Flying out of Pensacola: Moonset and Sunrise
Flying out of Pensacola I saw something I have never seen before. On one side of the plane, the moon is setting, it is gorgeous. On the other side of the plane, the sun is rising, it is glorious. I have never seen both at the same time before:
St. Joseph’s State Park and Birding Trail
Just a couple shots from a beautiful and isolated state park at the end of a long peninsula:
Lunch at Boss Oyster, Apalachicola
A quick drive down the road to our favorite place, Apalachicola, FL, home of some of the loveliest oysters in the world. There are other restaurants, good restaurants, but we gravitate toward Boss Oyster, where we can sit outside by the water. It is a brisk day, we sit outside, but I notice the pelicans are huddled down on their perch:
A little later he started to warm up and groomed a little:
As usual, we ordered too much food. We don’t mean to, we mean to be sensible, but the portions are bigger than we remembered. I love their seafood gumbo to start:
AdventureMan can’t resist a starter plate of the oysters for which Apalachicola is famous:
I didn’t know the Crab Cake basket would be so huge . . .
AdventureMan had the Shrimp Basket – it’s cool, now you can get baskets that aren’t fried (some might say ‘so why bother?’, but we are trying not to eat too much fried food):
Here is a little friend who offered to help me eat:
Here is one of the things we love the most about non-chain restaurants. . . this one has custom made high chairs from a local wood – how cool is that?
Or maybe, now that I look closer, those are extra bar stools, LOL!
Thanksgiving on the Bayou
The Thanksgiving venue changed this year. We all have families, families have struggles, and one of those struggles meant that the Thanksgiving celebration would shift to another home. Same cast of characters, same fabulous food, just a different location.
The organization is superb. Everyone has a part to play. Nieces and nephews arrive to assist in preparations, clearing the grounds, putting out tables and chairs, helping wherever they can. Cousins get to spend time together, catching up, as they work together. The aunts are all busy in the kitchens, cutting, chopping, baking, cooking, stewing, putting their best efforts into making the dishes everyone loves.
The guys do the turkeys. They may have help, but the turkeys seem to be the guys prerogatives. They also carry in the hams.
There are so many desserts that they won’t fit on one table. They won’t fit on two tables! When all the desserts are put on the tables, there are still back-up pies and cakes in the pie-safe behind the table!
Cousins fill glasses with ice; guest can choose lemonade, sweet tea or “un”
The tables groan with turkeys, hams and side dishes – beans and peas from the garden, corn bread, sweet potato casseroles, and more, much, much more:
There is fun for everyone – kayak rides, tractor rides, and ring toss:
There’s always a special room where babies can nap – this is a very child friendly celebration. This family loves babies and little ones, and encourages all the cousins to stay close. It’s always a full day, Thanksgiving, with much for which to give thanks. 🙂 When the great meal is over, people play, visit, walk, chat . . . and then sneak back for another taste of their favorite dish!
Sunsets at the Sunset Inn, Panama City Beach, Florida
“I love this place,” I sighed, as AdventureMan and I sat out on our balcony at the Sunset Inn, a little Mom and Pop motel hidden between the towering condos of Panama City Beach. We were watching the sun go down. Little does it matter that as I sat out on the balcony watching the sun go down, or watching the pelicans in the morning, I was probably increasing my quota of mosquito bites, mais tant pis.
“I know you do,” AdventureMan replied, sipping on a cup of hot Christmas punch and sharing the moment with me. We’ve always loved sunsets. Or sunrises. We think of them as one of those great gifts, so wonderful that it is hard to believe they are free.
For some reason, some of the best sunsets we’ve ever seen have been from this motel. Here is the first sunset, the day we got there, Tuesday:
I am not kidding, I haven’t done a thing to that photo. I haven’t cropped it or enhanced it in any way. Who can improve on a sunset like that? I liked it so much I will show you another, again, untouched. This is using the telephoto, but no enhancements:
The next morning, we were greeted by pelicans. I adore pelicans, those throwbacks to prehistoric times, so primitive, and so dramatic, plunging beak first down into the waters and then flying back up with a fish in their beak. These ones aren’t plunging, just floating around letting breakfast come to them:
We missed one sunset, and here is what we caught on Thanksgiving after the feast:
Here in sunset on Friday night, our last night at the beach:
Drama drama drama!
All quiet at the Sunset Inn . . . .
