Florida 2010

OK, last week, I mentioned our trip to Florida aka Crab Claws and Flip Flops...hee hee hee.  I finally downloaded our pictures and wrote our travelogue which you can read below.  Bill's Mom & Dad will celebrate their 50th anniversary in December so they wanted to have a family vacation with Bill, me, Bill's brother, sister-in-law and the kids.  Trying to schedule a vacation in December just wasn't going to work with school schedules and year-end work responsibilities so the trip was planned for July 24-31.  They rented a condo in Navarre Beach called Beach Colony Resort.  It was a 3 bedroom, 3 bath condo with a deck facing the Gulf.  Very nice.  I loved sitting on the deck each morning and evening.

If sand, surf, food and drink aren't your thing, you may want to skip this post.  Otherwise, sit back and enjoy a virtual trip to Florida... 

Saturday, July 24 - We flew to Nashville and had a 2 hour layover so we ate a bite of lunch and flew on to Panama City.  We rented a car and drove to the condo which was about an hour and 15 minutes away.  We arrived around 4:30 and everyone was there since they drove and had left the day before, arriving early Saturday afternoon.   This is a picture of our condo from the pier.  Ours was the third building from the left.  Anyway, Bill and I headed out to dinner at The Crab Trap in Fort Walton Beach where the crab claw obsession began.  We had the garlic crab claw appetizer and, oh my goodness, it was wonderful.  I am now looking for a restaurant in St. Louis that serves crab claws.  Anyway, Bill had the calamari and I had the crab cakes and we shared an order of hush puppies.  I don't remember ever eating hush puppies before and they were quite tasty.  After dinner, we checked out a few of the shops next to the restaurant and I bought a pair of Havaianas (so the Crab Claws and Flip Flop theme began the first night).  We then stopped by Navarre Liquors for a few local brews which we enjoyed while sitting on the deck.

Sunday, July 25 - We decided to go to Pensacola Beach to do some shopping.  We ate lunch at Crabs We Got 'Em which was one of the restaurants on my list.  We had the fried crab claws; day two in the Crab Claw obsession.  I had the crab mac and cheese which was sooooo good.  Bill had fish, shrimp and crab.  After lunch, we shopped a little more and then stopped by the North Drop Bar which was also on my list.  Very cool open air bar which is part of the Grand Marlin restaurant (more on that later).  We then stopped by Publix to pick up a Key Lime pie and cheesecake and then went back to the condo.  Bill's dad and brother bbq'd brats, chicken and ribs.  We then watched the Cardinal game which happened to be on ESPN that night.  The Cards beat the Cubs, 4 to 3.  Woohoo! 

Monday, July 26 - We drove to Panama City Beach to visit the Panama City Beach Winery.  It's not your usual wine; these are citrus, berry and fruit wines.  We arrived (after calling for directions since our GPS doesn't seem to recognize the state of Florida) and then two other couples arrived about 2 minutes later.  We had a great tasting of 17 different wines and decided to purchase a case to have shipped back home.  We then went to Schooners for lunch were we had the fried crab claw appetizer (day 3 in the crab claw obsession).  I had the grouper Reuben and Bill had the fish tacos.  This is a picture of the view from our table.  After lunch, we walked on the beach and then headed back to Navarre, stopping at Silver Sands Outlet Mall in Destin, the largest designer outlet mall in the country.  There was a Coach store and I was just going to "look" but once inside, I found three handbags that I loved.  I only bought one though...hee hee hee.  It's sooooo cute and it was only about 1/3 of the regular price.  I definitely couldn't pass it up (wink).  I also bought a few more pairs of flip flops at the Gap store.  Now do you see why I have nicknamed the trip Crab Claws and Flip Flops?  After we finished shopping, we spent some time relaxing at the condo and enjoying the breeze on the deck.  Tropical storm Bonnie had moved through a few days earlier and it was still pretty breezy.  We went to McGuire's Irish Pub in Destin for dinner.  Their burgers are huge and I could only eat half of mine.  Their brews were very good.  We each had the Irish Pale Ale and then Bill had the stout and I had the porter.

Tuesday, July 27 - We decided to have a "beach day" so we spent most of the day at the beach and pool.  There were three guys with boots, gloves and rakes, walking the beach.  They were oil clean-up guys.  We did see a few tar balls on the beach but nothing of any real significance.  One of the clean-up guys said that this particular stretch of beach was very clean and they had only found a few tar balls.  I found one and set it on a broken sand dollar that I had also found.  You can see how clean the beach was in this picture.  For dinner, we drove to the Grand Marlin in Pensacola Beach.  This was on my list of "must visit" restaurants.  We started with the garlic crab claws (day 3 in the crab claw obsession).  I had the horseradish encrusted grouper and Bill had the shrimp and grits.  After dinner, we stopped by their bar, the North Drop Bar, for a North Drop Ale (me) and a Manmosa (Bill).

