#24 and counting

did you ever look up from what you were doing, glance at the clock and stop in your tracks because so much more time had passed than you could imagine? have you found yourself so engrossed in something that you didn't even realize that an hour or more had flown by? well then, you know exactly how i felt when i stopped to think that not only was it our anniversary again, but more importantly that it was our 24th anniversary. what happened? where did the time go? can we just pause this thing for a few minutes, i'm not ready to be this old...

with all things considered, we decided to do something we have never done before; ditch the kids and take off for a long weekend. you may argue that we have done that before, and we did once or twice but this was the first time that we left them on their own. at this stage in the game, they had to be able to fend for themselves for a weekend. after all, they are growing up and since alix is in her 3rd year of college, can drive and has a job, we figured she could take the reins and entertain her sister for a couple of days. with that in mind, we packed up the car and headed to miramar beach, just southeast of destin in florida.

as soon as we hit the southern part of tennessee, we hit rain and and it made for a gloomy drive. since neither of us had had much of a chance to eat before leaving, we stopped for lunch at johnny's bbq in cullman, alabama just off I65. from the outside, it looks like a little strip mall restaurant and we were a little skeptical. being hungry and facing at least 5-6 hours of more driving, we decided to give it a go. we headed to the rest rooms first-a side effect of driving. generally, i do not include rest room reviews but i must say that this place had the oddest configuration i have ever seen. what should have been a room for one was divided in such a way that you could have been sitting on the pot with someone right next to you doing the same. not so weird for a restaurant rest room you say until you realize that there were not separate booths, just a little wall between you. and if you were using the sink, you could very well step on the toes of your companion. we won't even talk about what might happen if you left the room while they were still taking care of business-no privacy doors meant that anyone who was walking by would be given quite the show! needless to say, i locked myself in and didn't offer to share the space. from what i gather, the men's room was a similar setup and darry wasn't any more comfortable with it than i was with the ladies.

the other thing, lunch wasn't much to talk about since the rest rooms provided so much of the entertainment. the food was on the bland side. we both had the bbq sandwich plate which consisted of a pulled pork sandwich and two sides. the sandwiches were decent but the sides were just dull and unexciting, almost institutional. when i go to places for bbq/pulled pork, i always try the baked beans. many places slow cook them in the pit with the meat-not this place. they weren't any better than canned beans and the slaw wasn't much better. we skipped dessert, locked ourselves in the restrooms once more and headed back out and on our way.

only in the south could you be heading north and south at the same time...we found ourselves on both 31 north and 97 south at the the same time-the sign confirms our confusion.

finally, after much time in the car, several pit stops for various reasons and lots of rain, we made it to our hotel. we asked the friendly young man at the desk for a pizza recommendation and made our way to fat clemenza's for dinner and a chance to relax.
we ordered a couple of house salads, darry chose and italian beer and i had a glass of pinot grigio while we snacked on fresh hearth baked bread as we waited for our vegetarian pizza to arrive. this place is not your average neighborhood pizza joint. they actually have a brick oven and have done a nice job of making it look like a much nicer place than could be found in yet another strip mall. the food and libations were the perfect way to end the long day of traveling while we contemplated our plans for the following day. the hand tossed pizza was very well executed. the thin crust was nicely baked with just the right amount of bubbles in the dough and it had the caramelized flavor that a hearth baked crust should have. we truly enjoyed the fresh mozzarella and the vegetables on the pizza; it was worth venturing out in the dark into an area we were unfamiliar with and if we are nearby again, we will go back.

we rose early on saturday so that we could catch the farmers market in pensacola. i have said in the past that if you want to know what a city's food scene is like, visit the farmers market.

with that said, pensacola is in trouble!!!

first stop in pensacola was for coffee. we headed into breaktime (by dawn) cafe on palafox place. we caffeined up and darry had an e.t. bagel with cream cheese while i had a cinnamon scone. as we munched on breakfast and watched the rain fall, we plotted our first trip to the palafox farmers market. we were so disappointed-only three vendors had edibles; one sold boiled peanuts, one sold yellow squash and the third had baked goods and fudge. we had traveled 50 miles to see this? we didn't linger long and began walking on palafox place towards the car.

on our way, we came across a nice shop called distinctive kitchens and even though it was only 9:30, the doors were open. after oogling the front windows, we had to walk around the store. we really liked the set up; kitchen ware on one side with a demo kitchen for classes and on the other side of the store, all of the appliances for your kitchen. leave it to us to end up in a kitchen while on vacation...the friendly young woman working in the shop recommended that we head over to joe patti's seafood since we were visiting pensacola. we headed back out to the street and made our way to joe patti's.

i love signs like this and i take pictures of them when i can!

this was by far the largest fish store i have ever been in. so many choices of fresh fish available and being cleaned/butchered right in the shop.