Discover Relaxing Riyadh
I still get ads from Jazeera airlines, although I no longer live in Kuwait and have asked them for three years to take my name off their mailing list. I have unsuccessfully unsubscribed like fifteen times; now I just have it all sent to spam.
But today, as I was looking over the spam to be sure I wasn’t emptying my box of anything important, I saw this:
Discover Relaxing Riyadh – استمتع بعطلتك في الرياض
LOL – Relaxing Riyadh. A group of the ad guys must have been rolling on the floor when they created that one . . . Or maybe they meant that apart from the spine-tingling traffic, there isn’t a whole lot going on in Riyadh, especially on the social scene . . .
Things to Love about Pensacola
1. The temperature this morning is 57°F. 🙂
2. Pensacola Ballet does wonderfully innovative and lively ballets.
3. Pensacola Symphony Orchestra has a fanatically and warmly loyal audience.
4. Sunday Brunch at Jaco’s.
5. Great international population.
6. Good restaurants of many varieties (only no Ethiopian restaurants)
7. Great festivals – Barktoberfest, Seafood Fest, DeLuna Fest are finished, but the Great Pensacola Arts Festival is coming!
8. Sugar white sandy beaches and Gulf waters all blues, greens and purples.
9. Wonderful bird life as they migrate south this time of year.
10. Also butterflies 🙂
11. Traffic so mild it hardly qualifies as traffic.
12. Christmas and Mardi Gras parades right around the corner.
More?
Leopard Kill; I Wish This Were My Video
I found this on AOL News this morning; it’s not mine. I wish it were! I am so impressed. Right place, right time and WOW.
Watch this well-hidden leopard fiercely attack an unsuspecting impala. Cowering low amidst the rocks, the leopard silently waits as a herd of impalas comes racing across the landscape. Right as the impala jumps over it, the leopard catches it mid-air bringing it down to Earth.
The video of this event was caught on camera by Martha van Rensburg who was on a photographic safari in South Africa at MalaMala Game Reserve with her husband, Marius van Tonder, wildlife photographer Greg du Toit, and guest Ian Weatherburn.
“It happened so fast but I was lucky enough to get this video and a still photo of the leopard and impala in the air,” Van Rensburg told Grind TV.
According to the American Wildlife Foundation, leopards are known for being secretive, elusive, and shrewd, having the ability to kill prey much larger than themselves. They are currently listed as “near threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Dauphin Island and BBQ!
We got up early, remember? We worked up an appetite walking through the bird sanctuary and exploring the park and environs. One last stop to see those butterflies and we really need to get something to eat.
Fortunately, we passed just the place on the way in . . . Dauphin Island BBQ 🙂
My friends, this is not a fancy place. There is no indoor seating. You order at a window, and grab your plastic utensils, and then you wait for your name to be called. You can fill little cups with condiments, including, of course, Tony Chachere’s special spices, and then you sit at a picnic table and eat out of a styrofoam container. This may not be your style. We like all kinds of styles 🙂
By the time we decided, cars loaded with grandparents, children, lots and lots of children, parents, aunts and uncles, cars and trucks and big RV’s started pulling up and people crowding into Dauphin Island BBQ eager to eat. Clientele lining up:
We got there just in time. We got a good picnic table in the shade. I tried to order oysters, but since Isaac, oysters have been hard to come by. I had fried fish. It was hot and it was delicious.
AdventureMan ordered the pulled pork and said it was delicious:
Not elegant, but tasty, filling, and delicious. As you drive onto Dauphin Island, turn left and watch for this . . . umm . . .lighthouse. Dauphin Island BBQ is located just past this lighthouse-looking building.
If you want to stay on Dauphin Island, there is one Motel, several condominiums, and many rentals. One place to look for beach rentals is Trip Advisor. Trip Advisor also has a few hotel/B&B listings here, but be sure to tell TA to arrange by distance, or you may end up in Gulf Shores or Fairhope, LOL!
The one motel, Gulf Breeze Motel, is nothing fancy, but it is the best there is. Reviewers on Trip Advisor say ‘it’s not the Ritz’ but the prices are reasonable, and people seem to like it.
Recent Comments
ExpatAlien on What Country am I Living … intlxpatr on Yellowstone: Old Faithful to C… Michelle on Yellowstone: Old Faithful to C… Cathy on No Grown-Ups in Charge intlxpatr on Waiting for Snow Wikipedia Donate Button
Amazina
Early Voting in Florida
Here There and Everywhere 