March 2 HAPPY 39 YEARS!

Next day...day at the beach!  Bring your bikes!  There is a great bike path/road to the beach.  It is about a mile away and there is a courtesy tram every hour. The beaches here are breath-taking - white sandy beaches, blue waters and not a high rise in sight. There are lots of walking trails, small lake, restrooms and a wonderful deck walking path over the preserved dunes to the beach area.  The white sand and blue waters are typical of the gulf coast beaches we have always enjoyed.  

We haven't even been on a bike in years.  It was awesome to whirl our way through the park - freeing!  The only issue we had was...how do we bring all our "stuff" down to the beach with us?  Leave it to Dave.  He managed to rig up this great invention to pull our beach stuff behind his bike using a part from our new bike rack.  Genius honey!  I was a little embarrassed by it at first, but glad for the convenience and all the compliments we received, along the way.  Now, I think it was a great idea!

Today, we celebrate our 39th wedding anniversary.  What a better place to spend our anniversary then in Santa Rose Beach, Florida.  The big decision was "where shall we go for dinner"?  It was a toss up between The Red Door or Louis, Louis Restaurant. Apparently, the menu is  similar and under same management.  We have been to The Red Door before and loved the funky & fun atmosphere.  The live band played our favorite kind of music, kind of a blues/rock. 

As he headed out to the Red Door, we spotted Louis, Louis and decided to go there.  It is closer and since it was only 6PM, we could beat the crowds.  We probably should have mentioned to them that it was our anniversary.  They seated us in a room off of the main dining area.  Then they seated a young family with a toddler right next to us.  It wasn't exactly the quiet romantic atmosphere that we were looking for.  But then again, we should have went to a fine dining restaurant, if we wanted a quiet atmosphere.  

I think The Red Door would have had more of the atmosphere we were looking for but the food here was amazing, too.  I had the crab cake platter which was topped with citrus buerre, served with mash potatoes and a house salad.  Dave enjoyed Blackened Red Fish topped with brown butter sauce, served with bacon cheddar grit cake and salad.  Both dishes were delicious!  We split our meals with each other to really get a taste of this wonderful cuisine.  We would highly recommend either of these outstanding restaurants.