It's Heating Up Around Here, Yowser!

Another busy ten days of retirement, says E, with several new adventures bundled in. In the neighborhood, we played MahJongg twice, teaching another newbie (permanent resident--good for summer fun!) in the process; attended an "Appetizer Party" at Billye's, where we met Mel Robbins, life coach extraordinare (watch for her new TV show this summer); and S painted the fence and the front doors--bringing us to new levels of respectability (oh, that sardonic E!). And best of all, we finalized the refinancing of the joint, which might stand to save us some money one day, far away, when all is finally square.

Henry's Logo

On the Adventures in Eating front, we celebrated said refinancing at Cafe Tango, a fine dining establishment just down the road. E liked her steak a lot, S not so much, but we don't rule out Doing Again. A not-so-quick lunch at the Steamboat Bar & Grill served S w/a flying-saucer-sized bowl of beef dumpling soup that was slurpy savory marvelous, unlike anything S has ever tasted before. E was not so keen on her wonton-wrapped shrimp, bc they were not deveined, but the menu is varied, there is much to sample, so we may Do Again from time to time. We're eager to eat at our tai chi teacher's new resto, but the locals in Grayton Beach are hassling the poor guy, so it may be a while yet before we get to see what counts with Henry as "perceived value."

Steamboat Ambiance

Garden woes! Some of our tomato plants seem to be suffering from yellow leaf curl virus, a nasty little disease that is apparently rampant in big hot houses, so we have been looking for locally grown plants (so far to no avail), but in this quest, drove off to Panama City Beach on Friday, and took in the sights along the Front Beach Road. Since it is currently hosting neither spring breakers nor summer people, PCB has a lazy, seedy old Florida look about it (especially the west side of town), until you arrive at Pier Park (an "open-air regional lifestyle center"), which is like an up-scale circus plunked down in the middle of a lot of asphalt. The town is also full of Christian Retreats--odd. The drive certainly added to our growing sense of the larger "neighborhood," and because E did some advance homework, we also got the bonus of a terrific lunch at Liza's Kitchen, which we wish we could move 30 miles to the west so we could eat there once a week. We met a guy who might eat there many times a week, but we're not sure he would be able to remember, as he seems to have done some serious damage to his brain with chemicals in his youth. A very sweet man, he of course latched immediately onto S (as all wackos inevitably do), and discoursed a while on guitar design and tattoos. LK--a definite Do Again!

A Girl Named Toni--at the weekly Seaside Market

Another drive took us east on Rte 20 out of Freeport--towards Bruce, country we'd not heretofore seen. But it turns out we should have been going west (bad website directions) in order to find the Old Freeport Post Office, site of this month's ACT Walton meeting. Where we met Luke Langford, a local farmer and entrepreneur as well as other farmers and folk hungry for real food. In other cultural news, we joined in an Earth Day celebration at Topsail Park up the road--where we learned that the story about Sunrise Beach having been built on a filled-in coastal dune lake might be less than true. More on this as we do further research. Other highlights included many puppies to be adopted, kids getting their pictures taken with a corn snake around their necks, and S winning a native lantana plant by naming three endangered species. Otherwise it seemed like the same booth repeating itself over and over. We later learned that it's against the law to sell anything in the park, so people handed out flyers about their stuff: many trees were sacrificed on this score!

This one's for you, Wendy...

Hula Hoops are Good for the Environment

This morning we attended another cooking class--but it wasn't really. Instead it was a brunch at which 5 or 6 champagnes were sampled with accompanying courses. Unfortunately, bc Kitchenique is in the process of moving shop, the event was held al fresco at another facility where music was blaring and the unshaded parts of our bodies roasted to a crisp. The champers was great, but we have, at last, sobered up.

Ghana Goods

E's bro Rick and sis-in-law Sally came to visit last week--during a cold snap, alas. And they came bearing gifts from Ghana: beautiful batik fabric made into a sling bag, beads, and miracle "key" soap. One of Sally's missions is to improve the lives of people she knows there, so we spent some time together brainstorming ideas with which to market these exqisite products: stay tuned!

Like Gretchen, Robert, Anna & Al, R&S were bit by the geo-caching bug. Only one of us is surprised by this. But unlike our trips with our guests a week earlier, two of our ventures with Rick and Sally ended in utter dud-dom. Regardless, we had several nice finds (TFTC!) and during one of our forays met a whole family of folks wrapping up a bike trip and conscripted them into our search: voila, 6 new geo-cachers at one blow! Not to mention, one of our finds lay in beautiful Camp Helen State Park, the quaintness of which is unsurpassed. Too bad the concrete block cabins, built in the 4os, are no longer fit to occupy...





We took this opportunity to listen to and watch some of E's nephew Bill's cool art projects and to think a bit together about his desire to move back to Detroit and live downtown. While all of us understand this yearning to various degrees, we know it won't be an easy life, despite the coolness of his music and how tied in he already is to the scene. Good Luck!

An art project of Sally's--with home-grown veg !

