Seashells Collected at PCB
Last Friday, 8/12/2011, my b.f. and I took an over night trip down to Panama City Beach. It was nice to be able to go and not have to focus on anything else but eating, sun, and the water. We stayed at the Fontainebleu, which was my first time. Staying there reminded me of the stories that my mom and dad use to tell me about when they stayed in PCB and how that was the "it" place to stay. Our tiny room had been renovated and had new appliances, paint, cabinets, etc. but you could still feel that sense of oldness. Anyhow it was cheap, $89 a night, and right on the beach... Right beside the private residence beach of Bid-A-Wee.
We had a great time, we ate at Angelo's steak house on Friday night. Steak, at the beach? WEIRD!, I know right? Well if you have been down that way you know that is the place to go and has the world best steaks. I have been going to Angelo's since I was kid and was always amazed by the HUGE bull outside. That night I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into a juicy steak, but for the first time ever my steak, on the inside, was tough. Boy was I sad. I think it was just a bad cut of meat because it seemed to have a lot of what looked like tendons on the inside and they were tough to cut thru. Now, seeing as how a single meal generally costs $20, I had to complain. I didn't really want to because the taste of the steak was AMAZING, but I feel like for the price I should have gotten something better in return. The manager there was very nice and had me another entire meal cooked, sadly by the time I got it my b.f. had already finished his meal. The manager was generous enough to remove my meal from the bill and I sat there and ate my delicious steak.
Please keep in mind I am generally not the type to complain but I think I handled this quite well. Honestly we didn't even expect my meal to be removed I just wanted another steak,I do think it was nice that the manager took into consideration the fact that I would be eating alone. Needless to say we left our waitress a pretty hefty tip and left. I understand things happen and I will continue to go back.
On Saturday, we woke up and went to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville for lunch. I had a turkey burger, which is normally very good, but it turned out dry this time. I didn't complain and I ate it because any other time I have eaten there in the previous years my food has been amazing. I love that place, they play great music, and it sits right across from the beach in front of Pier Park. After we got done eating we headed out to the beach where we collected the shells above. Now, I haven't been down there since BEFORE the oil spill in the gulf. The water was so full of seaweed it looked black but the sandbars were clear so if you could make it out to one of those it was okay. Since my b.f. had just spent the week watching Shark Week on the discovery channel he was totally distressed about getting in that "murky water where sharks like to hunt". lol Well I braved it and went out into the water because I was roasting like a chicken in an oven and he decided to look for shells on the shore. After I got tired of trying to beat the tide I went up with him and started collecting shells too. What distressed me the most were these black looking shells and even a piece of sand dollar we found. We even found that piece of shell that looked like it had been burned. It made me wonder if these were shells that were effected by the oil spill. I have never seen so many black shells like we did that day it was very odd. I am not much of an environmentalist but it did upset me that a place that I grew up taking family vacations there was effected by the BP oil spill. I sort of felt violated. My mother has been in uproar since all of this took place and even stated if she was able to should would help with the relief effort, but after my visit there and picking up these shells I started to feel a bit of her anger.
After gathering shells we jumped in the car and headed home, my b.f. sunburned and me content that I got a mini vacation and was able to enjoy the beach.
Now, almost a week later, we are back in Athens, I'm back in school and he is recovering from sun poisoning because he thinks sun block is for sissies. I hope I get to visit again soon.
Until next time...
