No hurricane in Destin this week

It’s been ten years since the last hurricane hit Destin. We have more hurricane free days ahead of us too I am glad to say. Tropical Storm Erika fizzled out over Cuba. The last track had it coming right up Main Street in Destin but we all know how those things change. Anyway, RIP Erika…glad we didn’t get to know you!

Sunshine Cindy and I had another good week. Thursday I went to see the best chiropractor in Destin, Dr. Payne. I have been going to see him for years and I always leave feeling great. Thursday night Sunshine Cindy and I sat on our back porch listening to Trop Rock music and having a few beers. Life is good in Destin. 

Friday Sunshine Cindy went to World of Beer with her Mom and Tiffany. While they were enjoying some lunch and beers, I headed out for some errands. Buy some booze at Beach Liquor, check. Get some groceries, check. Stop in at The Crust Pizzeria to see Charlie, uncheck. Charlie was not there but I still had a slice of pizza and a beer. Charlie is busy getting ready to open a new location in Mary Ester by the mall. Charlie has great pizza. I hope he does well.

When I left the Crust I stopped in at Landshark Pizza. I wanted to make sure everything was good to go for our football party on Saturday. Brian and Sue had everything under control. I hung around for a while having a couple PBR’s and then headed home.

Sunshine Cindy got home about the same time I did. We decided to head to our pool for the evening. We could have gone to a parrot head meeting in Niceville but we were comfortable and wanted to relax by the pool. We had a good time swimming and our parrot head friends all had a good time too. They were at Dockside then a bunch of them went to the Boathouse in Val-P. It ended up with about 15 or so people there. You never know where a party might break out around here!

Our Crab Island Mambo football party at Landshark was a blast. Sunshine Cindy and I got there about 12:30 and we didn’t leave till almost 9 pm. Jan and Kenny played music, we had a the football drawing, Brian had brats and butts on the smoker….it was a fun day that was capped by a big group sitting outside with the Browns game on the TV. Oh yeah, the Browns beat up Tampa Bay for the win.

Sunday was one of those days where you have an unexpected good time. I started the day with a morning bike ride. The beach was beautiful. So when I got home, Sunshine Cindy and I decided to head to Tailfins on the harbor for brunch. We were on the third floor with a great breeze. While there Tommy and his Dad, Capt. Browning came in. Capt. Browning has been a boat captain in Destin forever. He is one of the original’s.

Just as they came in, a couple of friends of Tommy also came in. It was Daniel de los Reyes and his lady. Daniel is the drummer for the Zac Brown Band. Tommy was helping them with reservations and such for their vacation. Daniel was a great guy. We all sat around and had a few beers for about an hour as Daniel asked questions about Destin and told stories from the road with the band and Capt. Browning told stories about life in Destin on the water. The hour seemed to go by in about 5 minutes. It was so much fun being a part of that. Like I said, you never know what to expect in Destin.

Daniel and his lady left to go on a helicopter ride. Tommy and Capt. Browning went down to the docks. Sunshine Cindy stayed back for a while. We were glad we did as our friend Larry came in. We chatted with him for a few minutes. Finally it was time to head home to put the weekend to bed!

Around town I noticed construction has started on the building at the corner of Restaurant Row and Hwy. 98. This is supposed to be some kind of extended stay hotel. The condo on the beach on Restaurant Row is starting to come out of the ground. This was one of the last open spaces on the beach. Oh well, progress I guess…

One more big weekend of tourist traffic coming up. Labor Day is the last big hurrah of summer. Then it’s time for football and cooler weather. Have a great week. See ya Monday!

Living in Destin

We had another great week in Destin. The weather is the same as it’s been all Summer….hot and humid with afternoon thunderstorms. Our tourist season has ended which means traffic is now not a pain like it had been. It makes it so nice to drive home and not sit in traffic. We joke that now the locals are coming back out of hibernation.

