Navarre Beach Day 3, part 2

So, after spending some time on the beach at Gulf Islands National Seashore, we headed to Pensacola Beach and Fort Pickens. It's a scenic drive to Pensacola Beach - we saw lots of pretty scenery (and homes). We also saw the new Margaritaville hotel - pretty impressive!!

Fort Pickens was built from 1829-1834 and was named after Major General Andrew Pickens of South Carolina. It was one of only four forts never held by the Confederates during the Civil War. According to the Fort Pickens website, "Ten concrete gun batteries, including one in the middle of the historic fort, were built from the 1890s through the 1940s, each a response to a particular threat. Atomic bombs, guided missiles, and long-range bombers made such forts obsolete by the end of World War II and the Army abandoned the forts. The fort became part of a popular Florida State Park until the creation of Gulf Islands National Seashore in 1971. Following extensive repairs by the National Park Service, the fort was reopened in 1976."

Apparently, Fort Pickens is supposed to be haunted. And after seeing some of the battlements & reading the stories of what happened there, I can understand why. It's creepy down inside those places!

This last picture was taken from Fort Pickens, and is the Pensacola Lighthouse, across Pensacola Bay. It's supposed to be the most haunted lighthouse in the US, a fact of which I was unaware until we got back to the condo. If I had known, I would've insisted upon taking a tour! I wanted to do the Ghost Tour of the Red-Light District, but unfortunately, it was only offered on Oct. 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, 29. I'll remember that for next year, LOL!

Stay tuned for Day 4!!

Navarre Beach Day 3, part 1

On our third day in Florida, I managed to catch another gorgeous sunrise from our balcony. I could definitely get used to seeing this every morning!

Then it was off to breakfast at a local place called the Sailors' Grill, Bakery, & Bar. This place is part of Juana's Pagoda's, which is right on the bay by the park. You can drive, walk, or arrive by boat. It never seemed to be crowded in the morning (and we were soon to figure out why), but it was always crowded in the evening. Well, the bar and the beach volleyball courts were crowded. It seemed to be very popular with the 20-something crowd. The decor was beach funky & I liked it a lot. Too bad the food was horrible. We ordered omelets & potatoes - how hard is it to make a decent omelet? These were the worst eggs I've ever tasted - they didn't even taste like eggs. The only thing that redeemed the entire breakfast was the homemade wheat toast & cinnamon roll. Oh. My. Goodness. We ended up going back a couple of times just to get cinnamon rolls to go!

After breakfast, we decided to drive down Gulf Blvd./Hwy. 399 toward Pensacola Beach. We stopped at the Gulf Islands National Seashore on Santa Rosa Island just to take in the beautiful scenery & enjoy the weather/beach.

After that, we headed further down the road to Pensacola Beach and Fort Pickens - and I'll tell you about that in Part 2!!

Navarre Beach Day 2

Since I went to bed early our first day in Navarre Beach, I woke up at 6:30am on Day 2 - just in time to catch the beginning of sunrise. Beautiful!!

Gus and I decided to head over to Destin for the day. We started by having breakfast at Callahan's Restaurant & Deli - one of our favorite places. When we first came to Destin in 1998, Callahan's was just a little hole-in-the-wall deli that had a few tables for indoor dining. It was always packed, but the food was delicious. Then a few years ago, they moved to a larger building (much needed!) just up Harbor Blvd. a bit. The inside of Callahan's reminds me of First Watch, just bigger. And I don't think I've ever had anything there that wasn't delicious - I highly recommend it!

After breakfast, we made a quick stop at Sunsations to pick up some t-shirts for Lulu & Buddy (and me, LOL!), then we headed to Crystal Beach to hang out for the day. The Crab Trap restaurant shares the beach with James Lee Park along Scenic Hwy. 98 - and the beach is wide, with restrooms, a changing house, and easy access. We ate at the Crab Trap every year until about 3-4 years ago when the service & food quality went down & the prices went up. So we skipped that again this year. But we really enjoyed the beach, and it wasn't crowded at all.

After several hours at the beach, we decided to just head back to the condo and enjoy a quiet dinner on the balcony.

And we also got to see three stingrays in the water in front of our balcony!

And later, a little stroll past the pool, down the walkway, & out to the beach...

Stay tuned for Day 3!!

Navarre Beach, Day 1

As I mentioned yesterday, my wonderful husband, Gus, recently took me to Florida for a week to celebrate my upcoming 50th birthday. We love the Destin area, but this time we opted to stay in a penthouse condo on Navarre Beach (which is about halfway between Pensacola & Destin).

