nice and respectful. While we were there we heard the old Howl at the Moon is going to become a Mexican restaurant. Just what we need, another Mexican restaurant. That location should be some type of club like it was with Howl at the Moon. At least that’s my opinion! LOL

Have a great week. Be safe on New Year’s Eve. See ya on Thursday!

Merry Christmas from Destin

Sunshine Cindy and I want to wish all of our friends a very Merry Christmas from the Emerald Coast. We spent Christmas Eve with her parents and daughter and will have Christmas dinner with them at our house. We are truly blessed this year.

The weather in many parts of the country has been frightful but in Destin it has been warm but rainy. We hit 71 on Christmas Eve and it was still in the upper 50’s that evening. It was nice temps for Santa to make his run!

Sunshine Cindy and Santa

I am keeping this short and sweet today. We will be back to our regularly scheduled programming on Monday! See ya then!

Thankful in Destin this holiday season

Last week was a trying time for Sunshine Cindy and I. She had a minor stroke and spent several days in the hospital. But I am glad to say there was no long term issues and Sunshine Cindy is getting stronger every day.

Thursday was her first day back home. She took it easy and I kept an eye on her. Friday we got out and did some Christmas shopping. We stopped at Wal-Mart then went back home so she could relax. We went back out in the afternoon and hit several stores. We got almost all our shopping done. One of the stops we made was at Belk Department store. I am not a department store kind of guy. I joked that if they had a lounge in the store it would be a money maker as all the guys would gladly go there while the wife shopped. LOL

Merry Christmas from Paradise

We stopped at Friday’s on the way home for some dinner. We ran into Suzanne, Ruthie and several other friends. It was nice talking to them. The dinner was good and relaxing.

Saturday we made a stop at Beach Liquor for the last of our shopping. Booze is the universal gift! Our friend Julie stopped over the house to check up on Sunshine Cindy. She brought over some food and a beautiful bouquet of roses. That was so nice of her. In the afternoon Sunshine Cindy told me to get out of the house and go have a beer. I took her up on it and went to Landshark Pizza for some wings and beers. I didn’t stay long and got back home to keep a watch on her.

Beer, beer and more beer

Sunday I got another pass from Sunshine Cindy to go watch some football. I stopped in at Chip’s to watch the Browns. They lost again…what else is new. Then it was back home. We are not doing any real partying right now. We missed several parties some friends of ours had this weekend. But the important thing is to get Sunshine Cindy back to 100%

Here are couple of things going on in Destin right now. World of Beer will be opening at the Commons on January 19th. This has been a long time coming but they are almost ready to get the taps flowing.

One of the oldest restaurants in Destin recently closed. Sakura’s suddenly shut down. From what I heard they actually removed their equipment in the middle of the night and didn’t even tell their employee’s they were closing. They found out when they showed up for work the next day. That’s pretty rotten.

Sunshine Cindy and I have received so many well wishes, prayers and offers of help that we are speechless. Our friends are the best in the world. Thank you everyone for your support. It means the world to us. As I mentioned above, Sunshine Cindy and I have plenty to be thankful for this holiday season! Merry Christmas y’all!!!!

Living in Destin

This week has been spent helping Sunshine Cindy get through a medical issue. She is doing well. I should be back to our regular Destin news on Monday!

Have a great weekend everyone. Only one week till Christmas!

Short blog today…

This is going to be a quick blog today. Friday night Sunshine Cindy and I were honored to be named as the Emerald Coast Parrot Head Club’s Volunteers of the Year! Wow and thanks is all we can say. We appreciate the honor!

Thank you ECPHC!

Saturday we hung out with our friends Alan and Jackie at Landshark Pizza for a while.

We missed the Destin Christmas Parade and the harbor lighted boat parade. We will make both next year for sure!

Life on the Emerald Coast

So far it has been a pretty quiet week in Destin. We have some snowbirds in town but the full brunt will not be felt till after the holidays. Otherwise we have very few tourist in town. There are some holiday parties taking place but not much else going on.

Sunshine Cindy and I had a fun time on Wednesday afternoon. Landshark Pizza was filming a TV commercial. Brian asked for folks to show up for crowd scenes. Sunshine Cindy and I got there and Alan and Jackie came in a little while later to join us. Brian, Sue, Austin, Paige and Jason made sure the food and drinks were flowing. A big crowd was there having a good time. The guy doing the filming worked for about an hour and a half getting all kinds of action footage.

Filming the commercial at Landshark Pizza

The commercial will air on Cox cable in our area starting early next week on a wide range of stations. It should be fun to watch. I hope we all don’t end up on the cutting room floor! LOL

Sunshine Cindy and the ladies met for lunch this week at Another Broken Egg Café in Grand Boulevard. She reports they were well taken care of and that the food was excellent. There are several of these restaurants around town now. They have grown from their original place along the harbor and are now a success story.

