Stingrays and Dolphins and Tootsie's Oh My!

Hi gang-

We spent much of last week in Panama City Beach. As we hoped, the weather was gorgeous- as was the water. Not a bit of seaweed or jellyfish. Just a helluva lotta STINGRAYS!

The locals all say that they've never seen anything like it. They're blaming it on the BP Oil Spill in LA.

These stingrays were a delight! Very docile creatures. They wanted nothing more than to share the beach with humans. When they'd see a swimmer, they'd avoid them. I swam after a group of them and they wanted nothing to do with me.

They'd run in huge packs, as well as small groups and loners. Big (6 ft. wingspans on some of the Black ones), and small (the huge packs of brown ones).

We also managed to enjoy alot of dolphin sightings. They seem so very playful. Very amusing to watch.

Spent alot of time at the beach. Water was a perfect 76 degrees. Nice and cool, but not cold. Bought some neato "rocking chair" floats.... inflatable. Alot of fun once you finally managed to get into it.

As usual, we ate well.

On Tuesday afternoon we ate at our resort. H2O. I had a great plate of fried grouper and french fries. Dom very much enjoyed his Cuban Sandwich. We both ate only half and took the rest home.

On Wednesday morning, we visited our favorite breakfast joint- The Waffle Shoppe. Great folks and excellent food. Had monster breakfasts.... eggs, bacon, toast, hash-browns. That did me in for the entire day. Dom finished up his Cuban Sandwich that night.

On Thursday, we walked over to Pineapple Willy's http://www.pwillys.com/ Dom ordered Buffalo Wings and I had the nachos. Very good..... and plenty! (His wings appeared to be on steroids!)

Friday was the highlight of our food experience. We drove over to Pier Park. Beautiful new outside "mall". Oodles of shops and restaurants. http://pcbdaily.com/25-pier-park-restaurants-complete-guide-to-dining-in-pier-park We ate outside at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge. http://www.tootsies.net/index.cfm The original is in Nashville. This is their only other location. We both ordered Cowboy Burgers. Bacon, chese and jalapenos with fries. OMG.... this was the best burger I've ever had in my life.... and probably the largest. We're guessing that it was 3/4 of a lb.

Every day we'd walk across the street to our favorite "local joint" for a couple of beers... a package store with a bar inside. Getting to know the locals and getting good gossip.

Soooooo.....'twas a very enjoyable week, but was happy to return to my 3 girls (Bonnie, Mimi and Jada) here at home..... and a couple hundred snow peas. Yikes! Made an excellent salad with them last night....snow peas, green beans (also out of the garden), celery, green onions and carrots.... served chilled with a raspberry vinaigrette and walnuts. Doing a stir fry tonite.

Dom is feeling well. Has no desire to return back to the beach anytime soon, though. *pouting* My birthday is coming up...June 7th. As they say in Bogalusa.... "That don't make him no nevermind". LOL Guess I'll get over it.

Hopefully attaching alot of pictures to this post. Have a great week everybody!

A Good Week- Gardens and Good Health. (And a Stupid Oil Spill)

Hello gang.

Not much to report. Nothing exciting, anyway.

Garden is looking great. Picking Snow Peas like crazy! Pole beans are starting to produce and have flowers on the tomatoes and cukes. Yippee.

I finally got to a Rheumatologist last Thursday. I'd been blowing it off because of Dom's illness. I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis a few years ago. Had seen a couple of different specialists. Apparently, it's in my blood but not manifesting itself. (she sez thankfully)

As you all know, I've done nothing but rave about the Tulane Medical Center. So, I went to see their Rheumatologist, Hugh McGrath. What a delightful man. He spent more time asking questions, prodding and bending me than both other doctors combined. Very thorough. Very likable.

He ordered some bloodwork and had me schedule a follow up visit in about 6 weeks.

We also met Dom's best buddy, Chris at the Shimmy Shack for lunch that day. No website. Great food and a fun place. I shall return.

Dom drank some beer over the weekend and paid for it dearly on Monday and Tuesday. He was a hurtin' little cowboy. Besides having a rotten stomach, he found that he had a rotten carport roof. Grumbled something about forgetting to replace flashing. So, he dealt with that all week.

