Meez

A fun way to pass time at work. Here's me in a wedding dress with the impatient animation. Chris was very surprised at the uncanny resemblance.



Chris's looks less like him, but the golf club is pretty accurate. :)

Tally Ho

Bigelow had a tough work week of late nights so I thought I would surprise him with a nice dinner. We had rib steak, zucchini and squash with yorkshire pudding. I just love how light and airy the yorkshire puddings look---and just like the pictures (that often doesn't happen).

I hadn't really planned on having this blog talk about food as much as it does, but I guess it is a reflection on what we like most or we are really boring.

Beach Suggestions

For those of you interested in staying at the beach while your in Pensacola for the wedding I've pasted my suggestions below. I can also send it you in .pdf format if you prefer.

An update to the suggestions would be The Watercolor Inn if you want something luxurious. I just read in the most recent issue of Travel and Leisure that it is in the Top 100 hotels in U.S.

Pensacola Beach Area
This area will be the closest to the downtown area where the wedding and reception will take place. It takes about 10-25 minutes to get to this area from downtown depending on where on the beach you stay. You will have to cross two bridges and pay $1 toll to get to the beach.

• Hampton Inn Pensacola Beach, 2 Via DeLuna Drive, 850-932-6800
• Hilton Garden Inn, 12 Via DeLuna Drive, 850-916-2999
• SpringHill Suites by Marriott, 24 Via DeLuna Drive, 850-932-6000

In October, the average high is 80 degrees, which is cool for Floridians. You may be able to catch a good offseason rate at a condo. Here are a few that I’ve heard are good as well as a few realty companies to call.

• Portofino Island Resort and Spa, 2200 Via DeLuna Drive, 877-484-3405
• Emerald Isle, 22 Via DeLuna Drive, Call JME Vacations
• Sabine Yacht and Racquet Club, 330 Ft. Pickens Road

• JME Vacations, 22A Via DeLuna Drive, 850-932-0775
• Sterling Resorts, 22 Via DeLuna Drive, 800-801-4689
• ERA Beach Ball Realty, 866-766-5862

Perdido Key
This area is off- the-beaten-path while still considered a part of Pensacola. “Dr. Beach” has consistently ranked this area in the top 20 beaches of the nation. Your best option here is to rent a condo. It will take 35-50 minutes to get to downtown from this area.

• Purple Parrot Island Resort, 13555 Perdido Key Drive, 850-492-4942
• Florencia, 14900 River Road, Call Perdido Key Resort Rentals, 800-598-1888
• Perdido Sun Condos, 13753 Perdido Key Drive, 1-800-227-2390
• Lost Key Golf and Beach Club, 608 Lost Key Drive, 800-WCI-4005

Destin, Fl
Destin is an hour east of Pensacola Beach and is viewed by locals as more high-class. If you plan on staying for a week, I would recommend splitting your time between here and Pensacola. I don’t have any specific recommendations, but personally, I have always wanted to stay and see Seaside. Seaside is a planned community just outside of Destin and is cited as the first New Urbanist development. Time magazine called it “the most astounding design achievement of its era and one might hope, the most influential.” It was also the setting for the movie “The Truman Show”. The city has a great website and brochure that I would look through if you are interested: http://www.destin-fwb.com/

Conquering Roast Chicken

After several months of trying out different recipes I've finally found the perfect roast chicken recipe. I am so pleased with myself that I had to blog about it. I would say I am my harshest critic (Chris seems satisfied with anything), but the roast chicken is probably one of the best things I've ever made.

Roast chicken never really appealed to me for a long time, but Chris really likes it and it is a relatively easy dinner. The portion police would hate me saying this, but it is great to split between two people (especially for those who only eat white meat)with something small on the side. Last night, I made beer bread with it and it was a nice, filling rustic meal.

I blended two recipes from Nigella Lawson and Ina Garten and added a bit more of my favorite ingrdient: butter. All you need is sea salt, pepper, a chicken, one lemon, one garlic head and butter. You can add a bay leaf or rosemary or thyme as well to change it up a bit.

Long live roast chicken!

More Fishing

Here's another picture of my papa and his 8th King Mackeral this year. I think he may be enjoying his pre-retirement months.

Outer Banks

We luckily found out that we had July 5th and 6th off as well as July 4th! We took advantage of this by driving a few hours to the Outer Banks in North Carolina and stayed for a night.

This is the first east coast beach north of Florida that I really enjoyed. It wasn't crowded like Ocean City or Rehobeth. In fact, it looked a lot like Pensacola's beaches--which if you didn't know---are the best. Just kidding...sort of. The water could have been warmer, but I would definitely want to go back.