Beach Bonfire

Reason number 638 why we love living on the beach is over in Walton County you can have a bonfire on the beach. All you need to do is get a permit, pay a fee and make sure you clean up before 7 am or so the next morning. Each fall the Parrot Head club sponsors a bonfire. This year we had it on Friday evening. Almost 60 folks showed up. Capt Ron brought the wood, Mango Mike tended to the fire, folks brought food to share and a boom box provided the Trop Rock tunes.

It was a perfect night too. There was not a cloud in the sky. After the sun went down there was an orange glow that lasted almost an hour. It was magnificent. Mother Nature in all her glory. The party went deep into the evening as we all enjoyed the night. Too bad Okaloosa does not allow bonfires but I’m glad Walton does.

On Saturday morning Sunshine Cindy and I headed across the Mid-Bay bridge to drop off some tee shirts at a friend’s house and then go spend time with her parents. It was a nice visit.

Saturday evening was a surprise birthday party for Darla. Bobby rented the American Legion hall for the party. Amazingly Darla was surprised as about 60 folks were there. Trying to get that many people to keep a secret is hard but we pulled it off. Happy Birthday Darla!

We had committed to the party months ago so we had to miss a celebration of life for our friend Steve who recently passed away. It was held at Landshark Pizza as that was one of Steve’s favorite places. Steve will be missed…

Sunday I went to Landshark Pizza to watch the Browns. Donny, Ken and Cheryl joined me and we had their Ravens game on next to the Browns. Both of our teams lost…again! But it was a good time no matter. Courtney was behind the bar and took good care of us.

Most of the week was spent preparing for our trip to the Keys that is coming up next week. Sunshine Cindy is in full packing/prepping mode. We are looking forward to our yearly trip to the end of the road. It will be another fun time!

This past week was the Mullet Festival in Niceville. I know a lot of folks went there for that festival. There was also Thunder Beach in Panama City Beach. This is a biker rally that draws thousands of bikers from around the country to the beach. The Harley dealer in Fort Walton Beach piggy back’s on to the festival by having events here too. There were bikes everywhere and I’m glad to day I didn’t hear of any major accidents.

With us heading south, there will not be a blog update for a couple weeks. See everyone on the other side!

Destin Steve

Destin in the Fall

The weather in Destin could not be better. We are having warm days and cool nights. It has not rained in a few weeks either. This is perfect for the fishing rodeo. The captains are able to get out each day. The rodeo is drawing big crowds down to the docks at AJ’s as folks want to see what is being brought in. Add the families in town for Fall Break and the town continues to be busy.

Last Tuesday I headed down to The Boathouse to hear BT perform. He took a poem I wrote and turned it into a song. The song is “What Happens In Destin.” BT did a great job with taking the crux of the poem and making a cool song out of it. Once he gets it down I will record it and share it with everyone. We had a good group at The Boathouse enjoying the night and music. The only down side is having to get up at 5 am to go to work in the morning. Ugh!

Friday night the Parrot Heads had our monthly meeting at Landshark Pizza. Sunshine Cindy and I got there early to grab a bite to eat before the crowds got there. Jason took good care of us. Brian had just got back in town and was there too. It was another fun evening. Rusty played for us. Surprisingly, it was the first time he played for the Parrot Heads. He had the crowd dancing and singing. Mike and Suzanne had some fun games and a lot of money was raised for charity.

Saturday morning Sunshine Cindy and I got up and headed to Publix for a few things. We planned to stop at the new breakfast place next door to Publix but there was a line out the door. We decided on Plan B which was to go to Harry T’s for brunch and of course Bloody Mary’s. We know many of the folks that work there because of Tiffany having worked there. Rusty (a different Rusty from the night before) greeted us at the door. Mama D waited on us. Michelle saw us and gave us hugs and talked to us for a few minutes. It was like a homecoming. We even saw Lou as we were leaving. A co-worker of mine, Maynard was there too and chatted with us for a while. It is fun living in a small town.

The rest of Saturday we spent at home relaxing. I watched the Indians win game 2 of the ALCS. Then I watched the Tampa Bay Lightning win their hockey game. And finally I saw some of the Ohio State football game where they beat Wisconsin. The only thing missing was a basketball game! lol

Sunday had Sunshine Cindy and I back at Tailfins for Sunday Funday football. Donny, Brian, Justin, Bobby, Steve and Dottie all joined us. We had a fun time even if the Browns lost…again! One interesting thing to note. While I was in the bathroom to make room for some more beer, the house sound system had a song playing by Homemade Wine. This band had a couple great CD’s of original Trop Rock music but they disbanded about 1 ½ years ago. It was wild hearing one of their songs there.

