News from Destin/Ft Walton Florida

We are on Spring Break with the girls, staying on beautiful Okaloosa Island in one of the gulf front Summerlin Condo units. We love this area for several reasons, the most important being the water, beaches and fishing, all within a comfortable drive from home! This particular building has great gulf front patio decks with magnificent views and sounds of the water. It also has wireless internet that works great out there so I can sit in the cool early morning hours, wrapped in my favorite robe, (like this morning) and blog to my heart's content while watching the ocean over my laptop and listen to the waves. Life is good! :)

In the late afternoons, I go down to the Okaloosa Pier and fish until my right hand and shoulder hurt so bad that I can't take any more. Then we bring the cooler full of spanish macks back to the condo to clean, freeze and feast on our many blessings of the day. Someday, when/if we're ever able to retire, we'd like to be able to buy a place down here somewhere on the water. A place we could visit several times a year, even live in the winter months, but still be able to enjoy the mountains of our current home in the Summertime and Fall months. And the great thing about those months is not only the beauty of the mountains during those months, but also prevents us from experiencing the worst of the hurricane season here.

We've made many memories and family traditions down here through the years. We make this same trip 4-5 times annually. Our first night down here on each trip is spent eating fresh local shrimp. We usually stop by one of the shrimp boats and buy a couple of pounds to take to the condo. Then by mid-week, the girls are begging and pleading to visit the Lucky Snapper for lunch on the marina. We did the same this past Tuesday, going around 2:30pm to avoid the crowds. We were seriously disappointed this time! We were seated immediately. But then waited for for what seemed like forever while waiters looked at us, went around us, and even stood chatting and laughing with each other at the bar area. But not one of them came by to greet us or take our drink orders. DH attempted to flag down various waiters, but all would look at us, then walk on past us. After over 15 minutes of this, DH asked if we were ready to try something else. The girls, who were so looking forward to this lunch, readily said, "Yes! I feel like an alien on a different planet here today!"

We were all sorely disappointed with the Lucky Snapper and doubt that we'll return. We walked out as a waiter approached us at the door to ask what we were doing. DH, rather impatiently stated, "You now have another empty table to watch instead of the people at it." We walked down to our ever faithful AJ's where both the service and food, was as always, wonderful. It worked out well because we hit AJ's during "Happy Hour" where you can get a dozen oysters for $4.25. DH and Katelyn had 5 dozen between them, in addition to their usual sandwich platters! Codah and I split the No Frills Steamer Platter, and still had to take almost half of it back with us.

Another restaurant we tried this time was the Fisherman's Wharf on Hwy 98. We had dinner there on Sunday night. The food and service were both great there also. And the prices were good.

That's it for this morning. The girls are now up and ready for breakfast. Then we'll be off for another day of sand, water and fish! :)