No Super Moon over Destin

The entire country was excited to see the Super Moon on Sunday evening but it was not to be in Destin. We had scattered clouds all day but by the time the moon was rising (no, it was not a bad moon rising either) the clouds were thick. We had about a five minute period where the moon was visible but that was all. It was impressive for that five minutes though.

Sunshine Cindy and I had a laid back kind of weekend. Friday evening we went to KC’s Sandbar in Fort Walton Beach for the parrot head phlocking. Jan was playing for us and we had a good time. It was good seeing Matt and Tia behind the bar keeping everyone stocked up on drinks. Steve, Dottie, Mark, Stephanie, Ann, Cajun Mike, Terry, the Linda’s…and a cast of dozens more were there having a good time.

The KC’s complex is adding a new establishment. TASTE Tapas & Wine Bar is going into the old Fokkers location. Fokkers has moved across Hwy. 98 so that opened the location for Mike and Bev to take it over. TASTE will be doing a soft opening this week. Mike let us tour the new place and it’s awesome. This will not be a highbrow kind of wine bar but more like your living room. When added to the Sandbar, the sports bar and Tapworks for craft beer the KC’s family of establishments has all the bases covered for your eating and drinking fun.

I started out Saturday with a relaxing bike ride. The beach was beautiful and the water was calm. What a great way to start a day. In the afternoon Sunshine Cindy and I went to Landshark Pizza. I needed to get my pizza fix taken care of. We watched the Ohio State game while others were watching various other games. Pop and Jenny were there. Glen came in and sat with us. Jason, Brian, Ryan, Hailey and Jeanette were all working. The place stayed busy.

We had a tourist lady from Mississippi come in and sit next to us. She was asking about the LSU game (they won) and enjoying a weekend away in Destin. She left and a couple of tourist from Atlanta took over those seats. This time of the year everyone talks college football and they were no different. It’s a fun time of the year.

Sunday we went to Sunshine Cindy’s parent’s house to watch the Browns game. We should not have wasted our time. They didn’t play good at all. Oh well, there is always next week.

We had a bunch of our friends go to Panama City Beach this weekend for Chasin’ the Sun music festival. Saturday night Alan Jackson was the headliner. Our friends all had a great time. They did remark how Margaritaville was closed by 10 pm when the concert was letting out. No wonder the Margaritaville chain is having problems.

Our friend Charley is opening a second Crust Pizza location. This one will be in Fort Walton Beach next to the mall by McDonalds on Page Bacon Road. Sunshine Cindy and I love going to the Crust location in Destin. They have great pizza and pasta dishes. I know the new Crust will be just as good. I will check it out and give a full report soon!

Down on the Destin harbor the old Electric Cowboy (and Capt. Dave’s before that) two story brick building will be re-opening this week. Harbor House Destin is a restaurant / bar / nightclub / live music venue that will feature New Orleans style cuisine and cocktails. They will have a soft opening this Thursday with Robert Wayne playing then Friday Ron Adams will be on stage. It will be interesting to see how another big club does in this town.

This weekend is the big Destin Seafood Festival. The entire harbor area will become the place to be with over 70,000 people converging there to eat, shop and listen to music. Our good friends, the Southern Drawl Band will be playing the main festival stage on Saturday night starting at 8 pm. Get there early for a good spot to watch SDB rock the festival.

Southern Drawl Band will also be playing at KC’s Sandbar on Friday night starting at 9 pm and at Crab Island Cantina on Sunday starting at 5 pm. Check these guys out. They are great!

We still have plenty of Crab Island Mambo tee’s and tank tops plus the three long sleeve shirts still on sale. “Embrace the Chaos” with your own Crab Island Mambo shirts!!! http://crabislandmambo.com/Crab-Island-Mambo-Merchandise.html

Have a great week. See ya next Monday with a full recap of the good times.

Destin Florida - Living and Playing Blog

Wow, what a great week Sunshine Cindy and I had. It started out last Monday evening at Crab Island Cantina’s new bar, Charley’s BBB. (Beer, Burgers and Bourbon!) You can add sports to that too as they have tons of TV’s and the sports packages. They were having a soft opening and we got invited to attend. Julie joined us for a fun evening. We tried some burgers that were great as well some of the other appetizers they have. With many different types of bourbons and craft beers, this place is going to be a big hit. Charley’s is the inside bar at the Cantina. Go check them out.

Friday night we went across the bay to visit Sunshine Cindy’s parents. They had returned from a trip to Minnesota. They had a good time visiting family and friends but they were glad to be back home in paradise. It was a nice visit we had and they had some fresh apples for us too.