the fishing fleet is right outside the front door. we didn't have the ability to take fish with us this time, next time we will definitely pick up some fish and what ever else we need. they have a nice little gourmet shop with everything you could possibly need for a picnic on the beach. if only it weren't raining...
and speaking of the rain, we decided not to head out to pensacola beach this time but at least i got a decent shot of the sign!

we drove back to destin and made several stops on the way. when we were driving to pensacola that morning, we spied many shops and made mental notes to stop in as many as possible. we visited a sea shell shop where darry found rubber cockroaches. he is now enjoying the shrieks and screams he gets from his coworkers when they find them in the kitchen. we visited a wonderful little garden center called the garden gate in the town of gulf breeze and we stopped in another sea shell souvenir shop that also sold cement statuary, the tacky little statues that you see in gardens everywhere. since these are not food related, they are up on my garden blog.

when planning this trip, i asked a coworker who regularly vacations in the area for some recommendations. his first suggestion was to go to goatfeather's in santa rosa beach. after stopping by the hotel for a few minutes to change and what not, we headed back out and made our way to santa rosa beach for lunch at goatfeathers.

the restaurant is located on the top floor of the building and since we arrived a little late in the day for lunch, there were very few people in the restaurant. arriving at the end of lunch can be a bad thing-the food is not always fresh and sometimes things aren't available. we took a chance on po'boys, i ordered shrimp and darry ordered soft shell crab. we waited longer than we expected to but when the food arrived, we understood why. everything is breaded and fried fresh to order, including the french fries. first let me say that most of the time, i am disappointed by the bread used for sandwiches. it's just cheap, squishy and little more than a sponge that disintegrates. that definitely was not the case here! they actually used fresh baked french bread and not the soft stuff that supermarkets and sub shops try to pass off as french bread. this was real crispy on the outside, soft on the inside freshly baked french bread. then there were the shrimp...i love to eat gulf shrimp when i am in the area, they are so much better than any others because they are fresh from the gulf of mexico, not frozen and shipped from asia. simply put, that was the best shrimp po'boy i have ever eaten and darry was just as pleased with the soft shell crab po'boy. his only regret, he didn't think to order the grouper po'boy because judging by the crab, the grouper would have been just as good and back here in tn, fresh grouper is hard to come by. even the french fries were really good, slightly batter dipped and crispy on the outside-so good and worth a repeat visit.
on our way out, we stopped in the seafood market that is also part of the business and is located on the first floor of the building. they had a wonderful selection of fresh caught fish, seafood and oysters. if we only had the ability to travel with fish, we would have picked up something to take home but not this trip.

we ventured further down the beach and found ourselves in grayton beach. a funky little neighborhood with a pretty and obviously deserted beach. this was our first chance to walk on the beach since we had nothing but rain so far.

all we encountered were some shore birds and a few people.

it was so quiet and peaceful. after walking off lunch, we headed over to another of brads recommendations; a great little shop called big mama's hula girl gallery. if you are in the area, it is another great little place to visit and perhaps pick up a souvenir.
we began the evening saturday with dinner in another beach front location, pompano joe's. it was saturday night and the place was packed. it was raining, big surprise, so sitting outside on the deck was not an option. we waited at the bar until our table was ready. one thing i will say, every where we went, the wine options were more than a selection of chardonnay or chardonnay. in every restaurant we visited, i had choices that included pinot grigio and sauvignon blanc by the glass something that many restaurants we visit in nashville do not always offer (i am not talking about the higher end/trendier places, i am talking about the small neighborhood places that we generally visit).

for dessert, we stopped in miramar beach for ice cream at a little place in a strip mall which is simply named the ice cream shoppe. they have wonderful ice cream from kitchens ice cream of panama city and we enjoyed it so much that we went there twice. chocolate hurricane, a single scoop in a cup, was all i needed for night! it was dark but not so dark that you have to stop for water after every spoonful and it had just the right amount of chunks. darry chose his favorite, butter pecan and he definitely enjoyed it. as i said, we went back on sunday, just before they closed and had the same flavors again. the shop was clean and the staff was friendly. the owner, gary, had on a football game and darry joined him in watching the end of the game. it was an enjoyable finish to a long and busy day.

while in grayton beach, we spied this restaurant near the beach. it is called the red bar and from the front door, it looked like a great place to stop and have a drink.

it was so packed that we decided not to stay and rather to return for breakfast on sunday morning.

