Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday Mom.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Tom Thumb's Rooster - Update

I posted the other day about the rooster that lives at the Tom Thumb convenience store in the Perdido Key area.


The Island King has a friend that lives in that area and he called the other day and told the Island King that on Monday someone from Tom Thumb's corporate office showed up and took the rooster away.

He's been deemed a nuisance and I guess that someone in the Tom Thumb world decided that a rooster living at one of their stores was unacceptable.

That's too bad.

I liked the idea of a convenience store rooster.

I hope he ended up in a good home and not on a plate somewhere.

The End Of The Billy Bowlegs Treasure Hunt

Every year, for as long as I can remember, the city of Fort Walton Beach has hosted the Billy Bowlegs Treasure Hunt as part of the 2 week long Billy Bowlegs Festival.

The treasure hunt is based on clues about the history of the City and sends treasure hunters all over the area, searching for historical buildings and parks. The treasure to find is a coin, hidden on public property somewhere in the city limits.

You have to know the history of our area to understand the clues, which appeals to the historian in me. I have bookshelves full of books about local history and every year I pour over them, searching for places and events that will help decipher the clues.

The treasure hunt lasts 7 days with the clues getting a little easier and more exact each day. The person who finds the coin wins a prize package from local merchants and the opportunity to ride on the Pirate float in the Bowlegs parade.

We look for the treasure every year because I WANT to find that coin. Each year when the first clue comes out I get excited and am convinced that this will be the year I find it. And we spend hours searching for it.

It's not about the prizes or getting to ride on the Bowlegs pirate ship in the parade (although that would be a LOT of fun) - it's about "finding" it.

Tuesday was the first day of the hunt and as soon as I woke up I went online to get the first clue.

I got to the website and there, instead of the first clue, are the new rules.

The clues now send you to a different merchant each day and once you've arrived you will be given a game piece. At the end of the week you will have collected 8 pieces and are to tape or glue them to the treasure map. Once you've successfully cut and pasted your "clues" you take your map to the Chamber of Commerce, where your name will be entered into a drawing. The name drawn wins the prize.

WHAT?!!!!!!

That's not a treasure hunt! That's a drawing. And all you have to do to be entered in the drawing is be able to glue 8 puzzle pieces on a map?

You've got to be kidding me.

To say that I'm disappointed is putting it mildly. This is something our whole family looks forward to every year and something that we really enjoy.

I understand that the Chamber is working for the better of our local businesses but
this has been an annual event for the past 40 years and shouldn't be turned into a forced shopping spree.

It started as a treasure hunt - let it stay a treasure hunt.

The Bowlegs treasure hunt offered a history lesson, a tour of the City parks and an opportunity for people to get outside and spend some time walking around the City.

This is a pirate festival for Pete's sake! You've gotta have a treasure hunt during a pirate festival.

And frankly, driving to 8 different businesses, cutting out 8 pieces of a puzzle, gluing them to a map and then throwing my name in a hat for a drawing is not a treasure hunt.

I guess I'll be scratching 'Find Bowlegs Coin' off my bucket list.

I hate it when that happens.

Lesson Learned

While we were on our camping trip we were getting ready to spend the day in the boat.
And a big part of getting ready for the beach or a boat trip is getting sunscreen on the kids.

They lined up and each took a turn getting sunscreen rubbed all over them and then it was the Oldest Island Boy's turn. He's big enough to put the sunscreen on most of his body but of course he can't do his back so I do that for him.

When it was his turn he didn't want any part of it. He wanted to run and play with some new friends he'd made in the park and after my calling him repeatedly he showed up with a really bad attitude.

He didn't want to put sunscreen on. Sunscreen is stupid and he wasn't going to need it, he said.

I argued with him for a minute and then got mad and told him to stand still so I could put the sunscreen on him.

He got mad too and stomped around for a minute, backtalking me the whole time. I was just getting ready to snatch a knot in his head when it occured to me that there was a better way to handle his bad attitude.

"Ok" I told him. "You know what's going to happen if you don't wear sunscreen and when it does I am not going to feel sorry for you at all. And any whining or complaining you do tonight because you're sunburned won't be tolerated."

He rolled his eyes at me and walked off.

We spent the day in the boat and I'll bet you can guess what happened that night.




Yep, the boy was sunburned.

I knew it would happen.

He knew it would happen.

That night he came up and gave me a hug and then told me that he was sorry that he'd acted ugly when I tried to put sunscreen on him and that I was right, it wouldn't have taken but a minute and it would have been so much better if he'd done it.

Sometimes he just has to learn things the hard way. He gets that from his mother.

He did learn though because Sunday morning he was first in the sunscreen line.

Tom Thumb's Rooster

While we were at Big Lagoon, my sister told me about a rooster that lives at the convenience store just down the road from where we were. She lives out in Perdido and sees him often.

She said the woman in the store told her that the rooster showed up a while back and never left. After a few days someone that works at the store started feeding him and now he's a permanent fixture.

I had to see this for myself so as we were leaving Sunday we pulled in for gas.

And there he was.



The clerk told us his name is Harry and that whenever he's hungry he jumps up on the propane tank display and pecks on the window.

