Some more updated photos of our get-away

Thought I'd just post some of the pictures that we've taken on our getaway here in Okaloosa Island.

Not bathing suit warm but certainly on the beach

And here we are at Bass Pro in Destin - Surprise!!

Water tower on Pensacola beach

Some of the escarpments at Fort Pickens - fantastic National Park 

One of the many stops along the way - there was a real disappearing cannon on the parapet behind the display

a nice photo of the beach at Fort Pickens

This just goes to show that it's not always nice weather down here. Today we're getting pelted with a typical Florida storm which unfortunately, isn't supposed to go away completely till Sunday 

'FOUND" a new eating place

Headed out on Saturday for a day of 'nothing' and ended up for lunch at Boshamps in Destin. The view and food were spectacular and here is the proof.

 A dozen Bienville Oysters - stuffed with flounder and bread stuffing. Delicious with a squeeze of lemon topping

This is part of the view of the harbor as we ate lunch - what's not visible is the wind was howling

Terry is holding half of the huge Burger, medium rare with gruyere cheese.  Terry brought the other half home for sure.

Coasters from McGuires

BTW - the fries were seasoned just right and soft on the inside and crispy on the outside.

This is a Tee Shirt everyone can wear!!

Coasters from McGuiresWe visited McGuires Irish Pub, a great place for food and fun. We had been to the one in Pensacola and made notes of the dollar bills stapled all over the walls and ceilings. In Pensacola, we had heard the owner, Molly, and have her one of her CD's. Only to find out that she had passed away last fall at 77. The coincidence was that she had a heart attack 5 days after her favorite grandson had died unexpectedly. Talk about a downer!!

Uncle Bucks Bowling Lanes and Eating spot - great atmosphere but very noisy.

This is a poor shot of part of the bowling alley connected to Bass Pro. This is about ⅓ of the alleys and behind me is a huge restaurant and the ceiling there has 'swimming' fish. That's a 15X15' TV playing the game of the day while they're bowling.

Back on Line

After a short visit to friends, we're back in Destin and will have some new posts sometime today. Weather here has taken a turn for the cold with low 30's in the AM. I realize that's nothing compared to all our friends even slightly north of us but for Florida, it's when folks break out the fur coats, hoodies and lots of other 'up-north' wearing apparel. Supposed to break by the end of the weekend so will have a chance to get out and get some pictures.
Today is scheduled to be a kite flying day - should have some pics from that adventure.

Temporarily Out of Order

The Blog will be down for a couple of days while I reconfigure some things. Will be back on line by the end of the week with many more pictures and adventures while we're here in Florida.
Stay tuned

Fishing!!! Or just drowning shrimp

Finally got all the gear ready to hit the surf - used shrimp and some little fish for bait but ended up using it to feed the gulls. The surf was non existent as you can see from the picture below and we needed a jacket to stay warm - temps were in the upper 50's but the wind was behind our backs and a steady 15-20MPH.

Waiting for the bite which never happened

As you can see we weren't overwhelmed by the surf yesterday - an offshore wind destroyed any waves that might have happened - we definitely need a wind shift. However the beauty of fishing the Gulf is that you're facing the sun all day long. But with water temps in the low 60's it may be a while before some of the warm water fish show up.

As you can see, the tides here are a little strange - I'm used to having 2 highs and a couple lows every day but here in the Gulf, there is usually only a couple - if you can call them tides, note the low was -0.1' and the high was 0.4' or a total of about 6" of up and down. Now back home, a NORMAL tide is EIGHT FEET and spring tides as much as THIRTEEN FEET. Huge difference.

Today's temperatures are not expected to break 60 but we're having bright blue sky and no chance of rain for a while.
Everyone back home, PLEASE BE SAFE with all the snow and shoveling - for a while I would send what I considered hilarious comments about the difference in weather here, but it is no longer even slightly humorous - now we worry about every back home.

Bright sunshine even though it's fairly cool this morning at 7:30AM

The longer we stay here the better we like it. The people are very friendly, lots of activities and not much traffic this time of year. I have a feeling though, come mid-March, this place starts to load up with people based on the number of eating places. There has to be a Waffle House every ¼ mile and there are beach stuff stores everywhere.

