Monthly Archives: March 2009
Pensacola…
Today we took a roadtrip over to Pensacola, FL about 25 miles away.
Heading out we went over the Alabama Point bridge, passing by the front of SanRoc Cay, the shopping/lodging/entertainment area built on property that my parents once owned.
SanRoc Cay - redux
Diagonally across the street is a large hotel/restaurant complex we ate at with the entire family about 5 years ago.
A Hurricane Ivan casualty
Oops!… Sorry about that.
It’s not there anymore. In fact, it’s totally gone.
The entire family ate dinner here in June 2004 at a large seafood restaurant that was part of the hotel. Then in September 2004 Hurricane Ivan roared thru Gulf Shores as a Cat 3 storm.
These buildings and many more at Gulf Shores just disappeared. There are still many blank spaces along the beach where the buildings still haven’t been rebuilt.
Another casualty was the row of beach houses built where my parents also owned property and houses.
Where our cottages used to be...
The pink cottage on the left used to be one of two on the right that were all the way down next to the condo in the background. They were called ‘Sea Fever’ and ‘Sandpiper’.
My parents once owned all the property that you see on both sides of the road. They gradually sold off parts and then built the two cottages on the two lots that were left. They used them as rental units intermixed with family vacations for many years.
They sold off the ‘Sea Fever’ in the mid ’80’s and then my mother sold the ‘Sandpiper’ in 1993 after my father died.
The dentist who bought the ‘Sandpiper’ moved it from the beach side of the access road to where you see it now. He then built a very ugly 3 story house on the beach lot. Somewhere along the way, the owner of the ‘Sea Fever’ tore it down and built something else. And other cottages lined both sides of the road.
Then Hurricane Ivan swept thru and everything was washed away except for the ‘SandPiper’. It was my father’s design and he knew how to built things to survive Gulf storms.
We later spent the day driving around Pensacola, eating lunch at another Sonny’s BBQ, stopping by a Sam’s Club to pick up a new color backup camera for the rig, and looking up old haunts.
Just another day in paradise…
Throwing Rolls…
Yesterday, Jan and I had a late lunch/early supper at Lambert’s Cafe up in Foley, about 8 miles north of here. Lambert’s is known as the home of the ‘”Throwed Rolls”
And they really mean it!
Lambert's Cafe
The place has a rustic look and feel about it, with large wooden tables and bench seats.
Lambert's Inside and Out
And they really mean the part about “Throwed Rolls”. Waiters walk around with big trays of fresh-baked yeast rolls a little bigger than a softball, waiting for someone to yell out or hold up their hand.
And suddenly a roll is sailing across the dining room…sometimes 20 or 30 ft. If you miss it, keep your eyes open because a replacement is right behind it. When they’re really busy, you may find 3 or 4 rolls under your table, left over from the previous uncoordinated occupant. I’ve sometimes seen 2 or 3 rolls in the air at the same time criss-crossing the room.
And the servings are enormous. I had a BBQ Pork Steak that came out in a large aluminum skillet about 15″ in diameter. After eating until I was stuffed, I still had enough for two more meals to take home.
Jan had the Fried Chicken. It looked like she had two or three chickens piled on her plate.
Hmmmm!, leftovers.
The other neat thing, besides the great ‘sides’ that come with your meal, are the ‘pass-arounds’. Waiters stroll the aisles with large buckets of fried okra, black-eyed peas, fried potatoes and onions, pasta and tomato salad, and sorghum and apple butter for the rolls. They will load you up with as much as you want.
Hmmmm!, more leftovers.
When we’ve gone here in the past during the summer, there’s been as much as a 2 hour wait. And it’s easy to see why.
Before pigging out at Lambert’s, the morning was dedicated to fixing things around the coach. After Lambert’s, I was too full to do much more than nap.
I oiled the balky retractable step that didn’t want to close all the way when we left Houston, replaced the outside water filter, worked on the hitch pins that I had trouble with when we got here, screwed down the pull handle at the door, and started work on rearranging the contents of the plastic storage bins in the basement.
And I’ve still got plenty left to do to keep me busy.