He's never aggressive but recently he's been jumping on top of pick up trucks and walking around.

She said no one has complained yet but I don't think it will be long before somebody gets mad about the rooster walking on their truck.



The kids and I agree that we wish we had a rooster living at our Tom Thumb, it would definitely make trips to the store more interesting.

Camping At Big Lagoon

We spent the weekend camping at Big Lagoon State Park with my sister and her family and our friend MJ and her son.

Big Lagoon is in Pensacola and sits along the edge of the Intra-Coastal Waterway just across the bridge from Perdido Key.


It's a great park with lots of nature trails, sandy beaches along the Intra-Coastal, playgrounds for the kids and several good fishing spots for the Island King.


We drove over Friday afternoon and stayed Friday night and then my sister and MJ came over Saturday morning and we all stayed til Sunday evening.

Friday night we fried fish and relaxed around camp - which was good because Saturday morning we hit the ground running and didn't stop until we got home Sunday night.


After the kids went to bed Friday night the Island King and I were sitting by the fire talking and listening to the frogs and critters in the woods. There were some hushpuppies on the picnic table that we'd been snacking on and as the fire got low I saw something peek over the Island King's shoulder at me. It was dark and it took me a minute to realize there was a raccoon looking at me.

He was sitting on the edge of the table, maybe an inch behind the Island King and had been so quiet getting up there that we never heard him. The Island King turned around to shoo him off the table and the coon turned to run off but then stopped, turned back around, grabbed a hushpuppy, and then ran off. I guess he wasn't leaving without what he came for LOL

He was completely silent and a reminder that all of our food had to be put in the car before we went to bed.

Saturday morning came and it wasn't long after we'd finished breakfast that it got brutally hot. The camping area is surrounded by woods so there was no breeze at all and while it wasn't hot like it will be in August it was seriously unpleasant if you weren't in the shade.

As soon as my sister got her camp set up, my BIL went to get their boat. The rest of us packed our stuff and headed down to the beach to wait, where we went straight into the water.


Once my BIL arrived with the boat we were off to "Pirate Island" as my nephews call it.




The Oldest Island Boy is always trying to get his hair to spike and we found out that if you ride on the front of the boat with your mom, your hair will stand straight up and stay that way until you get it wet again LOL



Pirate Island is a spill island that been built up over the years with sand dredged from Pensacola Pass. Pensacola Bay is a deep water bay and home to Pensacola Naval Air Station so the pass has to be dredged every several years to allow deep water passage for the ships that come in and out of the pass.

The island is just inside the Pass, directly across from Fort McRae. The island has become a popular spot for boaters to anchor and spend the day.


It's a beautiful little island with Pensacola NAS to the north


Fort Pickens just across the Pass to the southeast


And Fort McRae across the channel to the south


Once we got the boat anchored the kids wanted to slide on their boogey boards down the big dunes on the island. That's not normally something they can do because it's very destructive to the dunes. Sand dunes are extremely important to our barrier islands because they protect the mainland from storm surge. But there was an obvious trail that people used to get up on top of the island and we decided the kids could try it - once.

The Oldest Island Boy got a running start and threw himself on his board, expecting to ride to the bottom of the hill like he sees people do on tv. Of course they're doing it in the snow, which is a lot different than soft sand.


As soon as his weight hit the board, the board dug into the sand and came to a complete stop while momentum kept his body going.


Plowing into the sand face first wasn't as fun as they thought it would be so back down to the boat they came to do a little jumping and swimming.




After a long day on the beach we cooked burgers on the grill and loaded up on Margaritas before taking the kids fishing.


The Island King was the center of attention when he pulled in the first fish. The kids didn't care that it was only a pinfish.


His glory didn't last long because MJ landed a much larger croaker LOL


It was late and the kids were tired so it wasn't long before we were back at our tents, ready for bed.

Sunday was cloudy but we spent the day fishing again. I took lots of pictures but obviously had something set wrong on the camera and none of the pictures turned out.

We really need to get a camera that I can operate LOL

We didn't catch anything but pinfish. The kids loved catching them and then letting them go again. They must have caught a dozen each and never got tired of it.

Late Sunday afternoon we headed for home. Tired and ready to sleep in our own beds again but already planning our next trip.

It was a lot of fun and hopefully we'll be doing it again soon.

War Birds

There are 2 retired men who live here in town that own vintage war planes.

Almost every afternoon they take off from the local airport and fly around until just before sunset.


A while back they hosted a fly-in for a group of other vintage plane owners and the airfield was filled with these cool old planes.





There have been a lot of letters in the newspaper lately about these guys and their planes. The majority of the letters are written by angry people who say the noise from these planes irritates them.

They are a little noisy but it's not like they hover over the house. You hear them, get a look and then they and their noise are gone.

I like them. I enjoy watching them fly overhead and the noise doesn't bother me.


There's something interesting about these old guys and their old planes. I guess those people writing nasty letters just don't have anything better to complain about.

We're Gonna Need Better Insurance

The other night I was so tired that I couldn't hold my eyes open any longer and at 8:00 I went to bed - which is extremely unusual for me.