Saturday was a typical Destin day down on the harbor. Sunshine Cindy and I started out at the Red Door Saloon. They have upgraded their menu at the Red Door. They used to only have hot dogs but now have a full range of bar food. It’s good and the beer is still some of the cheapest in town. Kyle was behind the bar taking care of us. We got to talking about football. Kyle is originally from Cincinnati so we had fun with me bring a Browns fan.

Wayne joined us. He had been in Cincinnati a few weeks before and promised to bring us a can of Skyline Chili. Everyone in Cincy loves Skyline Chili. Well, he had the can with him so I had to show Kyle what we got. He joked we better not turn our back or he would take the can…he loves that chili that much. LOL  While at the Red Door we saw some biker friends we have not seen in many months. We also talked to Bruce who is the weighmaster for the fishing rodeo. The rodeo runs the entire month of October and Bruce is there every day. He is ready!

Now this is where the typical harbor crawl part begins. We decided to walk down to Charley’s. On the way we talked to Jonelle who was working a charter booth. Then we ran into Missy who was also hanging out. At Charley’s we got “our” table and enjoyed some food and drinks. Carlos came out to see us and he made us some Enamine. It was really good. I will have it again. We watched some football and enjoyed being in air conditioning as it was pretty warm out.

As we left Charley’s Renee was having dinner at the Cantina. Her husband is now the chef for the Cantina. Good for them. As we walked back down the harbor we noticed Shark Shack and Hooks were both closed. Turns out they didn’t have any water. What a tough day to be closed as there was a lot of people walking the harbor. We went on and stopped at the outside bar at Tailfins. A lot of people were inside watching college football but we pulled up a couple of chairs to enjoy the fresh air.

As we sat there Bobby walked by. Bobby is a Cajun who was celebrating the LSU victory. Not too much later Skip and Brenda also walked by and talked to us. Wayne joked that is seemed like we knew almost everyone that was out on the harbor. And that’s what makes it a typical Destin harbor stroll day.

From there Wayne headed home and so did Sunshine and I. But we decided to make one final stop at The Palms to see what the bar situation was like now that Brink and Spoon was closed down. The inside bar was not open but the outside back bar was. A big crowd of regulars were there. Tommy, Shannon and others we knew by sight but not name were all there having a good time. Now we know we can still get a drink there if we want to.

Sunday was a little more subdued but not by much. I wanted to once again watch the Browns game. We went back to Tailfins to watch the game and had the same table as we had the previous week. The view of the harbor makes watching the game from Tailfins so cool. You have the water and boats on the harbor and the football game at the same time. You can’t beat that. And the Browns won too! That was icing on the cake. As the game was winding down Ken and his lady came to watch the Ravens game that was coming on next. We stayed for a while with them then headed home so I could be ready for the upcoming work week. All in all we had another great week in Destin.

I did hear some news about a new chain store that is coming to Destin. The shopping center that has Bealls and Bealls Outlet will soon have a Dick’s Sporting Goods store. This is supposed to be a 50000 sq ft store. The shopping center will undergo a major rebuild to accommodate Dick’s. Several of the retail outlets that are currently there will either move or be bought out of their lease. The Vietnamese restaurant will be closing. I don’t know what is going to happen to Wendy’s Kitchen. They seemed to be doing well. There is also a car rental and gulf cart place that I don’t know about either. The dentist is being relocated by Dollar Tree. Yep, more changes for Destin.

Don't forget we have our Crab Island Mambo tee's, tank's and long sleeve shirts on sale. Here's all the details and how you can order your own piece of Destin! http://www.crabislandmambo.com/Crab-Island-Mambo-Merchandise.html

Have a great week. See ya next Monday!

Cooler temps come to Destin

The Destin weather has turned to a more fall like situation. Saturday we had a front come down from the north dropping our low temps into the 60’s and lowering the humidity too. It really felt chilly Sunday morning as I went for a bike ride. I rode over 11 miles enjoying the lack of humidity.

There was a lot going on this past week. Labor day I went down to the harbor to hang out for a while. Wayne joined me. The first stop was Crab Island Cantina. I wanted to see if they had their new sports bar, Charley’s, open yet. It was not open but Judie let me go in and look around. It’s going to be a nice place to watch the games. They are going to have the three B’s…Beer, Bourbon and Burgers! The official grand opening is Tuesday September 15th.

Wayne and I then walked down to Tailfins. He had not been there yet. We sat at the downstairs bar. Johnny the owner came by and we talked to him for a while. It was a nice time there. We made one more stop at Harry T’s. Red was just finishing up behind the bar but I got to say hello.

Thursday night was a fun evening. We had our friend Jerry Diaz from Texas playing at LuLu’s. He had Mark and Bobby join him. Mary also came with Jerry. We had a big crowd show up with over 50 people there eating, drinking and dancing. I hope LuLu’s brings in more of our Trop Rock musicians. While there Sunshine Cindy and I ran into Rick and Jane. We have not seen them in over a year. They moved to Kelly Plantation and seemed to fall off the radar. It was great seeing and talking to them again.

