Take my food tour

Yep, more vacay pics. You know you're not tired of em yet. Admit it.
And let's just be honest people...part of the fun of vacation is eating out, right?
Well buckle up cuz I'm about to take you on a food tour.

They say to check out local dives...I don't know if you've ever heard of the Donut Hole, but it's open 24 hours and they serve a mean breakfast and some dandy doughnuts donuts. We had ourselves some eggs, hashbrowns and gravy 'n bickets (biscuits for you proper folk) and then we took our friends some donuts. I bought one just special for me though. Blueberry cake donuts are the bestest. But I did share with Jen & Christy. They said they love em too. See? I can be nice. But before I leave this section, I hafta tell ya about the Donut Hole's famous key lime pie. Oh, my bad. I can't do that cuz the two nights we stopped for some they were out. Remember, they're open 24 hours. I'm thinkin' ok you tell me you have to come earlier (in the night) but yet you're open 24 hours. That means you never close. That means you should ALWAYS have the stinkin' key lime pie you claim to be famous for on your doggone sign. People - use your brain!

Oh, and you may not believe this but Anthony and I had never EVER been to IHOP. Well, we can't say that no mo. Cuz we went. And it was good. I had stuffed french toast (bottom left corner in above collage pic) and Anthony had himself an omelette. With bacon. And cheese. And happiness was apparently stuffed in there somewheres cuz he sure was a-smilin.

Anthony and I were in Destin in 2009 for my niece's wedding. That was the summer we discovered Whataburger (and fell in love). So ever since this trip was planned, we been talkin' bout some Whataburger. It's really good fast food. Think Sonic burger, but way more tasty. And their fries are thebomb.com fo sho. Anyhoo... We left Sunday for Fort Walton and came home Sairdee (that's Saturday)...Anthony and I might have eaten Whataburger 4 times. Maybe. Once was for breakfast. Not sure if that makes it any better. They have a honey butter chicken bisket that'll make ya smack ya momma. I seriously think Joey wanted to eat there every day.  

Are you hungry yet?! I had shrimp pretty much everywhere we went til the end of the week when I kinda was ready to surprise my palette. :-P We did Hog's Breath Cafe and did the bbq thang. It was right!!! Anthony's gnawin' on ribs from there in this here collage. We (just me and the sweetie) also went to Pompano Joe's on the beach. Cool place, great food and love sittin' on the beach. The bottom left corner is my plate from there - island shrimp with a mango andouille sausage chutney to beat the band do you hear me? Seemed like everybody wanted to serve new potatoes and corn on the cob with the seafood. I liked it. Just sayin.

Fudpuckers should be DUDpuckers. None of us were impressed. The only neat thing is they let you write on the wall...and the chairs... and the tables... and even the light fixtures... my name is on a table there. When I'm dead and gone, yall can go see my name. Isn't that special?

My inlaws took the kids for pizza and arcade fun one night so we could go out without the squirts sweet children. We went to the Crab Trap (also on the beach although we didn't sit out there poo) and had great food. Then we went to hear a Bon Jovi cover band. They sounded like em and even looked like em. Pretty cool, but we didn't stay for their whole set. Went to Walmart. Geez, that sounds lame even as I type it. Oh well.

Anthony and I saw Forrest Gump on our first date. So the restaurant is kinda cool to us. At the table, they ask you movie trivia and Anthony knew nearly every question our server threw at us. And our fish and chips were killer. McKenzie got a piece of key lime pie to go so I stole a couple bites when we got back to the condo. It was good, but I was still sore I didn't get a piece from the stupid Donut Hole.  

Ya know you're on vacation when you're in Krispy Kreme's drive thru at midnight. LOL

I think I'm gonna buy me a sign like this

and post it near my desk at work...

There was this place called Shake's. Always people there. Must be good, right? Yeah, it was. So good that we went TWICE... 1st time I got a cake batter shake and boring Anthony got a chocolate shake. Kenz got butterscotch. She was the only one with us that night. Not sure how that happened, but when we got back to the condo, two little boys were not happy. So we had to go later on in the week to even things out... what a heartbreaker... That time I got a concrete (like a Blizzard but bettuh) that was key lime pie flavuh. Campbell's ain't the only one who can say mmm, mmm good. Shake's is the place to go for a milkshake babay!