So far we've only experienced one disappointing eating adventure and still cannot figure out why. Plan to pan it on Trip Advisor and if I get a response, I'll pass it along. Other than that one, the dining has been terrific even when 16/20 shrimp are considered JUMBO?? Certainly not back in Alabama with Bon Secour shrimp - that's okay, they were delicious.

Did have some excitement though when the condo washing machine decided to pump water all over the floor rather than down the drain - Destin West Maintenance to the rescue and then our condo owner who didn't hesitate and will have a replacement here on Friday - can't ask for anything better than that.

Bright blue skies with no clouds in sight - cool though

Not very crowded on the beach this AM - four dolphin scouting along the long bar break

Heading back to the condo - well protected dunes everywhere

Senior Day at the Gulfarium

Every Wednesday is Senior day at the aquarium and for $5 per - you get the full show - and what a show it was. There were 5 dolphin that were as well trained as any I've seen plus penguins, alligators, sharks, otters, special tanks and various 'shows' throughout the day. Here are just a few of the photos I took while we were there.

Hey you-got a fish for me?

HEY !! ARE YOU GUYS WATCHING ME??

A beautiful but deadly lion fish

A nurse shark - one of 5

Land tortoise

Biggy Alligator

A first for me - a unicorn fish

AND A LOBSTER-Y KINDA THING

It's beach time in Destin Florida

 We went up on the pier today and here is a look to the

<---east       and     to the west --->

The beaches here are endless as you can see and for early February - empty

I realize that this is very cruel for all our friends in New England. But for all the years we've been coming south, this is by far the warmest weather we've ever had in early February. The high actually reached 74 about 2PM but this was as we were heading back from some area touring.

Destin Mardi Gras Parade

JUST ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD

Our view during lunch at AJ's - other direction has even more boats but the photo isn't as good

Terry with her 'throws'

At first I had second thoughts about the Destin Mardi Gras parade considering the bigger ones are over in Mobile where the whole celebration started. Up north, I never realized how folks down here gather for Mardi Gras. Mobile has the first on February 1st and there is a parade somewhere nearby every night for until Fat Tuesday. On that day, ALL the floats from miles around gather in Mobile and the parade starts at 9 in the morning, is shown in the biggest TV station in the area and lasts ALL day - watched some of it last year and couldn't believer it. However, we had a delightful time, obviously collected many 'throws' plus a few that I was able to catch and pass along to nearby youngsters. The parade lasted over 2 hours with floats, bands and lots of spectators.

 A really great Dixieland band with a sax player that was fantastic.












Here is some of the crowd breaking up - as you can see, there were lots of happy people with everyone getting their share of 'throws'

One of the half dozen bands at the parade site.

Yesterday's fun times (2/6/15)

This is our section of the beach just outside the condo.  not very crowded and sand that is so soft and smooth. There were a couple guys fishing but the water is still pretty cool - about 60. Still we're off to get our Florida Salt water licenses today at Bass Pro then off to an all day Mardi Gras celebration in Destin.


Mobile Alabama is the home of Mardi Gras and their first parade is on February 1st. Then there is another one every couple days. The local television broadcasts the bigger ones and on Fat Tuesday, that Mobile parade gathers ALL the floats from everywhere (each town has its own group of floats)and that program starts at 9AM and lasts all day. Thousands of people and twice as many beads. Here are some of last night's parade pictures I took from the TV.

One of the revelers at Walmart getting her mask!!

This parade was on TV last night and this is just a cut from a couple of hours of floats. This float is Dracula and the Dixieland Band was spectacular. Every float in the parade has to be judged for adhering to the theme (will have to find that out for you) and are used in parades throughout the area.

Here's the Keeper I hope to catch, this one was already taken when we visited Bass Pro in Destin.

This is one of the "parking meters" at Destin Commons

An shopping area of MANY shops of all kinds

And Fresh Strawberries!!! Grapefruit , tomatoes and other fruit.

A couple of view photos.

Our condo is on the first floor right behind the umbrella in the center of the picture at Destin West Gulf side. Kidde pool nearest and hot tub in the back left.

Sunrise

Sunset

The Gulf is just beyond those palm trees. Perfect white sands raked every morning. Okaloosa knows how to do it right.
















Left the gym last night and had to get a photo of the sunset looking back towards the fishing pier. Then this AM caught the sun shining off the next door Ramada.