Wednesday at Seaside

It was a beautiful day today, Wednesday. No rain which was different than our first three days.

We started by walking from our house down Pensacola Avenue (picture left) to the beach.

Each beach access has it's own unique structure. The Pensacola Avenue access has a cupola with a pelican on the top with a fish in his beak.

More beach pictures...

For lunch we stopped at one of the Air Stream trailer vendors. This one sold BBQ...

Then Betty and Margie did some more shopping...

In the evening we had dinner with Bill and Noel and visited with them in their beautiful beach home on Santa Rosa Beach...

We had dinner at the Vue Restaurant and looked at a nice sunset after dinner...

Another good day.

 

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Tuesday at Seaside

Betty and I went back to the beach on Tuesday morning. It was a good, sunny morning with a nice ocean breeze. The waves were a little rougher and the water was a little cooler, but it was a lot of fun and was very refreshing.

We and Margie met Bill and Noel at the Grayton Bar and Grill for lunch and had a good time. Betty had a fried grouper (her favorite fish) sandwich and I had a couple of crab cakes. Everything was very good. We all shared a piece of key lime pie with coconut ice cream and that was extra good.

After lunch Betty, Margie and I drove over to a shopping mall so we could do a little shopping. Actually it was more shopping for Betty and Margie. The only store that interested me was an Orvis shop. It has a lot of nice things, but man is it expensive.

 

 

While we were there I stopped to sit on a bench in the shade and I noticed a little Florida wildlife.

We finished up the day with wine, cheese, fruit and crackers for dinner. In the evening I walked down to the main street to see what the night life was like - a lot of young people and car's cruising up and down the highway.

Another good day.

For those who might want to be on the beach with us, here's a short sound bite to help you relax...

 

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Monday at Seaside

The weather today, Monday, was much better than yesterday. It has been sunny to only partly cloudy all day. This morning Betty and I went down to the beach. We have rented some chairs and a beach umbrella for the week which is money well spent. The sun can get pretty hot. Margie came down later and joined us. The water was cool, but very refreshing once you got in and the waves were fun, but not too rough.

At about noon we went to have lunch at the Shrimp Shack. Both Betty and Margie had the Shrimp Rolls and I had a dozen oysters prepared the Shrimp Shack way with cheese and crumbles on them. Everyone's meal was delicious and we had a nice pavilion view while we ate.

We did a little shopping - I bought a new swim suit. Then we had some gelato sitting in the Ruskin Park which is cool and quiet. It reminded all of us of New Orleans.

After eating our gelato we did some more shopping and I shot a couple of photos of the Seaside main circle. The small white building to the left is the Seaside post office. The pyramid is a beach access point. All the access points have their own unique structure and design.

After that Betty and I went down to the pool. When we got back to our house, we noticed the fig tree had some ripe figs. For those of you who are not familiar with Southern fig trees, here's a picture of the fig tree in the yard of our house - it's the curvy one in the picture with the broad leaves, not the straight tree.

Here are some new, unripe figs still on the tree.

Finally, here are some of the figs we picked. If you haven't had a fresh fig, they are sweet and delicious - nothing like Fig Newtons. Once ripe they don't last long so those will be eaten before the night is over.

We rested the remainder of the day and had wine, cheese and crackers and figs for dinner. Another good day.

 

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Sunday at Seaside

Seaside is a planned community on the panhandle of Florida. The developer wanted to recreate the beach communities he remembered as a child growing up the late 40s and early 50s. It's a collection of shops, restaurants, beach condos and stately beach houses.

It's also the setting where the "Truman Show" with Jim Carrey was filmed.

As I mentioned yesterday, Betty's older brother Bill and his wife Noel have a house on the beach in Santa Rosa just West of Seaside. They also own a rental house at Seaside called "Gentle Breeze."

The name "Gentle Breeze" comes from a poem Bill and Noel's oldest son Galen wrote for his younger brother John after John died from cystic fibrosis at the age of 16.

The Gentle Breeze for John

Wonderful sounds through the voice of the wind. Darkness is over - the silence begins. Tension is rising and swept by the wind. Empty the vision and see through the sin.

A new day is dawning with splendrous light. Fall in the water. Rememer the fight.

For now it is over, rest once again. Quiet the temple. Listen - the wind.

 

Margie, Betty and I went to a beach restaurant called Bud and Alley's for lunch...

After lunch Betty and I walked around Seaside and it started to rain...

In the evening we had dinner with Bill and Noel at a seaside restaurant called Fish Out of Water...

A good first day.

 

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We Made It!

Yesterday, Saturday, we left Nita's house in Franklin, Tennessee at 7:30 AM. The drive to Seaside, Florida normally would take about 8 hours.

With a stop at Peach Park (see picture to the left) at Clanton, Alabama, we should have arrived at Seaside at about 4:30 PM. We didn't arrive until 6:30 PM. (Peach Park is known for its delicious peaches.)

The traffic started congesting just South of Birmingham, Alabama and didn't let up. For every 1 Alabama car we saw, there were at least 6 to 8 out-of-state cars on the road. Everyone (except those of you reading this post) must have been heading to the coast yesterday.

Besides the congestion, we also got behind two different National Guard convoys on the smaller highways after we got off the Interstate.

When you have a day like that all you can do is sit back, relax and laugh.

 

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Headin' for Florida

Betty, her sister Margie and I are heading for Florida today to visit her brother Bill and his wife Noel. They have a home on the panhandle of Florida. They also have a rental home nearby at Seaside and that's where we'll stay.

I have no idea if we'll have Internet access. If not, it will be a week before I can post again.

Warmest, Dan

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A Good Three Days in the Saddle

Betty and I are back at Nita's house after spending three days working with the young trainer in Cookeville, Jennifer Bauer. She's the same person we worked with last summer for five days.

We worked on reviewing and fine tuning the basics of our ground work and exercises in the saddle. That was a big help for both of us.

The new learning we wanted and got was how to do lateral work on the horses - leg yields, shoulder ins, roll backs, counter bends. This was a great learning experience for us and reinforced how important is the concept that less is more.

We learned that if we applied too much of a cue we got less from the horse. It was only when we were soft and light in ourselves that the horse responded softly and lightly.

There was another couple there from Iowa. They had brought their Peruvian Paso mare to Jennifer last March to work out some spooking issues. Jennifer is a magician when it comes to problem horses. She had this young mare really settled and it was fun to watch Diane reconnect with her mare.

Now we are preparing for our drive down to the Florida panhandle on Saturday to visit Betty's older brother Bill and his wife Noel. Betty's sister, Margie, is going with us and is graciously allowing us to use her car.

Warmest regards to all. Dan

 

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