Beach Blog #15

     Don't feed the wild monkeys and a big sailboat washed up on the beach. That's a sentence a I never expected to read or write. But there it is and I didn't make it up. Those are two of the headlines in The Panama City News Herald this week.

Wild Florida Monkeys

     Who knew Florida had wild monkeys? We didn't, but they do and apparently they have enough of these wild monkeys that the primates pose a serious health risk to Jane and John Q. Public.
      The monkeys made news when the Florida Wildlife Commission this week made it illegal to feed the three established species: Squirrel Monkeys, Vervet Monkeys and Rhesus Macaques Monkeys. The commissioners included the ban as an amendment to the ordinance that already outlaws feeding coyotes, foxes, raccoons, bears, pelicans and sandhill cranes.
       Imagine how conflicted our upcoming elections in Scurry County would be if we had to get all the candidates for judge to take a stance on feeding all the varmits in our part of Texas. That's what I'd call real 'Monkey Business.'
     The big sailboat stuck on the beach is "The Phantom of the Aqua." Newspaper reports list the double-mast boat as 45-feet long and 22,000 pounds and apparently that size of a ship is tough to move.

Phantom of the Aqua

     The Phantom's story actually began a few months ago. The skipper needed medical help while sailing to the Virgin Islands. The U.S. Coast Guard rescued him, but left the boat to sink in approaching foul weather.
     There's no news on the skipper but 'Phantom' didn't sink. In fact, she floated and bobbed her way north to Miramar Beach and became stuck in the sand. Now, recovery crews are using everything from tow boats off shore to pull and excavators on land to push her out to sea and to a salvage yard. The heaving and ho-ing has attracted dozens, even hundreds to the site each day.           And it's at this point in the their report that the newspaper, to me at least, reveals what seems a pervasive attitude from the locals for it's out of town visitors.
     The paper repeatedly refers to the onlookers from more northern latitudes as 'Snow Birds" instead of visitors, guests from, or simply their name and hometown. The reference appears more of a label than a fact or more of an attitude about the tourists. I wonder if they had interviewed Teresa and Bill Robertson of Snyder, would the reference have been "Rednecks" from Texas. Just an observation.
      Can the locals spot all of us coming from miles away? Do they say, "thank goodness all these out of towners are pumping millions into our economy" or are they mumbling, "hurry up, order up and leave as soon as you can"?

Bill Robertson, trying to blend in
   
   

Beach Blog #14

 

Sunset @ Seacrest Beach, FL

      The past 24 hours have included everything from a scary bike fall to a quiet afternoon with the classics to a visit with a successful surfcaster at sunset.
     Teresa, no worse for wear in this picture at sunset, took a nasty tumble on her bike. We were returning from breakfast. We decided to take that walking trial we like through the homes of Rosemary Beach. Well, it's definitely meant for walking and not biking, at least not biking by two folks in their 50s.
     One of the 90 degree turns led straight into a steep upward boardwalk. Teresa didn't have the speed to complete the hill and toppled over backwards.
     I heard something unusual behind me. By the time I turned, T was going down and straight into the path of a electrical box. In what appeared slow motion, the back right of her head, just behind and above her ear landed a glancing blow on the box.
     It was definitely one of those "could have been much worse" scenarios. Teresa recovered after a only a few minutes and we were back on the bikes in search of Advil.
     We weren't down and out long. By mid-afternoon, we mounted up again on our big tired bikes determined to get some exercise, a little sun and investigate the area shops. We accomplished all three goals. Our last stop turned out to be the tiny bookstore called The Hidden Lantern tucked away behind a few other more heavily visited restaurants and coffee houses.

The Hidden Lantern, Rosemary Beach FL

     The little store had the usual assortment of books on sale and knick-knack gifts to get me through the door.
     But once inside, it was relaxation paradise. I am NOT a big reader. I never have been. But in this case, I/we couldn't resists the shelves of books of every category. The icing on the cake was the reading/relaxing area tucked in the back.
     Teresa got "The Daniel Prayer" by Anne Graham Lotz. I chose "The Plover" by Brian Doyle. I'm pretty sure T will read her book. I suspect mine will go back on a shelf but this time far away from the relaxation room only yards from the gulf of Mexico.

      Our day wrapped up with a sunset walk on the beach. That's where met the successful surfcaster from Syracuse. We didn't talk long. We didn't even get his name. But, you don't get to see this everyday.
     Bill Robertson, thinking about another bike ride.