I spent a part of the past week working on a new video project. Sunshine Cindy and I videotaped our last two Trop Rock Music shows at Crab Island Cantina. Sunshine Cindy did the speaking and did a great job for her first time winging it like that. I had some tape of the musicians and of the Cantina. Here is the link to the YouTube video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8AuTJbRGNg

                                                                                                                                                                         
We plan to do more of these and I hope my video production skills improve. LOL  This is another way to show off our great area, the music and of course some of the fine establishments that we like to frequent.

Saturday night was a “girls night out.” Sunshine Cindy joined Julie, Brodie, Brenda, Kathy and a couple of other ladies for dinner then a play in Fort Walton Beach. They had dinner at Olive Garden in Fort Walton Beach where they said the food was good but the service sucked. I guess the server acted like she didn’t want to be there. They then headed to the Civic Center for a Stagecrafters presentation of “Nunsense.” They all had a good time.

While they were there I went to Landshark Pizza to hang out for a while. Ken was there getting 4 pizza’s to take home for a party he was having. Ken now has a second Great Dane. This is just a puppy but he said she is very well behaved. Ken must have a big house to have two Great Dane’s!

It was good to see Hailey back working at Landshark. She is back for the weekends. While there I had a small pizza and some PBR’s. That is a great combination!

Sunday morning I rode my bike to the beach. The Gulf of Mexico looked absolutely beautiful as the water was a vibrant aqua color. Seeing that makes me appreciate living here all the more.

I have received word about a new place opening called Fat Catz. I have not been able to determine where it’s going to be located yet but it will be somewhere on the harbor. I am thinking it might be in the old Capt. Dave’s building. As I get more info on it I will pass it along.

We want to invite everyone to come out this Saturday to Landshark Pizza to party with Crab Island Mambo and Landshark Pizza as we present our ATSHTF Football Drawing Party. It will be from 2-6 pm. Jan Patton will be playing music. We will also, for $10 each, let you do a random drawing to pull an NFL team name out of a hat. If your team goes no to win the Super Bowl you win the pot. It’s just a fun way to get into the football spirit. Brian is also firing up the smoker and will do brats to go along with their pizza and wings. We hope all of our friends come out and “Embrace the Chaos” with us.

Have a great week. See ya next Monday!

Love living in Destin…

Sunshine Cindy and I love our life in Destin. There is never a shortage of things to do around here. This past week was no exception.

It started on Friday afternoon. We stopped in at Landshark Pizza for a cold beer or two after running some errands. Both Sue and Brian were there. They have officially signed the new lease for their new location on the harbor. They are shooting for an October 17th grand opening. The new design is almost done and the contractors are ready to get to work. It’s an exciting time for Landshark Pizza!

When we left Landshark we headed to LuLu’s for a parrot head get-together. We had another big turnout of over 100 folks. It looked like we might get rained on but we only got a brief shower as we pulled up then it was beautiful the rest of the night. The only downer was LuLu’s only had two bartenders working and they were run ragged. When will establishments learn they are losing money by not having enough staff when the parrot heads show up. Oh well, we still had a blast!

Saturday was our third beach cleanup of the year. There were thunderstorms around as I headed to the beach but they stayed out over the Gulf of Mexico all day. It was actually a great day as the clouds kept the temps down and a nice breeze blew all day. It was very comfortable out there. A good group of almost 20 people showed up. We cleaned up the beach and then partied the rest of the day. It was fun as always relaxing on the sand.

Saturday evening Sunshine Cindy and I stopped in at Johnny O’Quigleys for some dinner. We got there before the dinner rush. We are stopping here more often. They have all the sports on dozens of TV’s, good food and cold beer! By the time we left, the place was pretty full with the dinner crowd. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing at home.

Sunday we went to Crab Island Cantina. We helped get Trop Rock musician Paul Roush booked for a show there. He played from 3-7 and put on a great show. We had a fun group of friends show up for the show too. The Cantina was real busy with folks coming and going. It looks like their sports bar, Charlies, will be opening next weekend. I am looking forward to checking it out.