there isn't any easy way to describe the place. the decor is everything you can imagine plus a million posters in between, and yes, the place is red all over too. we sat down with menus and our waitress brought us some hot coffee. while we read and sipped, we couldn't help but look at the memorabilia and what nots all over the walls and ceiling. darry settled on a bagel with lox and i chose the veggie omelette. there weren't too many people in the place so the food came out in fairly quick time. the bagel was on the large side, layered with slices of lox and accompanied by cream cheese, sliced red onions and lots of capers. darry thoroughly enjoyed the capers, most places do not include them and he was pleased with the combination of flavors as well as the quality of the bagel and the lox. my omelette was filled with freshly sauteed vegetables, mainly mushrooms, onions and peppers and that was fine with me. i hate getting canned mushrooms and my only suggestion would be to at least offer cheese with this omelette. most people expect at least some cheese either in it or on it and this one did not have any. now don't get me wrong here, it was still a very good omelette. the eggs were perfectly cooked and so were the veggies, it just could have used a little more in the flavor profile to suit my taste and perhaps i should have asked about the cheese. either way, this was a very good and very reasonably priced breakfast and it is definitely worth another trip to the beach. we will go back and perhaps sample lunch or dinner or maybe even just a drink at the bar.

after breakfast, we walked down the street to the beach to enjoy our first day in the sun!

same beach, different view in the bright sun with a beautiful blue sky.

i love to look at the patterns in the sand, the tide made this one.

this was caused by the heavy downpours and wind

the herons were stalking a group of people who were surf fishing. they were hoping for an easy meal.

another view of the beach in full sun.

after walking on the beach for an hour, we decided to explore the area and see what was around us. we visited some antique shops and stopped for lunch in a beachside restaurant called the crab trap in destin.

and what a trap it was! by far, the worst meal we ate in florida! darry ordered fried grouper fingers and i had the fried grouper sandwich. both meals were fried grouper but looked as similar as apples and oranges. darry lamented the fact that nothing on the plate had any flavor and it was not nearly as good as the grouper he ate at pompano joes the night before. this was the first time i had eaten grouper and talk about disappointing! the cheap squishy bun was hard and crispy on the bottom-the grease from the fish sat on top of the bread and didn't seem to be able to sink in (note to the kitchen staff-change the fryer oil! that stuff was way too dark) but the top of the bun disintegrated immediately. there wasn't any flavor in this sandwich, just grease and not even salt or pepper could be tasted in the breading. we were both so disgusted that we didn't eat everything and just paid our bill and left. on our way to the car we found that crazy cactus, nopales and cactus pears to be exact. after that lunch, they looked mighty tasty!

after returning to the room to clean up and ready ourselves for dinner, we headed back out on 30a to seaside this time. brad had recommended that we do sunset on the rooftop at the tarpon grill at bud and alleys.

seaside is a quaint little town, slightly stepford in appearance but inviting at the same time. there is a small square in the middle and on one side, airstream trailers that sell drinks, bbq and even cupcakes.

we sat at a table sipping wine/beer and watched the sunset. we also saw a large group of pelicans flying close to the water in search of dinner. when the sun finally sank, they rang the bell to signal the end of the day and boy was the place packed! we decided no to order any of the bar food, although it looked really good, and we ventured down stairs to the pizza bar for a casual dinner by the beach.

we sat on low comfortable chairs with what seemed like a coffee table in front of us and we enjoyed fried calimari, bruschetta and a hand tossed, hearth baked mushroom pizza. my only complaint, the bruschetta. it was one slice of bread topped with diced tomatoes and sliced garlic cloves that were dressed in vinaigrette that was a little too heavy on the vinegar. the calimari and pizza were both excellent and worth the trip but not the bruschetta. we ate pizza in two different places and both times, we enjoyed it, especially the crust.

after dinner, we walked around the square and window shopped in an effort to walk off dinner. then it was on to the ice cream shoppe for a repeat of the last evenings dessert and finally back to the hotel for the night. we were leaving in the morning and we needed to get going...

another rainy day...we stopped at the donut hole for breakfast. judging by the cars in the lot, we figured it had to be good. and if the amount of people waiting for a table was any indication, breakfast was going to be spectacular. darry chose and egg sandwich with bacon and i opted for one of my favorites, corned beef and hash. the sandwich was huge and there was no shortage of bacon or eggs on it. the plate of hash was also a large portion of fresh cooked potatoes and chopped corned beef( the fresh stuff!). we ate, a little melancholy that our trip was over and it was time to go home and a little sad for all of the rain, and then we waddled up to the register to pick up some fresh made donuts for the girls and to pay for breakfast. by far that was the best breakfast choice and we look forward to returning to sample more of the menu and perhaps see some sun!

have i ever mentioned that there is never a truly dull moment with darry? here we were cruising down the road when he suddenly stopped-he spied a turtle in the road and he had to save it!

darry and his new friend, a soft shell turtle

the little bugger just before he was released into a pond at an rv park (much to the owners dismay, sorry!)

the pond was covered with water lillies

on the top, egrets nesting in the trees around the pond. on the bottom, the pond and the new home for darry's little friend.

glad to be home but can't wait to go back! i want some sun the next time...and brad, take notes on your next trip to the beach, we expect more recommendations because they were worth the time to find them!