And when you're waiting for a table, what better to do than take a pic?! Never let a Kodak moment pass ya by. I love this shot of the kiddos. Gonna put it on Janice's calendar ...

Kayak on the ocean memories...

The fellas decided to rent a kayak...

for merely one Andrew Jackson, you can rent

this here kayak for an hour.

That's 60 minutes. That's a lot of rowin' for a long time ...

The fellas didn't fare so well. They flipped it twice before they ever got outta the knee deep water. LOL They were providing entertainment for all of us on the shoreline. Then they got waaay out there with Dawson and flipped a third time (thank Heaven for life jackets).

We watched. Dawson hopped right back up in the boat.

We watched. Joey and Anthony stayed in the water. And stayed. And stayed.

The guy that rented the kayaks asked if we thought he should go help em and we said nah. Eventually Anthony got back in, but Joey never did.

They said it was hard to get back up in the boat when your feet can't touch bottom. excuses

Christy and I decided to give it a try...

and we didn't flip. Not once.

The fellas tried to use an excuse or two, but the real truth is, they just couldn't handle the fierce waves and were jealous of how AWESOME us girls were at the rowing. And the balancing. And the supreme turning and navigating. We pretty much looked like pros.

Better luck next time guys.

Memories at the beach (part II)

Sooo not finished sharing about vacay with ya.
One day we got up and it was a wee bit overcast so we went to the Gulfarium.
It's kinda like a mini Sea World... pretty nifty 

Probably my favorite part of our visit to Gulfarium was the show Zach put on. He's a dolphin...

And he can jump, surf, and play ball... he's 17 yrs old I'm not sure if that's old in dolphin years

And who can resist a cutout... love Anthony's expression
he said he wasn't ready, but when Lyndy's got the cam aireebody better be ready at any time for a pic
and I've decided they always make the holes for your face too big...I mean, really... are they cutting them for like GIANTS or what?! They're always always too big!

The Sea lions were pretty entertaining. . .
I think the boys petted some sting rays, but seein' as how I can barely squish a spider, I am not tryin' to get that friendly with somethin slimy. They were river otters and sharks too (no worries, not for petting) and a big ole humongo sea turtle guy.

The kiddos... aren't they cute? 

So this dude caught our eye bein' as we're big Office fans... he's a dead ringer for a TAN version of Steve Carell, right? You see it? After we stared a few minutes, he happened to join us at a table in between shows. I, being the un-shy person I am, said so has anyone ever told you you look like Steve Carell? He smiles and says yeah, I get that a lot, it's kinda a running joke any time we go on a trip to see how many people will ask. I was the first to ask this trip. He's from North Carolina, but he should go on out to Hollywood and see if he could be a stunt double for S-C. Lol

Charlie the bird likes to sit on people's shoulders...

he nibbled Dawson's ear :-P

We made MEMORIES at the beach-yo!

  VACATIONS ROCK!!!!

And lemme tell ya BEEEEAUTIFUL it was...Fort Walton Beach is my kinda place, oh yeeeah.

I love fences along the sand dunes. Maybe I should've scooped up summathat sand and smuggled it back to the hills o' Tennessee, slung it in my back yard and put me up a fence... it's just a thought...
.

This here is the whole crazy crew. Anthony's parents, the sis and her 8 yr old, the stepbro and his fam-uh-lee. . .
they were pretty good company for the trip.
Mental notes: Ocean breeze interferes with hairdos and dresses... my dress kept gettin' poofy on me and made me look larger than life. Not cool. Next time will def pack tripod cuz if you know me, you know I HATE givin' my cam to anyone, especially an untrained stranger, and you never get the pic you want unless you take it yourself...but at least we memorialized the occasion and got a decent group pic.
Please know more pics and stories to come...you will get tired of hearin' bout our vacay. I will proly annoy ya with my hilarious tales and colorful anecdotes, but if you enjoy 'em, post me a comment.

A rare occasion...

Had a crappy week... husband came through with flowers just cuz he loves me...