After the game we made a stop at Hogs Breath. Cam was working the bar and a good group of folks were there watching the afternoon games. Hogs has great football specials including $2 domestic’s and $5 appetizers. It’s always fun at Hogs.

When we got home our neighbors were out in the driveway talking to other folks from the neighborhood. We let Chaos out and we ended up talking for another hour or so. Chaos had a fun time running around visiting with everyone.

We received some real sad news this weekend. A friend of ours passed away. Steve and I got to know each other from the early days at Landshark Pizza. He was one of the regulars who would be at the bar enjoying a few beers and telling stories about his life in West Virginia. Sunshine Cindy and I got to be good friends with Steve and his wife Ida. A few weeks ago Steve went in for either hip or knee surgery. Something went wrong and he never really came out of the anesthesia. He was awake but didn’t know anyone. He went into a coma a few days ago and passed away. We will miss Steve and we pray for Ida and his family. Sail on my friend…

                                                     RIP Steve

Around town this week someone tried to make a new door at The Crust Pizzeria. A drunk driver crashed into the building Thursday night knocking a big hole in the side of the building. It was late and they were closed so no one was inside. This is something else to keep Charley busy as he works to fix this while getting his new location in Fort Walton Beach up and running. Never a dull moment around Destin.

Have a great week. See ya all next Monday!

Destin Steve

No hurricane in the panhandle

Obviously the big news last week was Hurricane Matthew. This was a big and powerful storm that at one time was a Cat 5. It weakened only slightly to a Cat 4 as it headed up the east coast of Florida. The good news is it mostly stayed just off the coast but the storm surge was huge and there were spin off tornado’s. All in all it could have been a lot worse.

I saw some film of some weathermen who were out of control. One guy (I don’t know what city he was from) was telling people on the air that if they didn’t evacuate they would die. No if’s, and’s or but’s, you will die. Yes, this was a storm that demanded respect but saying things like that just gets people to tune out. You can only cry wolf so long.

Over here in Destin we had no effects from the storm at all. Our weather was picture perfect. In fact the only thing that happened in Destin was some of the evacuees who didn’t want to die came to town till the storm passed. Destin was slammed with folks. Friday it was like a summer day with so many people here. It was a problem because businesses were not staffed to handle the crowds.

Sunshine Cindy and I were busy this week. On Monday we headed to Pensacola as our friends the Southern Drawl Band were featured on WSRE TV’s show “StudioAmped.” This is a Austin City Limits type of show. They taped it with playback to be in the Spring. It was a lot of fun. They had about 8 camera operators so they got a lot of great footage. The guys did an hour of their original music. It was really cool.

A touching and emotional moment came at the end of the show. They had time for one more song and Mike Nash decided to sing “Numbered” for the first time since their lead guitar player David Crow was killed in a motorcycle accident. The song is about how all of our days are numbered but we don’t know what number we are on. There was not a dry eye in the house. Mike held it together for the song and it turned out to be a great tribute.

Friday was my off day. I did some things around the house then made a run to Publix. The store was super busy. You could tell they were not prepared for the crowds as they only had a couple checkout isles open. Publix is great about having enough staff on hand but they were surprised by this.

After my running around was done I stopped at Landshark Pizza for a few Props craft beers and some Boudin Balls. Sue was working the bar. Bill came in for lunch and we solved some of the world’s problems.

Saturday we had Wayne come over to the house to help us with things that needed to be fixed. We checked everything off the list with only one trip to Home Depot needed. Chaos was supervising the entire time too. Sunshine Cindy made her famous mac and cheese as that’s Wayne’s favorite. Then we all headed to the harbor to enjoy the beautiful day.

We first stopped at AJ’s upstairs. Again, the place was packed in the middle of the afternoon. The fishing rodeo is going on the entire month of October with the weigh in’s taking place at AJ’s. We saw them weigh a huge Mako shark. It was about 8 feet long and had to weigh over 500 pounds. It was a big one! On the way out of AJ’s we saw Tommy. He was watching football and getting ready to head home.

Next stop was at the outside bar at Tailfins. That was a great people watching spot. Turtle stopped to get a drink with Ashley and their little girl. I can’t remember her name but she is growing up fast. We then headed to Duck Duck. There were only a couple folks there so we were enjoying the peace and quiet. But that didn’t last long. A group of about 25 folks came in on some kind of pub crawl. They all ordered frozen drinks. The bartender was running ragged. Then as quick as they came they all left. Most were riding bicycles too. That could be interesting after a few more frozen drinks.

Our last stop was at Landshark Pizza for yep, a pizza! They also had a big crowd there. When Sunshine Cindy and I got home we went to visit with our neighbors who moved a few doors down. That was nice.

