It was a great Thanksgiving weekend in Destin

It was a nice relaxing holiday weekend in Destin for Sunshine Cindy and I. We went to her parent’s house on Rocky Bayou for Thanksgiving. It was a beautiful day. We were able to sit on the back porch and watch some boats and jet ski’s that went out for afternoon rides. Sunshine Cindy works part time for Honey Backed Hams and she had gotten a turkey from them for dinner. It was awesome. It was a nice visit and good day to relax a little.

I was off on Friday. I took Chaos out in the morning for her customary walk. Actually Chaos demands it. She gets me up and follows me around until we leave. All I have to do is say the word “walk” and she goes nuts. Then our walk is more like her dragging up and down the street. If a squirrel runs out she about rips my arm out of its socket. It is good exercise for her and me!

Friday was a special day for us and Chaos. It was two years ago on Black Friday 2015 that we brought Chaos home from Alaqua. She was a little 8 pound puppy who has now grown into a 65 pound bundle of energy. She is smart as a whip, loving and she is the princess of the house! We love our Chaos!!!

On Friday afternoon I decided to take my bicycle out for a ride. It has been many months since I rode it. I ended up riding to Joe’s Bayou park and back. It was about a 7 mile ride. Not very long but long enough when you have not been riding in what seemed like forever. The weather was perfect to be out and it was great exercise.

When I got back home Sunshine Cindy was working on putting up our Christmas tree. So while she was doing that I went to Beach Liquor to stock up on a few things for the holidays. They have a craft beer/liquor bar inside the store that opened for the day when I was there. So after paying for my stuff I stopped at the bar and had a couple of craft brews while watching some football. It was a great way to spend an off Friday.

In the evening Sunshine Cindy and I watched some movies. Chaos was tuckered out from running in the backyard all day and she slept with her head on Sunshine Cindy’s leg. It was a perfect ending to a good day.

Sports stated to rule the schedule on Saturday. Sunshine Cindy went to do some shopping Saturday about noon while I stayed home to watch Ohio State beat that team from up north! It was a great game as the Buckeyes came from behind to win it. Then on Saturday evening we headed to Crab Island Cantina and Charley’s BBB Bar to watch the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game. Darla, Bob and Wayne joined us. We all try to get together at least once a year to watch a game. We had fun but the Lightning didn’t play very well and lost. They took good care of us at Charlies. We had sound for the game and it was on several TV’s. The food is excellent and the beer cold. You can’t ask for much more than that.

Sunday Funday was spent watching the Browns at Landshark Pizza. Sunshine Cindy decided to not go this week. Bobby joined me as we once again watched the Browns lose another game. He had a couple of his motorcycle riding buddies join us for part of the game. We also had Joe watching the game from across the room. He was in town and is originally from Cleveland. We all talked for a while commiserating in the sad state of the Browns. Oh well, they have to win another game sometime…right?

Around town it was announced TGI Friday’s will not be returning. The old TGI’s closed at the end of 2016 due to mismanagement. The building was torn down and two new building are going up on the land it used to occupy. It was announced previously TGI’s was going to take over one of the buildings but now the word is they won’t. It’s going to be a Panera Bread and Starbucks and Advanced Auto Parts. I don’t know what happened to Friday’s. They are making progress with the buildings. There was even guys working there on Thanksgiving day.

Down on the harbor, I have written about a new building going up next to the Boathouse. Last spring we were down there with Alan and Jackie when we got to talking with a guy who said he was building a new restaurant and bar on that spot. The site work had begun. There used to be an old restaurant there and small docks but for a couple years it was empty. Since the spring a lot of work has been done. It was now reported in the Destin Log that Claude Perry is doing the building. Claude owns a lot of land in that area. He is the owner of the building that houses the Red Door and the building that houses Landshark Pizza and Asiago Skillet.

They say this is going to be a 8000 square foot, two story building. Claude is looking for someone to lease the space from him. This end of the harbor is more laid back and local than the Harborwalk Village area. That is more Disney’ish while this east end is more hard core partying. It will be interesting to see who will be leasing this space and what they do with it. A high-end fancy place won’t make it here in my opinion. They need an affordable fun place. Of course no one is asking me but if they did…LOL

Only 29 more days till Christmas…Ugh! Have a great week. See ya next Monday!

Destin Steve

Winter comes to Destin

Winter weather in Destin is best described as either warm and wet or cold and dry. We had both ends of that scale this weekend. Saturday was warm and humid. It felt great. But with that warm weather we also had some rain. Then Sunday morning a front went though and it got cold. But at least it was sunny. When I took Chaos for her morning walk the wind was hollowing but she loved the cold temps. Me, not so much!

Speaking of Chaos, she is getting so much exercise running in the back yard after squirrels she has lost some weight. She is now a lean, mean squirrel chasing machine!

Sunshine Cindy and I didn’t do much away from the house this weekend. I did some work on our fence and cleaned paw prints from our pool deck. I also tried to put some chairs together but the first two I worked on had manufacturing problems that would not let me proceed. They are going back to Wayfair. We should have known better.