We stayed at the Beach Colony Resort (in the east building), which is on the east end of Navarre Beach, just a couple of doors down from the Navarre Pier and Navarre Beach Park. We were on the 17th floor, which afforded us a gorgeous view at all hours. Karen, the condo owner, was a dream to work with, and she has thought of just about everything to make her condo "like home".

I can't say enough about the view from the balcony. It was simply stunning - and so relaxing to just sit out there & soak it all in. You could literally feel the stress just float away.

Even the view from the 17th floor elevator lobby was gorgeous!

I happened to find a Groupon deal for a local restaurant, Guglielmo's, so we decided to give that a try our first night there. Fabulous!! With our Groupon deal, we paid $29 for an appetizer, two entrees (which included salad, bread, & dipping oil), and two glasses of the house wine. Great deal! For the appetizer, we had the fried mozzarella with homemade marinara - yummy! For the entree - I had the cappellini Toscana, and Gus had the veal piccata. Simply delicious! But the best thing of all was the bread with dipping oil. Oh. My. Gosh. The dipping oil had garlic, basil, & red pepper flakes and I swear, it was like crack. We ate 3 loaves of bread!! So if you ever make it to the Destin area, I highly recommend Guglielmo's (they have several locations).

We were pretty tired after getting up at 4am - and after stuffing ourselves with all of the carbs at Guglielmo's, LOL - so we called it a night pretty early. But not before enjoying the sunset from our balcony & the beach.

These next two pics are two of my favorites!!

Stay tuned for Day 2!!

Why no posts?

In case you've been wondering why there haven't been any recent bog posts from me - it's mostly because I was on vacation with Gus for a week!! I will be "celebrating" my 50th birthday this year, and my wonderful husband asked me if I would like a trip or a party. Really, was there any need to ask? Of course, I chose the trip - and we went to Navarre Beach, Florida.

We've been vacationing in the Destin area for about 13 years now, but we had never stayed in Navarre Beach (which is about halfway between Pensacola & Destin). The weather was absolutely perfect, the condo (and view) was amazing, and we had the best time ever. I took about 500 pictures, and once I edit those down to a manageable amount, I'll post some here.

The other reason I've been missing in action is more back problems. If you remember, I had surgery on a disc in my neck back in May. That surgery was completely successful, and all of my symptoms had disappeared. However, I continued to have pain & weakness in my legs. The MRI of my lumbar spine showed a couple of bulging discs, but nothing too bad. I kept going to physical therapy and finally started to get some relief. Then about 3 weeks ago, I started having pain in the middle of my back. Sometimes, it felt like my ribcage was in a vise - like someone was squeezing me - making it uncomfortable, painful, & difficult to breathe. I also started having increased weakness in my left leg - along with decreased reflexes (causing me to stumble at times). My neurosurgeon ordered a MRI of my thoracic spine, which showed a severely herniated disc at the T6-7 level. When the office called me to have me come in, they said it was to "discuss my options" - when I got there & saw the doctor, he said the disc was compressing my spinal cord & decreasing the blood flow - and if I didn't have surgery, I would become paralyzed from the mid-chest down. Hmmm - that doesn't sound like an option to me! LOL!

This surgery is a little riskier than the last one, and I admit I'm more than a little scared. I have absolute faith in my surgeon, but I'm still scared. He will be going in through my back, removing part of the vertebra to get to the disc, removing the disc, then inserting two rods & screws to stabilize my spine. Unfortunately, the spinal cord is right there (along with a lot of blood vessels), so he has to be very careful. He mentioned that there is a significant amount of post-op pain. Just what you want to hear, right? I'll be staying in the hospital overnight (assuming everything goes okay), and I shouldn't need to wear a brace. So those are good things.

Gus has been amazing, as usual. (Well, okay - he's pretty pesty, but his intentions are good!) He has pretty much taken over the household chores again & calls or texts me several times a day to make sure I haven't fallen down. See? Pesty, but good intentions.

Surgery is scheduled for October 31, so I'm just hanging in there until then. I can't sit up for very long, but I'm going to try to at least get my vacation posts done before I have surgery. I'm hoping that I don't have to postpone my birthday dinner at Buca di Beppo's - and I have to get back on my feet quickly because Gus has promised me a birthday shopping trip to the outlet mall!! What a guy!!