Emerald Coast

Because it was Veteran's Day, Tom had the day off from school so we headed to Florida for a quick weekend. It was awfully nice of the Blue Angels to fly over us on the way so I could tell him it was gift from me! It's only a 3 hour drive so we arrived quite a bit early before we could check in so we headed for the beach. It also happened to be 11/11/11 and apparently a very popular wedding date because there were several vans in the parking lot specializing in beach weddings and they were already set up for 3 when we arrived.

Tom has been here several times for work and has always told me how much I would love the beach. He was right! Gorgeous white sand, crystal blue water (not too cold) and no people! We took a looooong walk along the beach and it was perfect! Tom insisted on a sand angel. That's why I'm lying there that way. By the time we got back to where we started one wedding was under way and the others were waiting to start.

I don't why I felt compelled to document the fish carcass, but this thing was big. Gross and big!

We knew we wanted seafood for dinner and Tom couldn't remember the name of the place the lady at the check in desk recommended so we headed out and decided to just find someplace that looked good. We ended up at The Boathouse Landing in Niceville. Dinner was yummy...Tom had the grouper special and I had the hot & spicy shrimp salad. It was the perfect place though when the waitress said we were just in time for the "early bird" special which had just STARTED at 4:30 I thought "Who are we?!" Old people in Florida having the early bird special? Oh well, it was very good and got us back early enough that Tom could do some reading. I fell asleep at 7:30. Yep. I'm old.
This is where we stayed. I knew when we came to AL at some point we'd end up in a single wide. It was actually just fine for what we needed. 3 bedrooms (which we didn't need) a kitchen, bath and living room. Nothing fancy by any stretch, but comfortable.
The view out of our front door

The recreation area where we stayed has a small beach with rocks and plants around it. Somehow I managed to step into a cactus and ended up pulling stickers out of my show & foot. There is also a lake which, according to the sign you can't really see, warns us to NOT feed the alligators. Fortunately we didn't see any but we did find a fishing cage that had a nice big crab in it. Someone's dinner I suppose. We spent the day doing whatever we felt like. Replacing the mats in the car, a trip to check out the Eglin AFB BX, driving around the area, a trip to the beach which was a little cool and breezy for swimming & reading so we hit a local candy store, ran a few other errands then decided to spend the evening at "home" with a baguette, cheese & apples.
We headed out Sunday morning after we got the trailer cleaned up. We ended up at Waffle House for breakfast because we never found a mom & pop place on our way. If you've never been to Waffle House, they're on every corner in the south and sort of the Southwest Airlines of cafes. Every employee greeted us loudly with "Good morning!" when we walked in. The elderly man sweeping the floor sang in his deep baritone the whole time we were there. We've been to several different ones and they all have this atmosphere. Good, basic food and very, very friendly. Looks like a dive, but I really like it.

When we first went to a farmer's market in AL we met a girl who told us about muscadine. It's like a big grape, with thicker skin which is very healthy but which frankly, we weren't crazy about. It turns out that's what they make wine with in AL and FL because of the soil. Regular grapes won't grow here. Anyway, we stopped at this winery on our way home. Lots of goodies to sample but a favorite is a topping you put in a bag with saltines and grape seed oil (which they also bottle at the winery) then shake around. Crackers are spicy and yummy but still crispy.

Though it was a quick trip, it was fun, spontaneous and relaxing!