Sunday Funday we went to Tailfins to watch the Browns lose another game. It is a necessary but painful season as they get new talent up to speed. Mike, Suzanne and Brian all joined us. We had a great time. Brian let me listen to his new song that I kind of helped co-write. He took one of my poems and made it into a song. Come to the Boathouse on Tuesday night and he is going to debut it. It’s really good.

There was a Pat’s fan there giving me a hard time about the Browns. At least I was able to throw the Indians beating the Red Sox in the first two playoff games back at him. So there! lol

It is going to be another great week in Destin. Don’t forget to read my Crab Island Mambo Weekly Update for all the information about what’s going on around the panhandle. http://crabislandmambo.com/Weekend-Update.html

See ya next Monday!

Destin Steve

Destin Seafood Festival

It was a big weekend in Destin with the Seafood Festival taking place from Friday afternoon till Sunday afternoon. This has become the biggest event of the year in Destin. It is free and runs the length of the boardwalk which is about a mile long. Probably close to 80,000 people show up for the event.

The charter boat association took over the planning of the event a few years ago and it has been growing ever since. The biggest thing they did was do away with a fee to enter and they went away from big name musical acts and instead concentrated on local talent. The only exception to this was our friends with Southern Drawl Band who were invited back to headline the Friday night show.

Sunshine Cindy and I headed down to the harbor about 3:00 Friday afternoon. We took Uber for the first time and we loved it. This is the way of the future. No parking hassles and I could have a few beers without worrying about driving home.

On the harbor our first stop was at Crab Island Cantina. A new bartender, Bobby was learning the ropes as the more experienced staff was gearing up for the long weekend. We talked to some tourist folks as we enjoyed a beautiful afternoon. Next stop was at Harry T’s. Red, Mike, Susan were all working. Lou came by and gave us hug. Cajun Mike and Terry stopped in for a drink. The harbor was starting to get busy.

We headed to Hooks as Rob Romans was playing. While there we ran into Jim and Marcy. I hung out with Jim at Landshark the previous Sunday watching the Browns game as they are from Cleveland. While at Hooks Scott stopped there then Tony also stopped there. Rob was doing a good job getting the early crowd going. Off to Tailfins we went. Julie joined us there. The crowds were really getting bigger now on the harbor. I decided to head to Landshark for a pizza but Julie and Sunshine Cindy stayed at Tailfins.

By the time I got back to Tailfins Ronnie was playing and you could hardly move on the harbor. It was time for us to head to the big stage as the Southern Drawl Band bus was pulling in. They had to wait as a car had the entrance blocked and when they went to move it the keys got locked in. After a locksmith was called they got unloaded. Then a Parrot Head lady fell and was hurt bad. They had to get the firetruck and paramedics down to her. She is in the hospital with several broken bones but should be fine when she heals up.

That also delayed the show too but they went on stage about 9 and had a huge crowd rocking to their music. These guys are fantastic. Look them up and catch them when they come to your town. You will not be disappointed.

After their show we hung out with the band for a while then Sunshine Cindy and I walked across the street to Waffle House for a late night greasy food fix. Steve, Becky, Judy and Kelly were there already. It was a good time. When we left and as we waited for our Uber driver there were blue lights and cop cars going different directions. I’m not sure of all that happened but we heard there was a car on its side by the Red Door Saloon. Yep, I’m glad I was not driving.

Saturday we relaxed around the house watching football and hockey. The Tennessee / Georgia game was one for the ages. TN was winning, GA scored with 10 seconds left, TN hit a Hail Mary to win the game as time ran out. Wow.

Sunday I went to O’Quigley’s to watch the Browns game. They lost again but it was another game they could have won. One or two breaks and maybe a couple more good players and we are right there! lol  I met another couple down from Cleveland on vacation sitting behind me. We talked about how one of these days the Browns will get it going again.

Earlier in the week on Wednesday Sunshine Cindy and I went to LuLu’s. Our friend from Port Charlotte Paul Roush was performing there. Mark, Stephanie, Wayne and Karen all came out too. It was a fun evening with everyone.

Down on the Island The Gulf opened this weekend. I heard the place is really nice. We will check it out soon. There is also a lot of construction taking place next to the Elks Lodge. They are building a marina that will have 144 deep water slips. They also plan to build a restaurant and a ship store. Down the road plans call for a resort hotel to build there.
Thursday night several of our friends went to AJ’s on the Bayou to hear BT perform. They had a good time. AJ’s has announced they will be opening another location. This time they are going to the 30A area and will take over the old Pandora’s Steakhouse in Grayton Beach. They expect to be open in the spring of 2017. AJ’s continues to grow!

The weather continues to be perfect in Destin. The fishing rodeo is in full swing. Come to Destin and “Embrace the Chaos” with us! See ya next Monday!

Destin Steve