Our trip to the Seaside Farmers' Market on Saturday yielded onions, English peas, new potatoes, and peach preserves. On the way home, we tried the newly-instated sit-down weekend breakfast at Sally's Backside: pretty good--and cheap! A definite Do Again. On the home front, the garden is growing like crazy. We've planted more tomatoes and a variety of peppers--and some of the first-planted tomatoes have already set fruit! This afternoon we sat on the beach a while, with Squeaky, a bit disconcerted by the sand-whipping wind, scolding us from the dune-walkover. A lovely day after yesterday's incredible lightning-filled storm.

A present for one of our most faithful readers: we're waiting, Dee!

Happy Spring!

The photo below, featuring a free-range chicken egg, was taken by one of our favorite local farmers, Renee, of Twin Oaks Farm.

We'll write tomorrow--or the next day. We're just too peeped to pop. Stay Tuned!

Your Beach Hoteliers

The spaces between guests have been spent preparing for the arrival of the next set. (This phenomenon has been duplicated in every owner-occupied house in the neighborhood during the spring break season.) After Jess, Tom, Harold & Petra left, we set up for Al, Gretchen, Anna & Robert. Al arrived 24 hours before the rest, so on Friday, he and S tooled over to Pensacola to the Naval Aviation Museum to see the plane their dad served in as radioman and navigator during WWII. They didn't need a tour bc Al knew the name and history of just about everything. S was surprised how much she enjoyed the whole show, not just for the cunning models of aircraft carriers with entire crews bustling about under glass, but bc she learned a whole lot about her father's military service he'd never shared with her. It was a perfect day to tour a museum too: raining like cats & dogs.

Which rain delayed the Minnesota contingent's flight by several hours, so we ate a very late supper once Gretchen et al. finally arrived: hooray: reunion! The week was full of beach, Robert demo-ing extraordinary Wii prowess when it rained, playing Texas Hold'em almost every night, learning SET, Rummy-O! and Skip-Bo (which is Spite & Malice with a slew of Jokers). S&E cooked (spaghetti, shrimp & grits, hotdogs & hamburgers, pizza, mac & cheese), E made homemade ice cream and popsicles, S & Al and Gretchen & Anna & Robert made several successful geo-caching expeditions, the MN crew hit the Outlet Mall a couple of times, and some of us did the Southern Star Dolphin Cruise, setting out from Destin Harbor on a very windy day. Natch the pool heater pooped out on the day it was supposed to start warming up the pool, but it eventually got fixed, so one afternoon the smaller fry got took a dip and whooped it up.

The Seaside "Farmers' Market" reopened yesterday for the season--very festive! Still not many stalls doing business when we got there around 8:30, but we purchased green beans, peach preserves, free-range eggs, worm juice, cherry tomatoes, strawberries--and a hula hoop. Poor E was put in the awkward position of having to sample a gluten/sugar/fat/free muffin: there was not water enough in the world to wash the taste away.

Our garden survived the 11 inches of rain we received in the last week. Here's hoping that the worm juice gives it strength to continue growing. Tomorrow, when Rick & Sally arrive, we'll feed them a big salad--and at every opportunity during their visit, they'll discover radishes on their plates.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Kitchenique's Pizza Class on Monday night was taught by a charming arm-flailing guy, Philip McDonald, Head Chef of Table Five. The highlight for E was learning how to make oven-dried cherry tomatoes and eating the VERY THIN crusts of the pizza (tho some of the toppings were far far from her faves--arugula and pesto BOTH = aiiiyyyy). We were persuaded to swap semolina flour for corn meal as the glide-facilitator on the peel (less corny aftertaste, yes!). And one of the helpers handed out silicone pot holders for us to place between our butts and the slippy stainless steel stools: voila, balance restored.


Tuesday we attended our second ACT Walton meeting (community organization encouraging eating/buying locally). Let's just say that Walton County is still a long ways away from having the kind of CSA we've had the luxury of being a part of in Alabama. So we've decided to capitulate and sign up for organic veggies from Off the Vine, which at least promises that the food will be grown within an 80 mile radius of, you guessed it, Rosemary Beach. And we do (and will) have our own veggies, grown in the waist-high box right in the back yard; so far we've had a couple of yummy salads of the greens, and you can see the radishes starting to swell.


Tuesday night we went over to Santucket (NOT a typo), one of the Old Florida Cottages near Goatfeathers, to have dinner with Canadians Hank & Lynn, who rented B-A-R last winter. Phil & Karen from next door were also in the party. The food was swell, and the company pretty amusing. For the first time we saw the infamous Yellow Line, the path which the lowly folks who live on Mary St. must keep to as they make their way to the deeded beach access the rich folk have been forced to allow them.


Thursday brought Tom & Jess and Friday Mike & Petra to B-A-R for a bit of poker and Wii and beach walking and stitching and reading to polish off Alabama's Spring Break. Culinary highlights included E's Chicken Wings Africana, her smashingly good coconut ice cream and her tried & true pecan pie. Pepper whomped up a stunning tortilla soup and 10,000 fish tacos, and Sandy redeemed one very salty marinade by serving up potato pancakes and spicy Deramus sausages for breakfast this morning. Now the sheets are whirling in the dryer, the towels wait patiently in the washer, and we gear up for the next round of company, arriving Thursday & Friday, S's brother Al and her cousins Gretchen, Anna & Robert. Looking forward!

