New Restaurant -- Five Sisters Blues Cafe

Last Friday we had lunch at Pensacola's newest restaurant, Five Sisters Blues Cafe.

Cecil Johnson sold CJ's Kitchen & Grille and opened Five Sisters Blues Cafe two weeks ago. It's on Belmont just off DeVilliers. The cafe specializes in Southern fare.

We arrived around 12:30 for lunch and the place was packed. It's noisy with the polished floor and glossy ceiling. Very loud. In the evening there is live music. The food was fine and the sides were wonderful with lots of choices. Service was friendly but the kitchen was slow. Probably this will improve over time. They haven't been open very long. My smoked turkey was excellent as was the chicken fried steak.

The food was on the salty side for my taste. Next time I will ask them not to add any. It wasn't as salty as food I have been served at Pensacola's Fish House or Cactus Flower Cafe, but in this health conscious time there's no reason to serve any over-salted food.

There's an extensive menu of some of my favorite things to eat so we will be back to the Five Sisters. And we will still go to CJ's for breakfast, too.

Farmers' Markets, Summer 2009

Photo from Pensacola News Journal -- www.pnj.com

Last February Pensacola's huge produce and plant store, Bailey's, closed "temporarily." The hand written sign on the door said they would be back in April. Well it's May and there's a for sale sign in the parking lot. Bailey's will be missed.

Last Wednesday the News Journal had an article about local growers and they included the following list:

-- Andrew's Sod and Fruit: 3900 Tungoil Road, Walnut Hill, 982-9263. Specializing in Centipede sod, they now also grow strawberries and other vegetables.

-- Lundy Blueberry Patch: 8655 State Road 89 North, Milton, 623-0652. U-pick, fresh blueberries in the early summer and pecans in the fall.

-- Steve's Homegrown Sweet Corn: 1201 State Road 99 South, Walnut Hill, 327-4020. Family-owned, fresh vegetable market specializing in sweet corn, peas, butter beans, okra and other locally grown vegetables. Fee fishing in stocked catfish ponds is also available.

-- Touchablue Berry Farm: 7100 Molino Road, Molino, 587-5072. U-pick blueberries.

-- Holland Farms: 2055 Homer Holland Road, Milton, 675-6876. The family-operated farm offers a wide variety of produce throughout the year, including watermelon and a fall peanut harvest.

-- Grimes Blueberries: 6814 Sunshine Hill Road, Molino, 587-5281. U-pick blueberries.

-- Carraway Blueberries: 790 Molino Road, Molino, 587-5439. U-pick blueberries.

-- Beulah Berries: 6658 Suwanee Road, Pensacola, 453-2384. U-pick blueberries.

-- Green Acres Farm: 10810 State Road 97, Walnut Hill, 698-6663. This small family farm raises pasture-based chickens for eggs and meat -- plus turkey, lamb and dairy goats. All animals live out on pasture and are rotationally grazed.

-- Lowry Farm: 2118 Lee Morris Road, Jay, 675-0383.
The family-operated farm offers green peanuts, peas, sweet corn and watermelons. They open the second week in June.

-- Green Cedars Farm: 9280 Gibson Road, Molino, 698-0107. Green Cedars produces naturally grown, nutritionally superior pastured poultry, eggs and lamb and some select fruits and vegetables. Farm tours for customers, school and church groups are available.

-- Salter's Farm Market: 8847 Chumuckla Highway, Chumuckla, 994-4734. Salter's Farm Market is a local tradition in Chumuckla. Known for growing and selling greens, tomatoes squash, cucumbers and melons, the Salter Family has been in business since the 1980s. The Salter slogan is, "If we grow it, you'll like it!"

-- Riverwalk Market: 5191 S. Willing St., Milton, 626-6246. Riverwalk Market brings local residents, artists, chefs and farmers together to offer a unique variety of quality wares. The market is across from Veterans Memorial Park and the Riverwalk boardwalk along the beautiful Blackwater River.

-- Palafox Market: Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza on Palafox Street in downtown Pensacola. Visit www.palafoxmarket.com. The Downtwon Improvement Board runs this farmers market from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays through Sept. 26. The market includes locally grown seasonal fruit and fresh vegetables, homemade goodies, original artwork and free WiFi. Arrive early for the best produce selection.

Shopping for a new car

The new 2009 Hyundai Sonata


In 2006 Jack decided to trade in his ten year old Nissan 200SX and get a new car.

However, just like me, he would rather have a root canal than spend a few hours with a car salesman.

Last Friday we decided it was time to start looking at least. The Nissan 200SX was now 13 years old and the chance of a decent trade-in offer was getting less every year. Also, with the economy where it is right now car sales are down and there are reports that one can get a good deal on a new car. Internet sources say that on a Friday, late in the month, sales goals are looming and a dealer is highly motivated to sell a car.

Needless to say -- a mere five hours after we entered the showroom we drove home in the new car. And a car that was assembled at the Hyundai factory north of Pensacola in Montgomery, Alabama.

The color is Camel Pearl although it looks a lot like tan to me. It has great leg room and has a wonderful sound system with XM satellite radio. It drives beautifully and it's a little bit heavier than the old Nissan or my 2001 Honda Civic. It will be a lot more comfortable on long drives.

By the way, Jack got a good trade-in offer. Even though the Nissan was 13 years old it had very low mileage -- less than 38,000 miles.

The photo above was taken on Saturday at an Alabama rest area on Interstate 10. We tested the new car with a drive to Mobile and had lunch at Felix's Fish Camp.

Flora-Bama Lounge

Known generally around here as just the "the Bama", sometimes you see its whole name in print -- Flora-Bama Lounge, Package, Oyster Bar & Grill. It's located on Perdido Key at the western-most tip of Pensacola, Florida, just inches from the Alabama line. Right on the beach.