And since I went to bed so early the boys were still up. They were playing quietly with their matchbox cars on the bar and I told them that at 9:00 they needed to go to bed. They agreed and off to dreamland I went.

The next morning the first thing the Island King said to me was "Did you see what YOUR son did?"

Well, no, I hadn't seen anything but whenever he refers to either of the boys as MY son I know it's not going to be good.

Hesitantly, I asked what had happened and he showed me this.




It's hard to tell from the picture but the tips of these tweezers are burnt and the metal has melted quite a bit.

I looked at them for a minute trying to decide what could possibly have happened and then he tells me that after I went to bed he was sitting at his computer and the Youngest Island Boy came running into the office, crying and saying "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" over and over again.

The Oldest came in behind him yelling "The whole back of the house is dark and I think I saw flames!"

The Island King said he panicked because while the boys were there with him and obviously safe, the Island Girl and I were in the back of the house asleep.

He grabbed a flashlight and went running down the hall - which was pitch black. He said he smelled a burnt smell but not smoke and the smoke detector wasn't going off but he was still in a panic trying to figure out what was going on.

As he got to the middle of the hallway the Oldest said "look at the plug on the wall" and there, sticking out of the socket, were the tweezers.

He kicked them out of the socket with his foot and then went and checked the breaker box, where sure enough, the breaker for the back of the house was tripped.

He turned the breaker back on and went back to the hall where he saw this.



The inside of the socket is black and obviously fried.

He said that the fear that the house was on fire had subsided but that when he saw the socket he lost it. All he could think about was how close the Youngest had just come to being electrocuted and how the spark that fried the socket could easily have caught the house on fire.

And when all of that sunk in he really lost it, turned to the Youngest and yelled "What in the hell?!!!!! You stuck tweezers in the plug outlet? You could have been killed, you could have burned the house down! WHY ON EARTH DID YOU DO THIS?"

The Island King is not a yeller (that's my department) and the Youngest was already freaked out, so when the Island King yelled at him, he went down in a sobbing heap on the floor.

The Island King calmed down and sat down on the floor with him and they had a long talk about what had just happened. How dangerous it was and how he should NEVER do that again.

The story goes that the Youngest was trying to catch a bug that flew into the socket.

Which isn't even a good story for Pete's sake.

His Dad and I are not buying it. He was sitting in the hall right next to the socket, saw a bug fly in, went and got the tweezers and then rammed them in the plug because he wanted to catch the bug?

He doesn't even like bugs.

I will never figure boys out and frankly I'm not sure there's an insurance company on earth that would insure us if they knew the boy.

Shrimp Creole - Island Family Style

Chef Troll over at the Troll Report is hosting a Culinary Throwdown Challenge. His challenge is for readers to put their own spin on a Southern food.

The Island King makes really good Shrimp Creole. He's definitely added his own touch so we made some for dinner last night and took pictures so we could share the recipe.

Try it sometime - you'll love it.

Here's what you need.

It looks like a lot but most of it is stuff that's already in the pantry.

Fry a pound of bacon.


Yes, all recipes that come out of our kitchen start with a pound of bacon.
We love bacon.

The bacon doesn't go in the Shrimp Creole but you'll need the bacon grease.


Obviously, you can use any kind of oil you want but in my opinion, bacon grease just makes it taste better.

Next, peel the shrimp. We bought Bay shrimp with the heads off.




We chopped up a green pepper, 2 celery stalks, 2 onions, 2 cloves of garlic and a small bunch of scallions.


Then we sauteed the pepper, celery and onion or the "Trinity" as the creole say in a tablespoon of vegetable oil.


Once the vegetables are tender we put them aside to cool.

And we bring out this. This is brown gold and once you start cooking with it you'll never want to stop.


Pour room temperature bacon grease (or vegetable oil) into a large pot.

Using a sifter

Shake brown flour into pot and whisk flour and oil together. There will be some clumping but that's ok.

We use a BBQ brush instead of a whisk if we're using a non-stick pot.

Once the flour and oil are mixed add the sauteed vegetables.


Turn the burner on to medium heat and add crushed tomatoes, canned tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, Crystal hot sauce, sugar, salt, pepper and parsley.


Let simmer for 30 minutes and then add shrimp.


Let simmer for about five more minutes - just until shrimp is pink and done.


Serve over white rice with a side of garlic bread and enjoy!

This has a wonderful Shrimp Creole flavor but the brown flour and the crushed tomatoes add a hearty, almost gumbo like quality to it.

Now head over to Chef Troll's place and see what other spins have been added to our favorite Southern recipes.


Shrimp Creole
1 Small Bunch Green Onions, Chopped
2 Celery Stalks, Chopped
1 Green Pepper, Chopped
2 Onions, Chopped
1 Clove Garlic, Minced
28 Ounce Can Crushed Tomatoes
14.5 Ounce Can Diced Tomatoes
4 ½ Tablespoons Brown Flour
1/3 Cup Bacon Grease
1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt
½ Teaspoon Pepper
1 Tablespoon Parsley
3 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
4 Dashes Crystal Hot Sauce
2 ½ Pounds Shrimp