Friday was a kind of laid back day. Sunshine Cindy and I went to Landshark Pizza in the afternoon. I needed to get my wing fix! Sue was working with Bryan. Pop and Jenny were there and we got to talk to them for a while. As it started to get towards dinner time Paige, Courtney, Austin and Ryan all came in to work. They are all like family now. “B” came in and sat with us then finally Steve also came in. Landshark is like our own Cheers! Oh yeah, I got the wings with a Cajun dry rub and they were awesome!

When we left Landshark we decided to stop in at The American Legion for a short while. Kathleen was working the bar. There was only one other couple there. Her name was Cindy but I can’t remember his. They are boaters who will be cruising down to Key West in a few weeks. We plan to look them up when are down there in November. It was fun talking to them.

Julie lives right across the street from the Legion. She came and joined us. We all sat around solving the world’s problems. LOL  We left as karaoke started and the place was filling up. Sunshine Cindy and I spent the rest of the evening on our porch enjoying the night.

Saturday was our last Crab Island Mambo / ECPHC beach cleanup of the year. Well that cold front that came through brought rain and wind so I had to cancel the cleanup. So Sunshine Cindy and I ended up staying home all day relaxing. It’s nice to do nothing once in a while!

Sunday was the first big NFL game day. Sunshine Cindy and I went to Tailfins to watch the Browns. We wanted to be someplace outside where we could enjoy the beautiful day but still have the games and other fans to interact with. We had a fun day at Tailfins even if the Browns sucked. While there Kelly came through then later Sheri also came through. It’s fun catching up with friends. As the second games started Ken and his wife joined us at our table to watch the Tennessee game. At least their team played well and won.

We made one more stop at the Rotten Apple before we headed home. Tommy was there and Traci was working the bar. All in all it was a great Sunday.

The new condo that is going up by Henderson Park just down from the bowling alley is starting to take shape. It’s going to be a big complex just steps to the beach.

Have a great week. See ya next Monday!

Holiday weekend in Destin

Destin had its last big tourist weekend of the summer season. The town was packed out again but this time it was only for a couple of days. Today, most everyone is heading back home and the locals will come back out of hibernation.

Sunshine Cindy and I stayed very active with friends and family. Friday Sunshine Cindy and Tiff went to Landshark Pizza for a while. They had some wings and talked to Brian and Sue. Sue was celebrating her birthday that evening at Harry T’s. A big party helped her get over the shock of turning 50. LOL 

Saturday was the yearly pool party that Julie throws. The weather was threatening but the Destin Dome held. Thunderstorms were all around but they would break up at they got to Destin. The party was a lot of fun as usual.

Sunday Sunshine Cindy and I headed to Hogs Breath in the afternoon to hang out for a while. Cam was working the outside bar. It was good seeing him again. We had some dinner, a few beers and watched the traffic on 98. It’s amazing what you see sometimes.  At one point a guy in the backseat of a car was waving a beer out the window toasting those of us at the bar. Okay, an open container is one thing but showing it off will get you in trouble. Lucky for him there were no cops around.

Then we saw a car stopped in the traffic when the driver got out to get something out of the truck. I don’t think it was a beer. Finally a group of 5 bikers decided to not sit in the traffic and rode on the sidewalk to get to Hogs. Granted it was only the sidewalk in front of the building and no pedestrians were there but again…something you don’t see every day.  But we had fun as it was mostly locals there.

Sunday evening we were home and got to listen to the concert from the Mattie Kelly Arts Center. The Heather Hayes Experience band was performing and we could hear them like we were front and center. Heather is the daughter of Isaac Hayes. It was a good show. Sunday evening was also the last fireworks show of the season at the harbor. We heard at Hogs Breath the fireworks barge broke free and ran into a sail boat and a couple other boats during the day. That must have been like trying to corral a semi-truck. No one was hurt and the fireworks went off as planned. 

It will be back to work for a few days this week then a big weekend of fun is planned. Jerry Diaz and his trio will be playing at LuLu’s this Thursday evening from 6-10 pm. The parrot heads will be back at LuLu’s on Friday night. And Saturday is our Crab Island Mambo and ECPHC last beach cleanup of the season on the island at beachwalk #2. Come out and join us!

Don’t forget we still have our special on Crab Island Mambo tees, tank tops and a couple long sleeve shirts. Any size or style just $15! Click here for all the details: http://www.crabislandmambo.com/Crab-Island-Mambo-Merchandise.html

Have a great week. See ya next Monday!

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!