The owner calls it, "The Last Great American Road House." Playboy Magazine, among others, has voted Flora-Bama the best beach bar in the world. It offers multiple bars and music venues with a huge deck where you can eat, drink and listen to live music while having a beautiful view of the Gulf of Mexico.

It was badly damaged by Huricane Ivan and other storms in 2004 and 2005. Rebuilding was delayed by the difficulties getting all the necessary permits for coastal construction. We went there several months ago and the rebuilding was about to begin. We will return soon and I will have updated photos so we can see the progress they've made.

Each year the Flora-Bama sponsors a variety of musical and athletic events. All are great fun and raise a lot of money for local charities. Probably the most famous of these festivities is the Annual Interstate Mullet Toss. Individuals compete on the beach throwing a mullet from a 10 foot circle in Alabama across the state line into Florida. This is on the last weekend of April every year.

Here's a link to the Flora-Bama's Wiki article.

Road trip, new shoes, flashing lights

Pensacola is a fairly small city, population 54,000 with a widespread metropolitan area that brings the total up to about 440,000. Despite the small size and the long distance to any big cities (see driving distances), we have some major shopping opportunities within less than an hour's drive.

Fifty miles to the west is the Tanger Outlet Center in Foley, Alabama with, according to their ads "more than 120 brand name manufacturers and designers outlet stores."

About the same distance to the east is the Silver Sands Outlet Stores in Destin, Florida. It claims to be the nation's largest designer outlet center. And it may well be true.

Their brochure says:
"With over 100 designer names and located just minutes from the beautiful white sandy beaches and emerald green waters of Destin, Silver Sands is a shopper's paradise!" It's so scary (I'll just stay in the car).

Jack needed some new Rockport deck shoes to wear around the house. We decided to drive over to Destin and get a new pair at the Rockport store in the outlet mall. It was a beautiful day, lots of little fluffy clouds, blue sky, sunny but not too hot.

On the way along Interstate 10, I was driving, there was no traffic and suddenly I realized, (A) I was going way too fast -- close to 80 miles an hour -- and (B) there was a Florida Highway Patrolperson hiding in the bushes up ahead. Suddenly there were flashing blue lights. A speeding ticket, the second one in 49 years of driving. Oh, well. I don't usually drive that much over the speed limit. The fines and fees came to a total of $80.50.

The Gulf of Mexico was beautiful in Destin, blue sky, white sand and many shades of green water. We had lunch on the beach at a favorite seafood restaurant, The Back Porch Seafood & Oyster House. Then we went shopping for shoes and found them at the Rockport store. We got home easily, we returned along the coast road instead of the Interstate highway. And without any more flashing blue lights.

Maine Trip, May 2007 -- Day 2, Part 2

The drive from Bangor to Augusta takes about an hour and fifteen minutes. On a sunny day it is very pretty, with low hills, distant mountains and some lakes here and there. For my drive I didn't see much of anything other than the highway. There was fog and heavy rain all the way.

I got to my parents' house mid-morning and we had a nice visit. After lunch we went out to run errands and drive around town. On the east side of the Kennebec River along the riverfront we drove through an area that was the Augusta Arsenal.

The old Arsenal is a complex of eight granite block buildings, dating back to the 1820s. Today it is part of the Kennebec Arsenal Renovation. The buildings will be fixed up and will be part of a riverside recreation and tourist area -- planned are residences, a marina, a major hotel and lots of shops.

After the military stopped using the arsenal buildings they housed patients of the Augusta's Insane Hospital, later known as the State Hospital. In recent years the arsenal building looked abandoned although I believe the state government used them for storage.

The location is on a beautiful part of the Kennebec River looking across to the State Capitol buildings. If this project goes as planned it will be a great benefit to the city, its visitors and residents. It will take unused land and make it a destination -- creating something from nothing.

Where has Save Our City's website gone?

It had been a long time since I checked out what the folks at Save Our City were up to.

I had placed a link to their site on this very blog in the section devoted to Pensacola's Blogosphere. But after what I discovered today I had to remove the link. This was after I tried to go to the SOC website and got the ominous message you see above.

Apparently the SOC site is, or was, using a web host (out of Newark, Delaware) that doesn't have a current Server Certificate. Bad news. Scary bad news if you ask me.

Like you perhaps, I have no idea what this means to my or my computer's personal safety but it sounds serious. And not good. And why did they ask me to check my computer's clock? Does the SOC's penchant for wanting to live in the past means they are out to meddle with everybody's computer clocks?

Or is this all just a springtime trick by those pranksters over at the Independent News?

Take Destin, please.

Today the Pensacola News Journal printed a wonderful letter to the editor from Mary Brockett. She responded to an article from earlier this month that asked why Pensacola can't be more like Destin -- sleek, trendy, congested...

She closed with, "The only thing Destin hasn't been stupid enough to do is spend millions putting a baseball field next door to a sewage treatment plant in a floodplain."

As much as I want to see the Community Maritime Park built, and soon, I have to agree. The sewer treatment plant is a much more urgent matter. A new one is vital to the survival of Pensacola. We need the new plant built now, on the new site, even if we have to pay for it.

You can read the whole letter by clicking here. When you get there you will have to scroll down five or six letters but it is worth it.

Remember this?

Remember when the Pensacola Beach sign was intact and looked like this postcard shot?

A few weeks ago there was a note in the Pensacola News Journal that some company has been hired to restore the sign. When? As of yesterday the wreck of a sign has not been touched.

Why doesn't the City of Gulf Breeze get the mess torn down? The eyesore is in their town after all. Are they waiting for the next hurricane to blow the sign away?

It is time to take it down. It is a disgrace. And it says way too much about local pride, or the lack thereof.