Memory Lane

The trip back to Tuscaloosa had a special high point: a side trip to the highest elevation in Florida (345 ft above sea level), a stop that's been on S's bucket list for years. It might be the only thing on her bucket list, come to think of it. The road to Lakewood Park was as interesting as the site itself, an asphalted dog track winding through pasture land. Another bit of drama on the drive was missing the turn up 219, which fact we didn't notice (bc we were gabbing) until we were at least 30 minutes out of our way. Hooray for the GPS receiver: we jacked that puppy into the power supply and, without backtracking (and in just as good of time as if we'd never gone wrong), wended our way toward Toosa. Drove through an old enclave, Heiberger, Alabama, striking for the German embellishments on many of its buildings. Turns out, it's also the birthplace of Coretta Scott King and the site of her marriage to MLK.


It was a gorgeous weekend in the Deep South, clear, warm, and mostly sunny. Friday night we ate dinner and played MahJongg with Salli and Kathryn at K's house. Saturday morning, after breakfast at the IHOP (where we ran into Emma Ramey, also visiting Toosa for the weekend--weird!), we did regular old Saturday morning jobs (car wash, oil change, trip to Target) and snagged a Taco Casa taco each (oh how we miss TC!), and met up with the poker crowd at Wendy & Joel's. Highlight there? The ceremonial passing of the sanitizing potion from dealer to dealer in an effort (successful as far as we know) to keep from getting Anne's wretched cold/pinkeye combo. We ate dinner at the new Greek joint (DON'T do again) and watched MILK, rapt, on the Hilton Garden Inn's pay-per view.


Sunday opened with donuts and Rummy-O! and SET with Wendy & Joel, was followed by a sweet brunch at Harold's w/Petra and Joe and Cornelius, and rounded off with a sentimental return to GreeneTrack to play high-stakes bingo as we were wont to do every Sunday when we were Alabamians--and we won BIG. Monday we hooked up with Vonceil for lunch at Lek's House of Thailand in Montgomery (quite yummy) and followed the GPS home from there, on roads we've not heretofore traveled, passing through Coffee County at about the same time some poor local guy was on his last rampage with a shotgun.

Home (Beach-A-Rama!) again to a happy cat and a nice chicken salad that Carol left for us--yummy. And lettuce and radishes going great guns! In fact, we ate a little salad of our own greens this week, and drove up to Cottons in Freeport to get more of the beautiful onions we'd snagged on the drive back from Toosa. S can't get enough of these sweeties, and has, for the first time in her life, sterilized jars and put up pickled veg. Can botulism be far behind?

In the TAH-DAH department: on Saturday, eight months after the remodeling project began, the defective fan in the master bedroom was finally replaced and the job is DONE.

Lent

In our clutches . . .

We're happy to report that Mahjongg has taken hold at Sunrise Beach: Sunday we enjoyed egg salad and chicken salad sandwiches at Joyce's house for a MJ lunch, and taught two more newbies, Karen D and Billye how to play; Thursday afternoon at our house, we taught the other Karen, our semi-permanent neighbor, and she was such a quick study that she won a game in short order. And Susan already professes to be addicted--an excellent sign!

On the garden front, the lettuce is doing so well that we were encouraged to brave Home Depot's garden supply center to get more soil for additional planters. Even the parsley and dill are peeking through. Unfortunately we woke up at 2 AM this morning to a magnificent windstorm and severely dropping temperatures: it may be a day or two before we don our overalls again.

Micro-greens!

Culinarily speaking, we had several adventures. On Wednesday, while Karen was whomping up some pastitsio, Phil got a wild hair and invited a small party of SR beachers (current and former) for dinner. So we trooped over to join Susan & Charlie, Billye, and Sharon & the other Charlie for a good meal and lots of wine. We think we learned something really useful at this gathering (as we tend to do when the old timers get together), but there must have been too much wine in the mix, bc we sure can't remember what it was.

We've had this candle, a gift from Anne & Joe, for at least 15 years. We saw one exactly like it at Karen & Phil's the other night, and Susan says she has one too.

On Friday, E espied a notice of a fish fry (to benefit the poor in Walton Co.) that night at St. Rita's just up the road; we piled in the car and caught the last servings of a nice whitefish that we ate in the big hall next door to the sanctuary--along with about two hundred other greyhairs, mostly snowbirds. The most memorable part of the evening for E was when a worker, asked what fish we were eating, answered "Pacific Sway" and did a little hula. St. Rita's entire compound is understated and elegant, and the congregation appears to be far too well off to ever need bingo revenue. Alas.

Next weekend, for the first time since we've begun our adventure in moving, we are going to return to Tuscaloosa County for a visit with our pals. E wonders how many more seats have been added to the stadium in our absence. Stay tuned.

Impasse