Sure feels good to be loved...
smells good, too (the flowers that is...) 

Last weekend...a late post...

Last Saturday we had ourselves a house fulla boys!

You may be thinkin' oh, you poor thing. It was awesome!!!!

I invited 'em all and they played and behaved

and were pretty cool to hang out with.

Meet the fellas...

L-R Camden (10), Anthony (34 LOL),

Dawson (8) and Cullen (13 going on 20)

(disclaimer: it's not our pool...thank Heaven for neighbors that are family & have a cool pool)

Yeah, there was swimming, shooting, surfing,

cannon balls and can openers and even some wrestling...

boys will be boys...

There was Risk, Trouble, Cranium (cuz you know I love some board games!), wiffle ball and football (remember, they're all boys).

I spared you the pics of the old fogeys (me and Anth) playing the outdoor sports. ha!

 I love this pic of my man!

Anthony felt the urge to grab the ole Martin and play Dawson's favorite song: Toes by Zac Brown Band. You ain't ever seen such a grin on a kid's face... well, here it is -

He played shy a minute, but then sang along with Uncle Anthony. One o' these days maybe we'll get us one of them fancy dancy video camera thangs...

All three spent the night...a first for Dawson... so the living room becomes a dorm room... kinda like camping out, without the bugs and the stars and the critters and what not

The Carver brothers (as Anthony calls 'em)

were too cute handsome all dressed up for church.

A picture worth takin' dontcha think?!

Let freedom ring...

I'm sure every blogger has already posted their 4th of July weekend recap except me. I'm a loser. For someone who often complains of boredom, I catch myself saying how bizzy I am an awful lot lately... but any the whooo

Had a few late nights over the weekend for a couple reasons. A friend had some relationship woes that wise ole Anthony & Lyndy (aka relationship experts-wink, wink) had to sorta counsel her through. And when I say late, I'm just sayin' this ole gal ain't stayed up til 2 am since Friends was still airing first run epis, ya know what I mean? Anyway, all is well in lover's lane. Hmm, maybe we should start charging for our services. ha

Anth went to U2 Saturday night. Been talkin' bout it ever since. Glad he went. It was epic (so I'm told).
When he took off for that, I went to swim with Lisa & Riley (always fun) and when I got done with that, I ran me 5 miles (cuz I love the good feelin' after a run) and then I settled into the recliner for a little mind numbing tv. I had every intention of doing some scrapbooking, but I was mighty pooped. I fell asleep sometime after midnight (couldn't hold out for the hubby's return)... and btw, if you fall asleep watching Ice Cream Unwrapped on Food Network you will dream about milkshakes. Trust me.

Sunday night was our church pic-uh-nic and far-works. It was right nice. Had myself a goot ole time. Riley poo came and I played with him and snapped his pic a few dozen times.

Good times, it was good times I tell ya.

It was a vacation day...

So since dedicated worker Anth couldn't take a day off, I of course asked my sister-in-law/best friend if me, her and the boys might be able to work out a swim day... and we did!

 Yeah, Cullen is like me...has to hold his nose jumpin' in the H20.

 Tough guys... too cool for school

Right now you're jealous because my nephews are so hunky... but please don't sin on my account. The good book says "Thou shalt not covet" (Lyndy's hunky nephews)
Oh, and it just so happens that the 13 yr old had his first driving experience this week, too. Do it Cullen! Um, well it was only from the driveway to the grass. Leslie text me and said: Oh my goodness, he has lots to learn :-)

This is what Saturdays are made for...

Got up and ran 3 miles. Now you're sayin' 'Good for you Lyndy.'
Went to swim with my sweetheart (the 3 yr old one, not my hunky hubby)

Went back that night to have grilled burgers (yum)...

And to play with stuffed animals, cars, dinosaurs, and playdoh (pretty much anything Riley wants to do)

This is what a Playdoh gun fight looks like.

And we watched a movie...the Unknown... and had awesome popcorn... what's a movie without popcorn?! and then there was apple pie (a la mode no less) and of course lotsa great fellowshippin' with our friendses...

Ahhh... this my friends...this is what Saturdays are made for.