Fort Pickens Campground — Gulf Islands National Seashore (GINS), Florida
Temps: Lo TBD / Hi 71F (TBD / 22C)
This cold front came with plenty of rain to give us a good soaking. I was about to step out for a walk while Mui was off running errands this morning when the skies opened up in a downpour. That was about 8:00a. Except for a few short breaks, the rain hasn’t stopped since. The direction and strength of the rain even caused our first leak — seepage really — in the motorhome. Looks like the water found a miniscule opening in the slide seals. Nothing serious; the carpet is already drying out.
Before you ask, the sunrise above is not from this morning; those gorgeous colors were what we woke up to yesterday, so let me go back to …
Although we had a very colorful sunrise, the sun didn’t grace Mui’s birthday! Yup; he has turned a year older. I won’t say how old, but there is a 5 and a 7 involved … you figure it out. In the meantime, the beautiful sunrise we enjoyed from our campsite deserves some more recognition … they do say that a picture is worth a thousand words.
With our departure from here just days away, we wanted to get in one more trike ride. Gearing up, we cycled over to Fort Pickens, wandered around the fortifications for a bit, and chatted at length with one of the rangers. (By the way, she confirmed that the bunker we came across on the Gulf-side beach is indeed from the coastal artillery system; probably for ammo storage.)
We spent much of the afternoon at home, just relaxing and doing some road-prep chores. Around 3:30p, we left to celebrate Mui’s birthday with an early dinner and a movie. I’d made a promise to myself not to take any more bird photos. I did OK until I spied a nesting pair of great blue herons in the trees as we were exiting the campground. Then, all bets were off. The bonus — we got to see a bit of blue skies and sunshine at that moment too.
The Great Blue Heron on the nest was displaying to the one on the branch.
Wouldn’t it be great to see the whole cycle from courting to the hatching of the eggs?
I could have stayed there watching the herons for hours, but we had other plans in the works, so after about 15 minutes we moved on.
First on the agenda was dinner at a restaurant to which Chuck and Anneke introduced us in September — McGuire’s Irish Pub. We had so enjoyed our meal there that when I asked Mui where he wanted to go for his birthday dinner, he had no doubts in his mind about returning to this eatery, which is located inside Pensacola’s original 1927 Old Firehouse.
McGuire’s bills itself as a “turn of the century New York Irish Saloon.”
[photo on the left is a screenshot from the website]
This double-decker bus sits in the parking lot;
no way you can miss it when you turn onto East Gregory Street!
The early hour meant that we did not have to wait to be seated. In fact, we had the Irish Whiskey Dining Room entirely to ourselves.
Here’s the Birthday boy, sitting beneath …
 |  |
… just some of the over $1 million in dollar bills signed by Irishmen of all nationalities.
(We’ll have to go back to add our dollar to the collection!)
Can’t say that our meal was healthy, but it sure was good. Since this was a celebratory meal, we threw caution to the wind and ordered separate main courses. In the absence of “naked” fish and chips, I opted for the regular kind (the dory was so flaky that I didn’t need a knife); Mui got McGuire’s ale battered shrimp, which came with a large Caesar salad and a choice of sides … the homemade garlic mashed potatoes was so good that we had to bring the leftovers home with us. Of course, we got the 18¢ bowl of Senate bean soup to start — so much better than the bean soup served in the Senate cafeteria in DC. When we asked our server for a dessert recommendation, Jerri suggested the Irish Bash Cream Pie — think along the lines of a very light cheesecake with chocolate mousse and chocolate cake crumbles … she definitely did not steer us wrong.
Top left: fresh-from the oven honey glazed bread
Bottom left: fish and chips
top Right: Senate bean soup
Bottom Right: Ale battered shrimp
The deceptively light Irish bash cream pie was so good that it deserves to stand alone.
Next up … the movies. It’s been ages since we’ve been to a movie theater. I think I boycotted them when the price of a ticket topped $10. When we lived in a stix & brix, we had Netflix and got our movie-fix that way, but we canceled the service when we got on the road. We’d been wanting to see the latest Bond movie since it came out, so we decided to break our boycott. The decision was made easy because of our access to Portside Cinema, the theater at NAS Pensacola. At $3/person going to a show there is a deal to be sure. Yes, the prices are subsidized by tax payers, but considering the pay our men and women in uniform get, I think it is well-deserved.
My favorite Bond is still Sir Sean Connery, but Daniel Craig played the role well in Skyfall.
We left the movie theater in the rain, drove home with the windshield wipers working overtime, went to bed to the pitter patter of heavy drops on the roof, and woke up to pretty much nonstop rain …
Today
We did nothing special today … EXCEPT at lunch time.
Today was our day to meet Karen and Steve, fellow Phaeton owners and bloggers (Gone by RV), who first reached out to us while we were all still in Virginia. Having sold their stix & brix, they were already living in their home on wheels, but they had to wait to get on the road at the end of December, which is when Steve retired.
When Karen sent me an email that they were coming up from Panama City Beach to visit the Camping World in Gulf Breeze, we suggested meeting at Niki’s, where we had lunch with Chuck and Anneke last week. They may have regretted leaving the great weather in PCB for the soggy weather they found here, but we’re glad they came. We had a very nice time getting acquainted, and enjoyed hearing their Red Bay stories since we’ll be going there at the beginning of February. They’ll be heading up to Red Bay in late February; hope we won’t still be there, but if we are, we’ll be consoled by their good company.
I thought I was going to end the post with our luncheon date, but I have one more photo to share … this one from dinner at home.
Sharing a meal … or … two halves make one meal!
Not only are we splitting a V8 and a Panini, we’re splitting a plate too!
Tomorrow we get back on the road!
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