It has been a crazy week in Destin. This is the busiest week of the year in town. The craziness started on Tuesday afternoon. There was a major power outage in Destin that affected the entire harbor district all the way to the Target shopping center. Traffic was a mess as you can imagine. It happened while I was on my way home from work and I was lucky to avoid most of the mess. 98 was a parking lot until they got the lights working again about 9 pm.
Thursday night is fireworks night in the harbor and it’s usually the worse night for me to get home. This week was a “normal” slow ride I am glad to say. Friday I was off. I got up early and saw Sunshine Cindy off to work and then I headed to Publix to get a few things. At 9:15 am the store was already crowded and when I checked out they had almost all the lanes open. The tourist were here! Then in the afternoon I headed to the Rotten Apple for a couple beers. Cars were everywhere. I thought it was going to be a crazy day.
At the Apple Tracy was working the bar. Tommy and a few other regulars came in. Tommy is the captain of a snorkel and dive boat. Earlier in the day he had ex-football player Kevin Greene and his family on the trip. Kevin is a former all pro linebacker who played most of his career with Pittsburgh. Kevin is being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year in a few weeks. Kevin and his family live in the area and I think he is a coach with Green Bay. Tommy said what a nice and down to earth guy he is and he has a son that looks like he can play in the pros right now he is that big. lol
Friday night Sunshine Cindy and I got out for a while and headed to Hogs Breath. We hoped to get a seat at the bar figuring the place would be packed. When we got there the bar was only about half full. Andy and a couple other parrot heads were there at a table and we said hi to them. Kevin was working the bar. They had the Cleveland Indians game on one of the TV’s. The tribe was trying to win their 14th straight game and set a new club record for consecutive wins. The game went 19 innings but they finally won! Yeah! At the inside bar were Steve and Ida with Cam behind the bar. We talked to them all for a while too catching up. When we left, Kelly was there with some friends. She was having a good time.
The bar never really filled up. We stayed till about 9 pm. Even highway 98 was not packed like normal. Harbor Docks across the street had parking spaces open in their lot. It was a strange night. Everyone I talked to said the same thing around town. I don’t know where everyone was at.
Saturday turned into one of those typical Destin days. Sunshine Cindy and I headed to the harbor. Wayne joined us. We met up about 12:30 at Crab Island Cantina. Josh was behind the bar and a nice crowd was there for lunch. The water in the Pass and at Crab Island was a beautiful shade of aqua. We could tell Crab Island was packed. Boats were coming and going everywhere you looked. The weather was perfect, hot but no clouds and a deep blue sky. We enjoyed a snack and decided to move on and start a mini pub crawl.
Next stop was Tailfins. We sat at the downstairs bar. There was a nice breeze blowing and a lot of folks at this part of the harbor were walking along the boardwalk. From there we went upstairs to AJ’s. They have done a fantastic job with the remodel after the fire. They added an overhang area and expanded the upstairs. We ran into Smitty here but this is a real tourist place. Next stop was right next door at Hooks on the Harbor. We watched as the American Spirit party boat unloaded and the mates were cleaning the days catch. A lot of Red Snapper were being cleaned.
From there we went to Margaritaville. Yes, we really were being tourist. The bartender used to work at the Apple. I recognized him but can’t remember his name. Anyway he gave us a locals VIP card good for 20% off all food and drinks. Finally they are doing something for the locals!!! It was time to move on and the upper deck at Harry T’s was the next stop. The owner Dan was there and we greeted him as we came in. Stephanie waited on us and later Lou came by and gave us all a big hug. It was busy up there as folks were wanting to see the sunset. Some of the best views in Destin are from the upper deck at Harry T’s.
Wayne decided to head home but Sunshine Cindy and I made one last stop at Charley’s Burger Bar inside Crab Island Cantina. By now getting into some air conditioning felt great. We split a burger (they have some of the best in town) before we headed home. We thought we would get home and relax but a bunch of our neighbors were outside partying so we joined them. We let Chaos out and she ran around greeting everyone. It was a nice end to the evening.
Sunday we were supposed to go to a party at a friend’s house near Freeport. We were moving very slowly. Plus we had some strange car in our driveway. We had no idea who’s car it was. We checked with all the neighbors and no one had a clue who it belonged to. There was just enough room to get Sunshine Cindy’s car out.
We were running late already but we needed some food so we went to Tailfins for brunch. Well, we got comfortable. Cheryl waited on us. She was running around like crazy. They only had two servers for the downstairs area and there were a lot of people there. Johnny the owner came by and told us the top deck was packed. Good for them. By the time we got done we were already so far behind time we decided to just stay in Destin. Sorry Steve and Dottie. We walked down the Cantina and listened to BT do a set. Then we went home and relaxed the rest of the day watching a CSI Miami marathon and watching the fireworks from Destin Commons! LOL
Around town the Shoreline Church is one step closer to its goal of breathing new life into the old Nightown building on Palmetto Street. The Destin City Council recently amended the city’s land development code to allow the church to operate in the old nightclub. Eric and Darlene Partin, lead pastors at the church, said they are focused on getting the church up and running by late January 2017.
And speaking of Destin Commons…Bass pro shops is expanding at the Commons. They are going to add about 16K square feet of space. They have been one of the anchors to the Commons from day one and they just keep getting bigger.
Again, we hope you all have a fantastic 4th and a great week. See you next Monday…
Destin Steve
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