Fourth of July in PCB- Still no oil!!!

Hi gang-

We spent 7 nights in PCB last week. Just got home on Sunday. Had a marvelous time.

The 4th was phenomenal. When we blew into town, we went across the street to see our favorite bartender, Don. Asked him where all of the fireworks would be. He told us not to bother leaving our balcony.... there would be plenty on the beach.

OMG. We'd never seen anything like it. Non stop light displays right outside of our balcony for TWO HOURS straight! We can't even begin to guess how much money was spent by tourists and condo guests. Much, much more than the city spent for their organized show. Some of these guys really knew what they were doing, too...gorgeous. This will be an annual thing for us.

Had a wonderful visit with childhood friend John (now a dirty rotten biker) and his lovely wife Jackie. They spent 3 nights with us. Ate out alot.... had a great dinner at Firefly one night. Another night went to Hammerhead Fred's for the first time. http://www.hammerheadfreds.com/ Dom and I very much enjoyed it. John and Jackie weren't terribly impressed.

I had a couple dozen Apalachicola oysters on the half shell. Only $5.99 per dozen. Tasty, but TINY. Some were the size of a nickel or quarter. Dom had a good chicken sandwich. J & J got crabcakes, fish and chips, oysters and fish tacos. *cringing at the thought of fish tacos*. Anyway, I'd go back in a minute.

Dom wasn't feeling well on Thursday, so opted to stay in the condo while the 3 of us rented a pontoon boat to spend the day at "Shell Island". Less than 10 minutes after we dropped anchor, John got nailed by a stingray. It literally knocked him down.... and he's a big boy.

Bled like a stuck pig. Cleaned up the wound using a borrowed first aid kit. He felt a bit nauseous, so called the rental joint to ask if there was anything that he should be doing. (I offered to pee on him, but he politely declined.... accepted my Adolph's Meat Tenderizer instead).

The next thing you knew, we were headed back to the marina. A jet ski picked him up and took him about a mile away to the St. Andrews State Park where paramedics were waiting.

We were very impressed. Turns out that they were worried about an allergic reaction to the protein in the sting.

Managed to get $50 back of the $190 and headed home. The guys told John to soak his foot in the hottest water that he could stand. Within a couple of hours, the 4 of us were swimming on our beach.

So.... it was a fun and exciting visit with dear friends. Will be posting pictures above.

Hope all is well.... things are great here!