When Paul was done with his show Wayne, Paul, Paula, Sunshine Cindy and I all went to the Boathouse. Rusty was playing to a packed house. There were some Ohio State fans there so Rusty did Hang on Sloopy, the unofficial OSU fight song. The fans were up doing the O,H,I,O routine. I was doing it from my seat and then the next thing I know they dragged me up to do it with them. I am glad I could provide some entertainment to everyone! LOL 

Destin has some of the best lifeguards in the country and they recently proved it by winning a national competition. They have a tough job with all the tourist we have but I am glad they are here. Here is the article from the Destin Log about them winning the competition. http://www.thedestinlog.com/article/20150812/NEWS/150819763

This week is the powerboat Poker Run along the Emerald Coast. In a few days we will have almost 300 high powered boats showing off in our local waters. For some reason Brent Burns’ song, “Big Boat, Little Johnson” comes to mind. LOL 

Have a great week. See ya next Monday!

Destin…The tourist season is almost over….

The weather continues to be hot and humid in Destin. We are having heat indexes of 110 -112 most days. It is definitely the dog days of summer now. Schools around the southeast are going back into session. That means our tourist season is about over for this summer. I could tell a big difference in the traffic last week.

There was one day that traffic backed up in Destin though and it was because of a fire in Niceville. Tisa’s Lounge burned down Wednesday afternoon. Hwy 20 was down to one lane. Eglin shut down their Val-P gate too. With a huge traffic jam many folks came through Destin to get to the Mid-Bay bridge to make it over the bay. That jammed Destin up. Oh well, I have the Gulf and beach to look at while I am in traffic so I can’t complain too much!

Sunshine Cindy and I had a great time Friday night. Crab Island Mambo worked with Crab Island Cantina to sponsor a Trop Rock show with Jimi Pappas performing. There were some birthdays in the house including Wendy. She is the sister of the COO of Harborwalk Village. They are all nice folks. Jimi put on a fun show. Some thunderstorms just missed us too so that was nice. We had a good group of friends there for the show.

Jimi Pappas

The Cantina was busy with big groups coming in all night. We got to talk to Carlos and Mike about their new sports bar. Charley’s Sports Bar should be opening soon. It will be a burger bar with about a dozen TV’s. It should be a fun place. It’s located at the inside bar of the Cantina. Back in the day it used to be a Pat O’Brian’s sports bar but they never made it. With a successful Cantina, Charley’s will do great. We are looking forward to it opening.

We saw Stephanie who works for Carlos at the Cantina. She did all the decorating for our wedding last year. Stephanie informed us she is now engaged. I joked that I knew a good wedding decorator. Congratulations Stephanie!

We ended upstairs at Harry T’s for a while after Jimi finished playing. Flash Flood was playing. We had a chance to talk to Rusty for a few minutes. She told us Flash Flood is going back to being the house band at Harry T’s. They will be playing each Friday and Saturday nights going forward. They do a good job. It will be fun to have them back. 

Sunday Sunshine Cindy and I went to the Red Door Saloon. On Sunday’s they have the cheapest beer in town with a great happy hour. We had some food and enjoyed a decent breeze blowing through the place. David and Kelly came in and sat with us for a while. We have not seen them in a while so it was nice catching up.

Sunshine Cindy outside the new Landshark location

We parked behind the soon to be new home of Landshark Pizza. It’s official, they are taking over the space that was La Familia plus a space next to it. They will have a nice big restaurant now. One thing they are still going to do is have a pizza oven in the open so folks sitting at the bar can talk to the folks making the pizza’s. That’s cool that they are keeping this. They should be open sometime in October.

Just when I think they can’t possibly put any other commercial business out at Crab Island then I am proved wrong. The Destin Log had pictures of a zip line that is being built there. It is actually a barge with a tower that will have line running down into the water. I keep saying it but eventually there won’t be room for any boats out there.