Meanwhile Sunshine Cindy was out buying some new cabinet hardware and she finished putting the Beach Room together as the new bed frame came in. That room looks awesome. It looks out at the pool and she did a fantastic job of making it beachy!

The last major remodel project is getting the new backsplash installed. That will happen next week. Then I will stop with all the project updates! Finally our house will be done…at least for the major jobs.

Sunday Sunshine Cindy and I went to Landshark Pizza to watch the Browns game. We had a good group of friends watching several of the different games. Bobby, Cheryl, Ken, Donny, John, Bob, Sue as well as some others who stopped in. Sue didn’t realize she could have so much fun despite her team (the Packers) getting crushed. I told her I wrote the book on having good times with a bad team!

In town the long awaited work on The Point is getting underway. There is a big barge there as they work to strengthen that area to keep the sand from washing into the entrance to the harbor. With the largest charter fishing fleet in the state, keeping the mouth of the harbor open is very important. I will be curious to see how this all looks when it’s done. They have several phases to the project and the first part should be done by May 2018.

This week kicks off the holiday season in Destin. Over the next five weeks there will be parades on land and on the water, Santa will be arriving at our various shopping centers, holiday musical presentations will be held at many locations around town and last but not least the Snowbirds are coming back! Our winter season is officially in full swing. Hopefully our favorite Snowbirds will be back soon. Get well Alan! We miss you and Jackie!

Have a great Thanksgiving celebration. We will be celebrating with Sunshine Cindy’s parents. We also will be going to Charley’s BBB bar inside of the Crab Island Cantina on Saturday evening for a Tampa Bay Lightning hockey viewing party. Come join us if you are in the area! See ya next Monday with a full wrap up of the week!

Destin Steve

The Blog Returns!

It has been a couple of weeks since my last blog posting as Sunshine Cindy and I were traveling to the Keys and Key West. We had  a wonderful trip where we partied with Parrot Head friends, celebrated my 60th birthday, relaxed a lot, and enjoyed good food and drinks. All in all it was a great time.

The Keys are recovering from Hurricane Irma. Key West survived pretty well. There was not a lot of obvious damage. You could tell where trees came down, decks and stairs were rebuilt and a few places were still closed. But all in all, Key West is back in the tourist business.

The same cannot be said for the Middle Keys. It was sad to see the destruction as mountains of debris were piled along US 1. The area around Big Pine Key was the worse. It is going to be many months before there is any semblance of normalcy for those folks. Talking to a FEMA supervisor one evening he said about the half the homes in Big Pine will be demolished as they are uninhabitable. Very sad but the folks in the Keys are a strong group and they will bounce back.

Back at home Chaos had a pretty normal time while we were gone thanks to Susie staying at our house to watch Chaos. She said Chaos spent most of her time running around in the backyard chasing squirrels. That is Chaos’s new favorite pastime. It is good exercise for her. She has lost some weight and sleeps well at night! LOL

It didn’t take long to get back to reality after we got home. We both went back to work and within a day or so the vacation seemed like a distant memory.

The work on the house continues. After we got home we had the last of the kitchen counter granite installed on the new cabinet we had added to the kitchen. It looks awesome. Now all we have left to do in the kitchen is pick out some new backsplash and get that installed. Saturday Sunshine Cindy and I went and purchased a new dining room table. It gets delivered this Thursday. It is a Teak Wood base with a round glass top. It looks amazing and we can’t wait to get it in the house. We are just about done with the major work and purchases for the house.

On Saturday after we did the dining room table shopping we stopped for a beer at Mellow Mushroom. Then we headed across the street to Ciao Italia Bistro for dinner. This place is quickly becoming my favorite for Italian food in Destin.

Friday night was our Parrot Head meeting at Landshark Pizza. We honored all of the Vets in our club. We have a lot I am glad to say. We could not be doing what we do without the sacrifices they and their mates made. Thanks to each and every one of them!!!

Sunday was Browns football again. We decided to mix it up and go to Tailfins and try and change the Browns luck. It didn’t work. They still lost. I have to give a shout-out to Bobby. He continues to come to the games with us to try and root the Browns to a win. He even bought a Browns tee shirt. One of these days Bobby, we will taste victory! I hope!

After the game Sunshine Cindy and I walked down to AJ’s. BT and Nicole were there with a bunch of their friends watching the Cowboys/Falcons on the big screen. It was great catching up with them as we have not seen them in several weeks. AJ’s has done an outstanding job with this outside area. They just continue to grow and grow.

We were only gone for about 11 days but the road construction on Hwy 98 got underway big time. From in front of Wal-Mart all the way down to Airport Road they have moved lanes, put up a million barrels and made travel in this area dangerous. I can’t believe they did all this in such a short period of time. That will put more folks on Commons Drive now.

Destin was busy this Saturday. They had a 3k run/walk from the American Legion. There was a Pooch party at the dog park with hundreds of people and pets there. And something was going on at Morgan’s Sports Complex. Hundreds of cars were parked everywhere. I don’t know what it was for but they had a ton of folks there. Destin continues to stay fairly busy.

It’s fun to go on vacation but it is great to be back home. Have a great week everyone and I will be back next Monday “Living and Playing in Destin!”

Destin Steve