The dredging that has been taking place in East Pass looks to be about complete. East Pass is the way to the Gulf of Mexico from the harbor and bay. It is imperative the pass stays dredged and open as that is the fishing fleets only way to the Gulf. This current effort should be good for many years going forward.

Brian with one of his signature pizza's

This will be a busy weekend in Destin. Friday night is the Emerald Coast Parrot Head club meeting at Harry T’s. A big crowd is expected. For just $20 a year you can join in the fun too. We raise a lot of money for good causes. Saturday is the City of Destin’s Christmas Parade. It starts at 10 am in the Old Time Pottery parking lot and will go down Hwy 98 to the Community Center. Our friend Jack will be the Grand Marshall of the parade. It’s a great honor and we are glad for Jack! Then on Sunday is the Lighted Boat Parade in the harbor. Dozens of boats will be decorated with lights and will cruise up the harbor for everyone’s enjoyment.

We will be at many of these fun activities this weekend. We hope to see our friends out and about. I will have a full report on Monday! See ya then.

Living in Destin

I think I can honestly say we just finished one of the best weeks of good weather we could possibly hope for in early December in Destin. Every day was in the mid 70’s with lows in the 60’s. I wish it would stay that way till spring and then warm up. LOL

Sunshine Cindy and I got out a little this weekend. Thursday night we went to Harry T’s for happy hour and to watch the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game. The game was good and the bar area stayed pretty full. Of course it’s always good when the Lightning win.

Ready for some hockey

When we left Harry T’s we saw the new outside bar up the harbor across from Hogs Breath called, “The Other End” was open. We pulled in to check it out. They have a great set up. There is an Airstream trailer that they use as a kitchen for cooking food. There are several decks that look out over the water. And they have tons of craft beers available. We sat down and started talking to the bartender Clay. It turns out he is the son of a friend of ours. I remember Clay from his days behind the bar at Hogs Breath. It was cool running into him again. We finished our drinks and headed home for the night.

Friday was a day for Sunshine Cindy and I to relax. We didn’t feel up to doing much although Sunshine Cindy did work on decorating the house for Christmas. We were supposed to meet some friends at the Legion but we were not up for it.

The Crust Pizzeria

Saturday we had a little more energy. In the afternoon we headed to The Crust Pizzeria to talk to the owner Charlie about his ad on our Crab Island Mambo web site. Charlie has some new specials for the season that we are getting posted on the web site. While there Sunshine Cindy and I both had one of their pasta dishes. They do a great job with the pasta. I could eat them every day! We enjoy going to The Crust.

When we left The Crust we decided to make a quick stop in at Hogs Breath. Rikki was working the outside bar. A good group of locals were there watching the Alabama football game. Hogs Breath has great football drink and food specials. We love sitting at the outside bar watching the world go by on Hwy 98. One of the locals there was actually at our Holiday Chaos party last week at KC’s. That was fun talking to him. About the time we were getting ready to leave Cajun Mike and Terry walked in so we had to stay a little longer. We still made it home kind of early as we wanted to keep charging our batteries.

Hogs Breath Saloon

We decided that Sunday we would head to Chips to watch the Browns football game. I wish I had not subjected myself to that torture. The Browns are real close to being a good team but the quarterback play is holding them back. It is frustrating watching them but it could have been worse. Tommy was there to watch the Saints and they got killed. After the game we stopped in at Landshark Pizza. As we walked we were greeted by Kenny and Becky. There were there having a pizza so we joined them. Then Alan and Jackie came in and joined us. It was a good time chatting with everyone. Jason was working our table and he was his usual funny self.

This weekend I published the Crab Island Mambo monthly recap. This is pictures of the Chaos we had in November. You can read it here: http://www.crabislandmambo.com/November-2014-Crab-Island-Mambo-recent-events.html

Have a great week. See ya Thursday!

Life on the Emerald Coast

This has been a very quiet week for us. Sunshine Cindy and I have stayed in so we can work on Crab Island Mambo things. I published the Weekly Update. You can read it here: http://www.crabislandmambo.com/Weekend-Update.html

This is the time of the year when we have local places close down for the winter. It was not too long ago that you would have almost all bars and restaurants in Destin close for the entire winter season. But with Destin now becoming a year round tourist destination and many snowbirds staying all winter, we only have a few places that close for a while and only one, Gilligan’s that shuts down for the entire season. Gilligan’s will open back up in February right before Spring Break hits.

Destin

Our friends at The Boathouse are closed from December 1st through December 17th to give everyone some much needed time off. They will though open for a while on Sunday December 14th for the Holiday Boat Parade that goes through the harbor. The Donut Hole in Destin is also closed till almost Christmas. But other than that, I have not heard of anyone else closing for any significant amount of time. I wonder if they will all survive?

