Florida #2

Well we played Wii yesterday afternoon after getting out of the pool. I learned to play tennis, even though I’ve never been on a tennis court. After some Wiiing, we decided to take a walk over to the marina. This is a huge marina, and has literally $100’s of millions of $$ in boats moored there. We walked around and marveled at the magnitude of the investments sitting idly in the water at the docks. With marine diesel selling for $4.28/gal. and many of these boats requiring 500-700 gallons for a fill up, you are talking $2500, just to go out fishing. I believe the boating industry is going to be one of the early casualties of the monstrous fuel prices we are seeing. According to my friend Neil who is a boater, the boat sales market is in the process of collapsing. As the evening began, we proceeded with our dinner that had been postponed from yesterday. We prepared salad, got the corn ready for the microwave, and loaded the steaks on a tray for their trip down to the grill by the pool. Miss Vickie, as usual, was “The Grill Queen” and assisted by Brenda (lying in a lounge chair looking relaxed) She created a giant smoke cloud, and cooked our steaks on an unfamiliar gas grill. They were cooked perfectly. An interesting aside, she was riding up the elevator with 4 large sizzling T-bones, and everyone wanted to come home with her. We sat down to our dinner accompanied by a good bottle of Chilean red Jerry and Brenda brought from home. We all of a sudden discovered that our postponement had really made the steaks something else. Yesterday when we were planning on cooking them, I rubbed them with olive oil, pierced them a little with a fork, an d sprinkled both sides liberally with Lowry’s Garlic and Parsley Salt, and regular black pepper. This combination sitting on them for over 24 hrs in the refrigerator made some good steaks really great. Between “The Grill Queen” cooking them perfectly, the seasoning working, and being at the top floor of a resort overlooking St. Andrews Bay, it was some of the best meat we had ever eaten. People were gnawing the bones. Needless to say it was a great dinner, good food with great friends overlooking paradise. (oh and we got the T-bones for $4.98 per pound on sale at Winn Dixie) Jerry and I were just lamenting how good Winn Dixie’s beef always was and how we miss them in Martinsville.

After dinner, Jerry and I headed down to play real (as opposed to Wii) shuffleboard. Vickie scored us the equipment earlier from the fun squad. We didn’t exactly know the rules, so we played “games” Jerry whipped me 11 to 9 “games”. We had to quit cause it got so dark we couldn’t see the pucks. (no lights on the shuffleboard court) Afterward we retired back to the room for some serious Wii. All tolled, we probably played 36 holes of golf, bowled 35 games, played 20 sets of tennis, and half a dozen games of baseball. This Wii stuff is great. I actually had sore muscles from playing. I especially like the tennis; you can really get a work out playing it. After a serious Wii evening, all the Mii’s headed for the bed and some rest. (oh and my Mii has Blues Brother’s sunglasses like I love to wear and Miss Vickie’s of course is dressed in red with a red hat accessory)

This morning, everyone was moving a little slow. I decided to check out the “Scenic Golf Cart Tour, bring your cameras”. They had one spot left on the tour, and I jumped on it. I told everyone else to think about what they wanted to do, and I’d be back. Turned out the “Tour” was pretty cool. I learned a lot about Marriot Legends at Bay Point. The guide was this cool girl who was completely a local. Generations of her family had lived here. Since I was the odd man on the tour (capacity 7), the rest was all one family; I grabbed the front seat on the cart beside her. It was quite informative. Seems the Panama City area was really quite rural until all the inevitable development happened. This place is actually one of the smallest of the Marriot time-shares. Around it is the only Arnold Palmer designed golf course in North West Florida. Originally it was planned as a course that would attract the pros, and was supposed to be a big condo development. It ended up with the small Marriott time-share and a large number of private residences. It is a pretty little community and there is no telling what all these places are worth. Some of the residences overlook the bay, and some overlook a huge marina. The golf course is still here, and judging by the holes we’ve seen it as one tough (as in water/swamps) course. An interesting aside: below us on the edge of the golf course are a couple of swampy areas. At night the chorus that sings from these swamps is unbelievable. I mean boy is it loud. We are on the 6th floor, and when you sit on our screened porch, it is tough to talk over it. It is the coolest sound I’ve ever heard.

After I got back from the tour this morning, we got our act together and headed out to St. Andrews Bay State Park. When we checked in the very courteous lady told us if we were going to the park, they usually had some beach chairs available that folks left for others to use. We stopped by the front desk to see about some chairs. Well the current resident of the front desk turned out to be a discourteous cow. She was so busy stuffing her face that she had little time to be snotty and tell us the courteous “new girl” didn’t know anything. “They didn’t have any chairs and please don’t interrupt my grazing to make me check on it.” So with Jerry soundly p_ssed, we headed out for the Park. The entrance fee to the park was $5.00 and they had ample parking and a snack bar where we were able to pick up some Warm Dogs. (just like Hot Dogs only cooler) The beach at S t. Andrews is very nice. The sand is bright white, and the bay has a nice sandy bottom. Lacking chairs (Jerry growls here), we found a spot and spread out our towels. Greased with SPF 30 we settled down to enjoy the beach. I tried the water, it was cold by Myrtle Beach standards, but didn’t make you numb. We spent several hours enjoying the sun, sand and water. After a while, we decided to head back to the condo. On the way we hit the local produce stand and scored some reasonably priced fruit and veggies. The girls had some “shopping” to do, and Jerry and I took a shower and unlaxed. (Jerry read, I typed) We are planning on going to Captain Anderson’s Restaurant this evening for some seafood.

Named among America’s Top 50 restaurants, recipient of the "Best Seafood Restaurant" award from Southern Living and Wine Spectator's "Award of Excellence," Capt. Anderson’s won Florida Trend’s Golden Spoon Award for 15 years before being inducted into the Restaurant Hall of Fame in 2005. The Hall of Fame is the highest honor Florida Trend can bestow upon a Florida restaurant.

They have a charcoal grill where they grill whole fish that have been caught that day. I’ll report on that tomorrow. Tonight is Karaoke night at the activities center. I usually can’t resist Karaoke, so we’ll have to see what happens.

Well we had a fabulous dinner at Captain Andersons. It lived up to its reputation, and the wait and prices were not outrageous. Jerry had grilled grouper, Brenda had a whole fried flounder, Vickie had shrimp in lemon garlic sauce, and I had grilled amberjack. We opted for the Greek salads for starters, but Brenda got the broccoli cheese soup. (turns out Captain Anderson is Greek and his whole family plus many other Greek folks run the place) The salads were great and were garnished one of the best pepperoncini I have ever tasted. A basket of obviously restaurant-baked bread came along as well and was superb. Our entries arrived in perfect time, and did not disappoint us. The grilled fish was topped with thinly sliced scallions and a lemon butter parsley sauce. Brenda’s flounder was perfectly cooked, and Vickie’s meal was one of the original restaurant recipes. The shrimp was peel and eat, but arrived in a brownish lemony garlic wine sauce. The side dishes were au gratin potatoes and grilled vegetables. They had a desert cart to die for, but we had reached our limit. On the way out we enjoyed scanning all the celebrity signed photos on the walls along with the above-mentioned awards proudly displayed. All in all this is one of those restaurants that is on the A list. We are glad we ventured there. It is big and busy, and probably in prime season difficult to get into but worth the effort. Never made it to Karaoke but came home and collapsed into a well-sated coma.

Tomorrow we are headed to Destin where there is an art festival that is supposed to be like a street scene. We also want to see the beach at Destin as it is supposed to be a fine one.

More later.Wes