Covid Road Trip - Day 2...

A subtitle for this entry could be "The Food Edition".

 

The one thing I want to do during this trip is relax. I know I could've relaxed in St. Augustine, but this is a different level; a different "brand", if you will of relaxation. This second day of the trip fit rather nicely into that idea.

We decided we'd take a drive over to Navarre Beach and walk the pier. It was a bit warm, but nothing unbearable. We paid the whopping $1 to walk the pier and headed out over the water. There were a lot of people on the pier, and most of them were fishermen (and women).  Now, I've walked up and down piers all over the world, but I've never actually seen someone catch a fish. That would change today, though. As we walked towards this one rather slight woman, it was clear that she had a fish on the line.

And it wasn't givin' up without a fight.

The woman was absolutely spent. She was screaming as she was trying to reel it in, and she wasn't having much luck. Finally a guy came over and took the rod from her, and he enjoyed only a mildly greater level of success. He got it to the surface, though, so another guy came along with a wire basket and was able to get it underneath the fish to haul it up onto the pier.

She guesstimated the weight at about 40 pounds...

Dan didn't have quite the same level of luck:

I don't think he'll be on "Wild Tuna" anytime soon...

There were a lot of people in the water and, as you can see in the background in the photo of the woman above, there were a reasonable number of people on the beach, too. The color of the water was great, too; that turquoise hue that you usually only see in postcards.

 

The pier is 1,545 feet long and towers 30 feet above the water. It takes a little while to walk it, but the view doesn't suck:

After our jaunt out onto the pier, we stopped at Windjammer's at the foot of the pier for a quick beer. Windjammer's is a typical beach bar, and there was plenty of seating:

As we were leaving, we saw one of those signs you see only because, at some point, there became a reason for the sign:

From Windjammer's we decided to head over to Broussard's for lunch. Broussard's is also a typical beach bar kinda' joint. Their inside dining room was closed, so we sat at the bar and ordered. It was right about beer-thirty, so I ordered up a cold one a grilled mahi sandwich:

Tasty grub...

We finished lunch and walked back to the car and then made it back to Dan's house for a bit. Honestly, I didn't sleep spectacularly well the night before, so I was all in favor of nappy-time. I'm pretty sure Dan did the same.

The thing about being along the Gulf coast is that, when you get hungry, seafood is prevalent. We decided to head over to The Grand Marlin in Pensacola Beach but, because of social distancing, they were only serving people with reservations so as to maintain proper distances between diners. So, we made our way over to Crabs. We've eaten there in the past, and it's pretty good. It's not as spendy as The Grand Marlin, but the food is really tasty.

Crab's in Pensacola Beach...

Yes, they do...

Looking through the dining room to the beach...

Due to the coronavirus they were running a minimal menu...

Seating was at every other table...

I know I'm going to be getting into some serious BBQ once I get to Memphis, I spent the day in a seafood mood. Accordingly, I opted for some sushi and, yeah, another cold frosty. 

We got back to the house and, after a couple of cocktails, I was fading. I spent a good amount of time editing pictures from the day, but the day caught up with me and I just wanted to go to bed. After all, I've got a bit of a drive to Memphis, so rest was high on the priority list...