A new mescal and tequila taco bar is opening in downtown Fort Walton Beach soon. I don’t know much about this place other than the sign I see in front of the building. It will be taking over the old Salty Duck location just down from KC’s Sandbar. With construction getting ready to get started on the new Landmark Center hotel and restaurant complex downtown, this area is taking off.

Destin harbor

The new Town Home development on Airport Road in Destin where the Racquet Club used to be is now coming out of the ground. It looks like they will be ready sometime in the late spring or summer.

Over at Lucky’s Rotten Apple in Destin, they have now opened their restaurant, Mother Cluckers. It is a pizza and wing place that will be serving the late night crowd till 4 am. Rotten Apple is a hit with the after hours party crowd. They pack them in for a late night Power Hour they do each night. We will have to check out the food one of these days.

One other new place that has opened in Destin is a Thai restaurant. It is called Thai Tanic and is in the old Noonie’s location. They are right on Hwy. 98 across from the harbor. I have to give them props for creativity on the name!

Not much happening this weekend. See ya Monday!

Holiday Season in Destin

We are officially into the holiday season. Sunshine Cindy and I spent an enjoyable Thanksgiving Day at her parent’s house. Of course we ate too much food but that is to be expected. We drove home about 8 pm. As we passed the Destin Commons the parking lot was already packed with people out doing pre-black Friday shopping. There were a lot of complaints about stores opening on Thanksgiving. How can those poor people be forced to work on Thanksgiving they said. It is real simple, if people didn’t flock to the stores then they would not open. But the crowds are huge so they open.

Plus I can think of a lot of people that have to work on holidays with none more important than our service members who are deployed across the globe protecting us. Say a prayer for the Army, Air Force, Marine and Coast Guard folks that protect us so we can complain about some retail clerks that are working.

Mambo party

Saturday was our Crab Island Mambo “Holiday Chaos” party. But on Friday we were running around getting all the final details worked out. Sunshine Cindy is the creative one who makes sure we create a fun atmosphere and attitude for the party. In the afternoon as she was in full “party mode” I took off to run some errands. When I was done I made a stop at Landshark Pizza for a few beers. A decent crowd was there. Brian, Glen and Bruce were heading to Grayton Beach Brewery to visit their new Tap Room. They asked if I wanted to go but I passed. I can’t wait to hear how it was.

I hung out for a while talking to Tommy, Pops, Capt. Browning, Jason and a guy I had not met before, Dominic. He was a nice guy. I am sure I will run into him there again. Steve came in about the time I was leaving. I talked to him for a bit. He and his wife went to Harbor Docks for Thanksgiving dinner. Harbor Docks gives away free meals…all they ask for is a donation to Habitat for Humanity. Last year they raised over $20,000. Steve said they served about 1800 meals this year so I know they will raise a lot of money this year too. It is all done by volunteers. This is a great example of a community coming together.

Good friends

Saturday was the party and it was a big success. We had about 80 folks join us for music, food and a good time. We raffled off a bunch of prizes and Corlee won the 50/50 drawing. There were Parrot Heads from Arkansas, Pensacola, Panama City and Illinois show up to party with us. KC’s Sandbar’s staff did a fantastic job. The food we had was great and no one was waiting for service. Matt and Tia worked  their butts off for us. We hope to do a bigger party next year.

And on Sunday we rested! LOL  The biggest activity we did was get the Christmas decorations out of the attic. Other than that we were slugs. I watched football all day while Sunshine Cindy worked on putting together a new jewelry case.

Even Kenny won a raffle prize and he was stoked! LOL

Today is another one of those made-up retail kind of days that stores like Wal Mart push so they can sell more Chinese made junk to us that we don’t need. Yes, it is Cyber Monday. I read a great quote about this day. This sums it up: “Because so much online shopping occurs at work, Cyber Monday simultaneously stimulates the economy and curtails productivity, creating a zero-sum economic game in which we are too busy getting things to make things others might want to get.”

Tonight (Monday) Sunshine Cindy and I will be interviewed on the award winning “Island Time Radio” show out of Cleveland, Ohio. We will be talking about the 21st Annual Phlocking of the Phaithful Trop Rock event we will host next June in Put in Bay, Ohio. We will be on the air about 11:15 pm EST or 10:15 pm Central. You can listen here: http://itrshow.com/

DK and Amo with their Trop Rock award for best Radio Show

And you can get all the registration information for Phlocking of the Phaithful right here: http://www.crabislandmambo.com/Crab-Island-Mambo-presents-Phlocking-of-the-Phaithful.html

Have a great week. See ya Thursday!!!