Beach Blog #4

Woody Harrelson

     Our next 24 hours included everything from a random Hollywood encounter to lunch & ice cream on the beach  and of course Super Bowl LII at a perfect beach side dive.
     Did I tell you we met Woody Harrelson? Well, we did. We adventured into a place called Wild Olives at Rosemary Beach. Dark would be an understatement.
     The hostess seemed happy enough to seat us for a beverage. The waitress... not so much. When Teresa cut her off with "just so you know, we're just here for a drink," the waitress wasn't too happy. It was a slow night. I'm sure she was banking on a few tables for decent tips.
     The bottom line is T put out the fire and by night's end "Janie" our waitress was happy as a clam.
     It wasn't long after our waitress frustration before Chris the owner stopped by to welcome us & almost immediately told us Woody Harrelson was drinking $500 bottles of wine w/in 10 feet of our table. That's Woody in the picture. He's leaning against the wine bar.
     We met him when he ventured for a restroom run. He came out, walked right by our table. So, I hollered out, "Woody!" He didn't give me the time of day. So, I hollered again. "Woody!" This time, he turned, looked and said, "oh, hi." "I'm Bill. This is my wife Teresa." "Hello, I'm Woody." "I just wanted to say hi," meantime T's almost squealing  "Wasn't he in Will and Grace?!" He was, but we didn't go there. He shook both our hands and tried to get away. But, we caught him off guard.
      "I really liked 'Wilson'," I told him. "Oh," he said and kind of stopped thinking about getting back to his people. "Yeah, I really thought it was good stuff and enjoyed your performance." "Really?," he asked all the while looking back and forth at each of us. "Yes, I did." "Well, not many people saw that movie," Woody in a sad kind of pitiful way admitted. "Well, we did and liked it." "Thank you," he offered as he shook our hands again and all the while shoeless trekked back to his wine bar friends. We didn't see him again, but heard he made the rounds here at 30A
         Super Sunday began with a quest for good eats. We'd spotted a place in Panama City and when I 'googled' the menu, I knew we'd actually get to have our own entrée w/out sharing.

Thomas's Donuts & Snacks, Panama City, FL

      The place, Thomas' Donuts & Snacks, had everything from Shrimp Melts to Burgers at $4.99 or less.
     Hello. I'm gonna give you a try. This is why we don't pass up a good dive. The price is right, the food is good enough and in this case the view was worth ten times the price of lunch.

Thomas's, Too Good to Miss

     I mean, how could we not stop??? It's a white building with blue signs offering burgers, pizza, dogs, fries and ice cream. The best part: every bit of it faces the gulf. There was no way we were going to pass up this gastro-gold mine.

Ice Cream on the Beach

     We topped off lunch with a scoop of chocolate and another of butter pecan. All the while, we visited with a fella from Wisconsin down in Florida for about three months because it's 15 below at his house.
      As for the big game, Super Bowl LII, we again ventured out. This time, we channeled our 'Schwin Days'. We jumped on a couple of old, tired beach cruisers and peddled our way to a nearby "Shades" for their Super Bowl party.

It's Been a Long Time

     The bottom line is, we're Saints fans. So, we didn't have a dog in the fight. We just thought 'when in Rome.' So, we joined the crowd at Shades. Turns out, all the crowd stayed inside. So, we took a table outside and had literally the whole porch and the giant TV to ourselves.

Shades, Inlet Beach, FL.

     We couldn't have asked for a better set-up.
    By halftime, we were back in our unit for the big show.
    I'm not sure what to say about J-T and his show except, I must be getting real old. I have no idea what he was saying or singing. Still, gotta respect his talent.

Super Bowl LII Half Time Show

     Okay, that's the long and short of it for the last 24+ hours.
     Today's been a mellow Monday. We have a lot of good stuff to share.
     But, I think my next post will be completely without text. It's something that I think will create a reaction. It did for me, at least.
     I also want you to meet Claude the surf caster and Annabelle the Argentinian waitress. It's always a treat, for me at least, to just say hello and see what happens next.
     We also found out, you can get a two bedroom/one bath apartment in Panama City for $850 month.
     Thank you,
Bill Robertson, about to cook up some fresh crab cakes.