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We’re finally at the end of tomato season, which means one thing: make that last fabulous tomato pie while they’re still bright red and juicy (and the Vidalias are still easy to find), and imagine that it’s still summer and there aren’t fallen leaves all over the yard yet.
…mural at Joe Patti’s seafood market in Pensacola
When I was in college, Panama City Beach was *the* place to go. We didn’t act crazy, but we were poor college students and would stick six or seven or eight of us girls in a hotel room on weekends so we could afford to just go and soak up the sun and splash around and act silly and neverrrr tell boys the truth about what hotel we were staying at, because weirdos. Remember when MTV would go to PCB and Daytona and the islands to do Spring Break shows in the 90s and it was all Hawaiian Tropic and Body Glove and crunch socks with white Reeboks and Colin Quinn completely out of his mind (and off-script)? Yeah. What I remember is that no one could afford PCB on SB because someone at least 24 had to sign for the room with a credit card and the rooms were — I don’t know — 5x what they were the rest of the summer, and none of our parents were going to do that. So my SB were always less beach and more catching rays via plastic-lounger-in-the-backyard so it at least *looked* like my vacay game was strong.
Aaaaahhhh college.
Now that we have kids, we’re thinking about where we can go that it’s all family and fun. Usually we like to stay right on the beach, but I noticed that the Sheraton Bay Point Resort was crazy inexpensive (and had just had a $30M renovation as it was rebranded to a SPG property) so we decided to give it a go. It also has a spa, a Nicklaus Design golf course (golfboards?), and tennis courts.
The hotel is right on St. Andrew’s Bay, so while we weren’t watching the Gulf’s waves roll in, we flipflopped over a long boardwalk past the hotel’s waterfront bar/grill and further to another little private island where we played for a long time in shallow water that went out for a long distance. We also saw more hermit crabs than ever. It was super fun (sorry I didn’t take my phone out there for pics!). And there were a couple of pools closer to the hotel that we really enjoyed as well. Just a great experience.
Our room:
This is the view from one of the bridges driving out. Fab:
For supper, we tried Firefly, which is in a rather boring-looking shopping center. Don’t let that keep you from making a reservation. We waited here for a couple of minutes while our OpenTable res opened up:
and then were seated in the main dining room which has this large faux light-bedecked tree in the middle, which was actually more charming than it looks here:
Every single thing was delicious. The boys were happy with their kids menu, and we all shared bites of this stuffed filet, and the fish below too:
Just delicious, delicious, delicious. We will come here again next time as well.
They’re like, “mom, can we look all whatever next to this tree and you take our picture?” — yes, lovebugs!
Sitting on 30a, I looked over and saw this perfect scene of the bicycle parked in this tree-lined path. I jumped out of the car and voila:
If there’s anything that makes me feel like my mommy points are just skyrocketing, it is taking the boys to a u-pick farm. We’re doing nature, we’re joyfully swinging baskets of fruit, we’re just basking in family time. So imagine the delight when we happened upon Rolling Rock Muscadine Vineyard in Boaz, Alabama. We were on our way to another u-pick vineyard further up Sand Mountain, but saw a little sign and we turned onto one road and turned onto another and turned yet again and made it to these really sweet people’s farm.
Muscadines, scuppernongs.
It’s jelly time now. Love.
Although we were expecting 100+ for this year’s sukkah party here at our home this past Sunday, Hurricane Nate came in and canceled everything. Oh well, next year! In the meantime, here’s the cake we designed. Chag Sameach!
The 2017 Alabama Historical Association (AHA) fall pilgrimage will be later this month, centering on Abbeville, Alabama, which is just ripe to be the setting for a mid-century period film. Jimmy Rane, the ‘Yella Fella’ (if you’ve ever been to a lumber yard or just watched an Auburn game on tv, you likely know his Great Southern Wood Co) is responsible for so much of the preservation here: what would be vacant storefronts become throwback shop windows to when kids wore Buster Brown or Red Goose shoes and one bought Philco radios.
I’m going to miss meeting Jimmy (it’s during my birthday weekend and we have other plans) and getting to tour more of the town, but we were there this summer and got to walk around with the boys, including a lunch at Huggin’ Molly’s, a restaurant and soda fountain that is now the home to the fixtures from a 1926 drugstore shop in Pittsburgh. Also: the place is named after a town legend:
…a giant of a woman, maybe 7 feet tall and as big around as a bale of cotton.
Some say her ghost still walks the streets of Abbeville late in the night, sweeping her black skirt as she goes. If she happens upon you, she chases you down, gives you a huge hug and screams in your ear.
While the food is what it is: easy lunch food, the people are friendly. The manager came around and was explaining that the Coca-Cola sign hanging here is worth as much or more than everything else in the building put together, as it’s one of only a very few still extant:
As cute as the downtown area is during the day, it’s even more impressive at night when the signs are lit and the neon is going.
Johnny’s Wild Game Processing in Eufaula, Alabama
(took this pic earlier this year, processed it with Hipstamatic)
Usually when we’re in Pensacola, it’s for business plus family beach time, but this trip was purely business — and short — so we decided to stay in the city and finally try the Grand Hotel which is built into the old train station. It’s not especially grand, but was interesting to see the tilework and fixtures from the older part of the property.
If you’re thinking that’s it’s vaguely Crowne Plaza-ish at the top strip, it’s because until a few years ago, it was a CG. I’m not sure if the franchisee didn’t want to keep up with IHG standards of upkeep, but the rooms still have familiar emerald green carpeting and dark furnishings.
It’s not particularly easy to get a good picture of the exterior as it’s so close to the highway. It’s a popular place to stay when there’s a concert or game going on at the arena across the street.
The train station was built in 1912 to replace the 1882 L&N Union Station. It eventually went vacant in 1971 and developers added a 15-story hotel tower to give the site new life.
It’s like 1984 met the Haunted Mansion with that sofa in the lobby.
The room was okay — nothing great but not terrible, the bed was alright but the bathroom was small. The trains still do run right by the hotel at all hours. If you’re a light sleeper, you might want to plan for whistles/horns/whatev and make it a Benadryl/diphenhydramine kinda night.
And the view was…
“There’s so many external beautiful art but internal the good heart is most important thing. I always say be a good person a warm-hearted person because that is important”
Just thinking of this quote by Tenzin Deshek, a Tibetan Buddhist monk who lives in Alabama and created this sand mandala in April at the Birmingham Museum of Art. We got to see him take the sands — tiny marble particles — and tap them along, making lines and filling in voids:
There was an article in the San Antonio paper this week about the mandala made there, and what happens once it’s completed:
After the ceremony, the monks cleared away the sand, placing it in hundreds of small plastic bags that were distributed to viewers. They then walked to the nearby San Antonio River, depositing the remaining sand in the water, where it flowed downstream and disappeared.
It made me think of tashlich (a symbolic act of tossing away past bad acts and gaining a fresh slate), which was done this year with a congregation at the beach. This year, my boys saw some jellyfish floating around, and seagulls always swoop in once they see bits of bread floating about too. The crumbs eventually flow away with the waves and disappear. It’s a time to reflect and think about improvement.
“There’s so many external beautiful art but internal the good heart is most important thing.”
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