Zip line tower on Crab Island. Photo from Destin Log

Some of the hardest working people in Destin this summer has been the service industry people that have to work outdoor bars and restaurants. With the big crowds and the heat and humidity, they are wearing down. It’s hard enough to just be out in the heat but when you are running around making sure people are taken care of that just adds to the work load. They all deserve big tips for putting up with all of us!

Have a great week. See ya next Monday!!!

Destin “Brick and Spoon” is no more

We knew it was going to happen but we were surprised it took so long. The Brick and Spoon restaurant and bar in the Palms Condo complex has been shut down. Sunshine Cindy and I gave up on this place early this year when they totally bombed at a Parrot Head meeting they hosted. We went back one more time on a Sunday for brunch but when we were told it would be a couple hours to get food we threw in the towel and never went back.

Back when it was Sago Sports Bar, we loved going there. The crew from Sago did a great job running the place. Hopefully another person can turn this back into a nice sports bar again. It will be interesting to see what happens. Maybe they can get Wayne Toups back for a concert too!

The weather continues to be hot and humid…but then again it is Summer so we kind of expect that! LOL  Destin is still busy with tourist but it is slowing down as we get closer to school. Sunshine Cindy and I got out and about a little the last few days.

Friday we stopped in at Landshark Pizza in the afternoon for a Crab Island Mambo business strategy meeting. We are deep into the planning for the 2016 Phlocking of the Phaithful Trop Rock party. We had a good meeting over food and beer. Brian let us try a new appetizer they have…homemade pork rinds. They were really good too! Also Sue updated us on the status of the new location. They hope to have the final signed contract executed early this week. Build out of the new space and move in will hopefully be done by the end of October if everything works out. We wish the Landshark team well.

Landshark wings and PBR

Friday evening we stopped at Island Wings for some dinner. We had a BOGO coupon we wanted to use. The food was good and they had a guy playing music. Island Wings is a loud place with sound bouncing off the walls and tile floor but the guy was not blasting his tunes so that was good. Later we went to the American Legion. We wanted to have a drink in Capt. John’s honor. It was his birthday so we had to celebrate his life. It’s just not the same with Captain not there. Julie and Suzanne also came in to help celebrate.

Saturday Sunshine Cindy, Tiffany and I went to World of Beer. I tried several different craft beers. I had a Abita Restoration, a Back Forty Naked Pig and a Cigar City Invasion Pale Ale. All three beers were good. I loved the art work on the bottles from the craft brewers. There are some creative minds out there. WOB stayed pretty busy for the middle of the afternoon. In fact the whole Destin Commons was busy. Even a short storm didn’t slow down the crowds. I got the top up on Badass3 just before the heavy rains hit.

World of Beer

We left and headed to Lucky’s Rotten Apple. The Apple is a locals place. Courtney was outside and greeted us. Tommy and Kenny were at the bar. We have not seen Tommy in a few weeks so it was good catching up with him. Ed was drunk and doing his “show time” shout. And no, I don’t know what it means but I don’t plan to ask either.

We made one more stop on the way home at Caribbean Joe’s. This is the old Malibu Jack’s next to Hogs Breath. We ordered beers but were surprised to see they were $4 each plus tax! I guess we won’t be back there anytime soon.

Sunday Sunshine Cindy and I wanted brunch so we went to Callahan’s. We have not been there in what seems like forever. They always had good food and that is still the case. I used to love their original location on Holiday Isle. It was funky with plastic chairs and tables. It felt like you were over at a friend’s house. They moved to their current location several years ago. The food is as good but it is a sterile feel to the building now. It’s like any other place. Oh well, you can still get their great food.

We ended up Sunday afternoon at our pool relaxing in the sun. Our friends Mark and Stephanie came over and joined us. That was a nice surprise. It was fun talking with them while we swam in the pool that had water temps like a bathtub! LOL

Jimi Pappas

This Friday we have Trop Rocker Jimi Pappas playing at Crab Island Cantina. He plays from 5-9 pm. Come out and enjoy great music, food and cold drinks with the best sunset views on the harbor! http://crabislandmambo.com/Happenings.html

Have a fantastic awesome week. See ya next Monday!