Wednesday, July 28- I have always wanted to see an antebellum mansion.  I had researched a few on-line before going to Florida and had found one that was south of Mobile.  It was going to be quite a drive though so we started looking for other homes to visit.  Bill's mom found one in Mobile called the Bragg-Mitchell Mansion which was in downtown Mobile.  It's about 90 minutes from Navarre but it was definitely worth the drive.  The home was built in 1855 and is 13,000 square feet.  You can actually walk through all of the rooms in the house unlike some tours where you can only look into the rooms.  One of the trees behind the house is older than the home itself which is just amazing to me.  Ruth, the lady who conducted the tour, was just as sweet as she could be.  I felt like we knew her by the time we left and she even gave Bill's mom and me a hug.  For dinner, Bill and I went to The Fish House in Pensacola.  We actually had planned on eating there on Tuesday but I thought it was in Pensacola Beach, not Pensacola (who knew they were two different cities?) so we changed plans since we were already driving around Pensacola Beach.  Anyway, we had the fried crab claws (day 4 in the crab claw obsession).  I had the grouper and Bill had the shrimp.  When we got back to the condo, we sat on the deck and enjoyed the evening breeze.

Thursday, July 29 - We drove to Pensacola to visit the National Aviation Museum, home of the Blue Angels.  Unfortunately, the Blue Angels weren't there but it was still worth the visit.  There were many planes and military items on display including models of Air Craft Carriers.  My favorite, of course, was the USS Ronald Reagan.  We ate lunch at the museum restaurant called the Cubi Bar Cafe.  After the museum, we went to the Pensacola Lighthouse.  Now I knew that we'd have to walk up steps to get to the top but I figured that they would be stone steps.  Um, no.  They were grated steps and you could see through them to the bottom.  Yikes.  I just held onto the rail and kept walking without looking straight down.  We climbed the 177 steps in about 5 minutes and, once we were at the top, the view was great.  We could see Fort Pickens and all the way to Pensacola Beach which, remember, is a completely different city than Pensacola...hee hee hee.  The lighthouse is supposedly haunted but we didn't see any ghosts.  I don't believe in that sort of thing anyway.  After the lighthouse, we drove to Pensacola Beach to Crabs We Got 'Em because we wanted to get some crab claws.  Well, guess what?  They were out of crab claws!  Seriously, the name of the restaurant is Crabs We GOT 'Em but they didn't have them...hee hee hee.  We had the crab spinach dip which was good but I really wanted crab claws.  We then drove back to the condo and relaxed a while.  We then all went to dinner at Lucky Snapper in Destin where I ordered crab claws.  Guess what?  They too were out.  Oh my dang, day 5 in the crab claw obsession was not to be.  I had the crab cakes which were good so at least I did have crab that day.

Friday, July 30- We originally considered having another "beach day" on Friday but it was super hot and we were still slightly sunburned so we decided to go back to the outlet mall to visit some of the stores that we hadn't seen on Monday.  We went back to the condo for lunch and also to get our boarding passes for the trip home.  We packed most of our things since we were leaving early the next morning.  In the late afternoon, we drove to Pensacola Beach to do a little more site-seeing and then eat dinner at the Grand Marlin again.  We don't usually eat at the same restaurant twice but it was so good.  We had the crab claws again (day 6 in the crab claw obsession was a success) and then I had the same thing I had on Tuesday and Bill had a ceasar salad and lobster bisque.  We then had a last drink (or two) at the North Drop.  Bill loved the Manmosas which is Blue Moon, vodka and orange juice.  I prefer the North Drop Ale.  We enjoyed the breeze and the view and then headed back to the condo.

Saturday, July 31- Bill's mom and dad left around 7:00am and we left around 7:45am to head back to the airport.  We stopped at Panera Bread for breakfast (tastes just like St. Louis Bread Company...hee hee hee).  We found the airport without any problem even though it's brand new, in the middle of nowhere and not on the GPS.  Our flight was at 1:30 to Orlando and then at 4:45 from Orlando to St. Louis.  We landed at about 6:15 and were home at around 7:00.  We had a great time and definitely want to visit the Florida panhandle again!