Beach Blog #13

   

Origins GC, Watersound Beach FL

       I just got back from a great, but unusual round of golf. I played The Origins Course at Watersound Beach, designed Davis Love III.
     The course is either a 10-hole Par Three course called the DL-III course or The Heritage course which is a six hole, normal length course. Davis Love's motto is: "Create a course his mother would like to play." The concept is something I've never seen nor heard about.
     Apparently the idea stems from the PGA's mission to shorten the time it takes to play golf as so many people these days just can't give up two to four hours any day for fun.

Boardwalk over Wetlands @ Origins GC

     I'll admit I was more than a little reluctant to play here, but walked away completely satisfied. One hole included a pot bunker in the middle of the green. And yep, that's exactly where my Tee shot landed, but not in the middle. Look closely, that's my Nike Mojo against the back edge. I made it out but had a 50-footer for par. I made the two footer for double bogey.

Mid-Green Pot Bunker

     The old saying is: A bad day at golf is always better than any day at work.
     Gotta say, I agree despite three lost balls, the nasty bunker lie and a very high score. FORE!
     Teresa and I wrapped our day/evening like we have most everyday here along 30A, meeting and greeting. We haven't met a stranger yet. The latest duo is from Kansas City, but his brother in law's mother lives in Snyder. He couldn't remember her name except that her last name is Crouse.

Big Toe Caper-Solved!

     And you'll be excited to know that we solved the 'big toe' caper that I wrote about in a previous blog. I posted earlier that either a young woman or a very hairy older man left this footprint on the beach.  We confirmed, the toe belongs to the woman. The evidence is sealed but we have eyewitness documentation.... don't ask how.
   
Bill Robertson, going for a bike ride.

Beach Blog #12

      Today was all about eatin' and exercise. Truth be told,  the exercise kind of wore us out, but we're determined to embrace it and continue it when we return to Snyder, America.
      As for the eatin', Teresa's about 65% I-tey. So, anything with Alfredo, Marinara or pasta(ish) is her go to. Me, not so much. But I enjoy a good pizza.

Angelina's Pizzeria & Pasta, Seaside FL

     Teresa wanted Angelina's Pizzeria and Pasta in Seaside. I wouldn't say this place set me on fire, but I'd definitely go back.
     See that pizza? We'll be eatin' it for days. T had a shrimp pasta dish to stay with her 'seafood at every meal' commitment.
     Anyway, it was pretty good and came with GIANT portions. I'll tell you more about that later.
     By the way, great service.
     One more thing you might need to know about us is, we eat and talk about what we're gonna eat later. The conversation usually goes like:

     "Okay, we're having I-tey for lunch. I don't want I-tey again. What should we get for supper?"
     "Let me think on it. Let's eat first."
     Then about half way through the meal we continue with, "Okay, what's the plan?"
     Back in Snyder, the conversation usually includes, the store, laundry and the garbage. But here, we're saying "Let's go here, get that and then go there and get that and then..." It's a wonderful culinary treat to have specialty shops at nearly every corner.
      This time, we returned to that Bodega style market called Modica Market in Seaside. Every nook and cranny, every shelf and counter-top and every cooler is filled with something to eat or drink.
              The icing on the cake, literally the icing on the cake was the carrot cake. We had other choices like the orange cake, the strawberry cake, even a carmel cake, but chose carrot.

Sweets at Modica Market

       We tried a piece of their Key Lime Pie earlier and it ate like lotion feels... with none of that after taste pucker that comes with the Key Lime Pies in the freezer section. 

      This time, the clerk suggested the Carrot Cake. That's it, middle shelf, far right. That's once slice. We got three items at Modica and the box for the cake slice was the biggest. 

      The prices on 30A may look a little steep at first, but everywhere gives you giant bang for the buck. The portions are all huge.

Carrot Cake

          As for the exercising part, I may have exaggerated. We took a long walk, but it was on a "fitness trail" in the Rosemary Beach Village. 

     With a map in hand, we followed a pathway of sidewalks and boardwalks that wound it's way through the canopy of trees in this incredibly tight little place.

     The homes go up around here instead of out. There are some that look like they belong along the water. Others look more like the shotgun houses of NOLA or ski chalets on the slopes.

Fitness Trail, Rosemary Beach, FL

         Whatever their appearances, the 'fitness trail' meanders so close to front doors and patios that walkers can wave to the people inside or get a pretty good idea about the furnishings. In one case, we could easily over hear a woman having a pretty animated conversation on the phone.

      Exercising or walking, it felt good to shake off the cabin fever after 36 hours of rain. We both love a rainy day, but up to nine inches in less that two days was sufficient to satisfy.

      Next, there's a Farmers' Market to check out and we got those bikes for a little more exercise.

Bill Robertson, 2:30 Tee Time 

     

     

Beach Blog #11

     For as long as I can remember, Teresa's said, "I sure would like a rainy Sunday." Rain's hard to come by while living in west Texas and to get it on a specific day is akin to other sayings like finding a needle in a haystack or fur on a rattlesnake. But not here! We have rain in spades this weekend, even on Sunday.