Yesterday we had his now-monthly Zometa infusion. His bloodwork was good:

HCT: 31.5 ( a little low, but Doc is pleased)
WBC: 5.0
ANC: 3000
PLATELET: 161

Other than the HCT, everything else was in the "normal range".

They upped his blood thinner slightly and told us to come back in a month. Music to our ears!

Stopped at WalMart on the way home for a soaker hose and a bunch of other stuff. We checked out separately at different registers. We got home to find that Dom had left his soaker hose on the check out carousel. He's heading back tomorrow to pick it up.

Nothing really planned for the weekend. I'm going to plant more bush beans and miracle gro.

We're watching the PCB weather carefully in hopes of returning to the beach next week. As of now, the water looks perfect! http://www.beachview.com/panama_city_beach.htm

We're also closely watching the oil spill in the Gulf. It looks as though Florida beaches are in the clear for now. I feel terrible for the Louisiana coast- its' fisherman and wildlife. Here's a great interactive map:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/01/us/20100501-oil-spill-tracker.html

Dunno much else, gang. Hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Pics.....

http://www.artscow.com/ShareAlbum.aspx?Key=yhb8bac4

Summer is Upon Us

Hi gang. It's really heating up in the Deep South. Currently mid eighties. Reaching a high of 90 tomorrow.

Finished up planting our garden today. Everything looks great- pole beans, snow peas, wax beans, cherry tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, banana peppers, hot wax peppers and cukes. We might look into a couple of those soaker-hoses for when we venture to Panama City Beach.

Speaking of which- We spent 3 nights there last week. Our closing was on Monday. Took about 10 minutes. Afterwards, we stocked up on "stuff" at Walmart, including new bedroom sheets.

To celebrate our purchase, we walked over to The Firefly restaurant.
www.fireflypcb.com/

Wow. Quite the meal! The salads were ala carte, which I hate, but it was a special occasion. They knocked us out. Dom had a house salad loaded with goodies. I had a bleu cheese salad with sliced apples, mixed baby greens, sugared pecans, crumbles of bleu cheese and a balsamic vinagrette. Yummy.

Dom ordered a nice steak. I had duckling breast that you could cut with your fork. Out of this world. Pretty pricy. Got out of there for $120. 2 beers and a martini. Next time we'll try their "Early Bird" special... 15 bucks. That's more like it! *smiling*

On Tuesday, we took our realtor, Tina Bass to lunch at Spinacker's. http://www.spinnakerbeachclub.com/

Cute, cute place right on the beach. I thought that their burgers were over rated.

We took a drive to the new Pier Park development. Talk about a neat place! Loaded with restaurants, bars and shops.

http://www.panamacitybeachonline.com/PierPark/Directory.aspx

http://pcbdaily.com/pierpark/25-pier-park-restaurants-complete-guide-to-dining-in-pier-park

Talked to the manager at the beer hall, Hofbrau Haus. http://www.hofbraupcb.com/ Looked like a real fun place. Put it on the list... along with a couple other joints in the development.

We also took a long drive along 30-A to Grayton Beach. For years, Grayton was our beach vacation spot. Not much has changed. It's kind of nice that they haven't exploded with condos. I believe that their zoning doesn't permit buildings higher than 3 stories. It's still a sleepy little beach town.

We spent the day Wednesday lounging at one of the pools. We walked over to Coyote Ugly for happy hour. http://www.coyoteuglysaloon.com/panamacity/ .

A huge bike rally was happening that weekend. Thunder on the Beach. By the time we left on Thursday morning, there were a zillion motorcyles in town. It surprised me to see so many colors. Apparently the bars don't mind.

So.... 'twas another great week. Dom is feeling good. All is well!

If Anyone is Interested....

I have four extra tickets for the Robbie Knievel (son of Evel Knievel) event at the Ford Center next weekend in Beaumont, Texas, if anybody wants them.

Robbie is going to try to jump over 1,000 Obama supporters with a Caterpillar D-9 bulldozer.

Should be a good time.