     

          The heavy stuff didn't come down for awhile, but it came down hard enough that we found ourselves trapped at a local watering hole late yesterday. We'd ridden our bikes thinking we'd stop in, stay a short while and return to our unit for breakfast for supper.
         Before long, T said, "They have Uber & Lyft here."
"What," I asked.
"They have Uber & Lyft. We could get a ride. Lyft's 13 minutes away."
"Honey, our place is across the street. We're not made of sugar."
"I am," T mumbled.
     We raced for our bikes, pedaled like we were 20 years younger and didn't melt and breakfast for supper is always a treat.
      So, how would you spend a very rainy day at the beach? We decided to hunker down and enjoy a site we don't get to see too often on the Llano Estacado.
     First, homemade biscuits and jam to go from Big Bad Breakfast. It's so close, I didn't even get wet getting in and out of Big Red.

Big Bad Breakfast Biscuits

     Combine a big, fluffy biscuit with raspberry jam add a little sausage, some fresh Florida oranges with a rainy morning and the ocean surf crashing into the sand and VIOLA! That's good eatin'.
      I don't know what it is about these biscuits. They're the size of flat softballs and fluffy is not good enough to describe them. Heated with a dollop of butter and a smattering of jam equals some pretty good stuff.
     For icing on the cake or butter on the biscuits in the case, it's a "Fixer Upper Marathon"! That's livin'.

Fixer Upper Marathon!

     Is anyone else addicted to this show like we are? We sit down to watch one and hours later we realize, "Uh oh, we didn't feed the kids."
     I can't drive a nail. Seriously. But after a Fixer Upper or two, I am Chip Gaines! Then in usually a matter of minutes, it's time to change a light bulb and I can't even find a ladder. Still on a rainy day at the beach, I'll watch and call maintenance if something goes amuck.
     For me, the best part of a rainy Sunday whether here or anywhere else that gets a TV signal is golf. I'm a huge golf watcher. Sure I'll nap, but I watch too.

Golf & Rainy Sunday = Ahhhh

     I think I started my golf watching back in my much younger days in Snyder. Clay Johnson and I would go swimming at his grandmother's house in Towle Park. Some how, we or maybe it was just me ended up at a neighbor's house.
     I remember they were watching golf. So, I watched. I've been hooked ever since. There's no question that I'm a golf nut. I even replay rounds in my head to go to sleep at night. 
     In this case, the tourney's the AT&T Pro-Am at Pebble Beach. It's pretty easy to kick back on a rainy day and watch golf at a duffer's paradise. So all in all, I too like a rainy Sunday.

Bill Robertson, PCB's received 7.25" of rain in 24 hours

Beach Blog #10

     It took us awhile, but we finally found a crowd along this section of Florida called 30A. Everyone's at Seaside Beach. We had to drive through Alys Beach, Watercolor Beach,  and Seagrove Beach, but we found a crowd, albeit a small crowd.

Seaside Beach, FL

     It may sound like quite a drive, but the truth is, this area's lined up with quaint beach communities. So in truth, it was about a 10-minute drive. And the only reason it took that long is because the speed limit's 25-35 mph and I don't speed. The drivers behind me hate me.
     If you've been following our blogs and I hope you have, I've noted more than once how deserted this area is. Of course, it is February. But still, I guess I/we expected more people. We're definitely not complaining.
      Maybe it was because it's the weekend or maybe because this area's a little older than the others, but Seaside's jam packed with visual and gastro stimuli.

Seaside Beach, FL

          We headed this way because we passed through yesterday and thought we'd return. Just 24 hours ago, it was kind of deserted like the rest of the area. But not today. We had to be on high alert. Cross walks are everywhere and every thing moving, except a real vehicle, has the right of way.
     We lunched at a place called Meltdown on 30A. Every item's a variation of the classic grilled cheese. But in this case, only the Mini Meltdown for children came with American cheese. There was bleu cheese infused brie, goat cheese, gouda, gruyere.

Cuban McConnell @ Meltdown 30A

          Mine was the Cuban McDonnell. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a genuine Cuban Sandwich, but I ate the whole thing. Teresa's was the Smokin' Turkey. I think her's was better than mine.
      The cool part was, there were multiple food trucks: Bbq, healthy stuff, hot dogs and more. Meantime, there were at least a dozen more eateries within 100 yards. As former restaurant operators, we both agreed volume can solve a whole lot of woes in the customer service business.
     I wanted to ask the food truck folk what they had to pay or what ordinances they had to follow as Snyder's having some food truck issues. But that'd be like comparing apples to oranges. There were probably more people on this one block in Seaside than people who visit Snyder in an entire month.

     A really nice touch was the subtle beach tunes wafting from the weekly farmers' market. Lunch, music, people watching and good company sure made for a good time.

Modica Market, Seaside, FL

     Another great stop for us was Modica Market. I don't know how to describe except as a Bodega.
     Every shelf filled with items I haven't seen since my days in New Orleans. There was a deli counter with giant, pre-made sandwiches, cheeses, sauces, wine, breads, produce and more.
     The 'double take' for us was the dessert cooler.
     "A slice of key lime pie," came a voice over our shoulders.
     Turning to look at whoever it was who simply couldn't wait, he added, "It's really good."
     "We'll take a slice too," we told the clerk as she sliced at least a quarter of the pie for each of us. Gotta say, the prices are always in the $$-$$$ range around here, but the portions qualify for the "Hungry Man" category.

Rain in the Forecast

     By the time we pulled out of Seaside, stopped more times than I can count for walkers, bikers and golf carts and returned to our place in Seacrest Beach, the rain was literally at our walkway to the beach.
     Rain's in the forecast for the next few days. But like I said, we're not here for the sun. Seems like the cloudier the better for T & I.
     As for Seaside, I'm pretty sure we'll return. I'm gonna get that giant, roast beef sandwich at Modica's. It's so big, I bet we split it to save room for that Key Lime Pie.
Bill Robertson, about to eat that pie & enjoy a quiet, rainy night.

Beach Blog #9

Cloudy/Rainy Days in the Forecast

     I suppose it's all about your age or where you call home that determines whether this is a good or bad time of year to come to the beach.
     If you're like most of the people down here with license plates north of Nashville, it's a great time of year.
     And if you're like us, a couple in their mid to late 50s, it's a good time too.
     For the 'Snowbirds,' it's an absolute no-brainer to get down here where the cold temperatures are still above 50-degrees.
     And for the middle-aged folks like us, it's a good time because absolutely none of the usual reasons for visiting the beach apply to us.

     Sun? Teresa and I both spent years lacquered up in baby oil. We're probably a dermatologist's teaching aide. Surf? Nope. I saw "Jaws" while vacationing at the beach 40-years ago. To this day, I don't get in the water any deeper than my ankles. Sand? Gotta admit that a walk on the beach is still pretty high on the 'fun things to do' scale. We're more about getting away and as our upstairs neighbor Jim from Minnesota said, "doing nothing." Today, we worked on that.

Look at the Middle Toe

     First up, a looong walk on the beach with a lot of stopping and stooping to pick up shells or pausing to looks for boats on the horizon. T & I are also amateur detectives. Some how, we've gotten in the habit of seeing a situation and trying to solve the clue(s) left for us.
     For example, look at the footprint picture. Do you see that really long middle toe? Who has a toe that long? Our quest, for literally hundreds of yards, was who's print is that?
     We narrowed it down to a couple who passed us while walking. She was a young woman. He was an incredibly hairy older man. I said, "It's the woman's because it's so small." T said, "No, it's the man's because it's closer to the water and by the way, I'd make you wax your back." She added, "Seems like there are a lot of older men with younger women down here."
     To be clear, we're usually always wrong in our deductions. Like the time in Midland when we bought supper for a father and his young son because we were convinced mom had run off with the pool boy. Turns out later while talking to the dad, mom was at a Christian women's meeting and father and son were off to pick her up at church. Ooops.

Mardi Gras, Panama City, FL

     We never solved the GIANT middle toe caper. So, we took off for Panama City.
     Turns out, they were gearing up for their Mardi Gras in an area called Pier Pointe that is shop after shop and restaurant after restaurant.    

     The funny or best thing is/was, the area's practically deserted. We suspect in late spring through summer this area, the whole area, would be swarming with people. But not now and that's SO GREAT. Again, that's another great reason to visit Florida when you're middle-aged.

Kilwin's Sweets, Panama City, FL

     Never a pair to pass a treat, we spotted Kilwin's Sweets with their motto: "Sweet in every Sense since 1947" and it was Fabulous Fudge Friday, BOGO on fudge slices.

     You don't have to tell us twice. We got a German Chocolate slice and a Chocolate Pecan slice. By the way, a slice is about a pound. So now, we have two pounds of fudge.

     And here's some need to know news in the world of fudge, keep your uneaten treat in the freezer NOT the refrigerator. Apparently, the fridge sucks out the sugar. Hmm, who knew?

     We also got a couple pretzels. We ate them. Fudge, pretzels and no crowd.... yes, winter's definitely a good time to visit Florida.

Bill Robertson, cooking Pascal Manale's BBQ shrimp tonight.