Back home and cooking again!

[eleny]

It was great being on the road for 5 weeks. But since we got home Thursday, I've been cooking. Baked pork chops, spaghetti with sausages and tonight it's fish, slaw and homemade macaroni salad. Fun to be back in a kitchen big enough for two butts to get around in and also to have all my pots and pans at my fingertips.

Two places I want to explore a lot more are the panhandles of Florida and Texas. Two very different climates but interesting to me each in their own way. We stayed at Carrabelle Beach in Florida and I want to go back, drive all the roads and stop everywhere. The night we got there, it was beginning to storm. Tornado warnings and all. We watched a storm coming at us from the Gulf. But I really want to go back.

[NMDemDist2]

1. welcome home!

glad you had a nice trip, but it's always so nice to get home isn't it? :hug:

[eleny]

4. Thanks!

Home feels like a palace.

[babylonsister]

2. Welcome back! Are you searching for retirement options, or

just searching in general? What coast is Carrabelle Beach on? I had thoughts of retiring in FL's panhandle, but the hurricanes pretty much took care of that pipe dream.

[eleny]

3. We travelled all over to see family

But we stopped at Carrabelle Beach since it was sort of on the way home. It's more of a fishing village area instead of touristy. After being in other areas like Daytona, C/B seemed very folksy. Nearby Alligator Point got wiped out by Hurricane Dennis in 2005. It appeared that just about every waterfront property along Carrabelle was for sale. Carabelle is east of Pensacola, so it's way up there.

I didn't have any ideas about retiring in Florida. But that area crosses my mind every day. I grew up near the beaches in Queens, NY but never walked on a beach I had all to myself.

[babylonsister]

5. Small world! I grew up on Long Island, lived on Oak Beach!

C/B sounds nice; will try to make it a point to check it out. Thanks!

[eleny]

6. Living on the beach - how dreamy!

[mike_c]

7. I dearly love the Gulf states....

I grew up in the south-- spent most of my life there, actually-- and the Gulf region is one of America's jewels, IMO (leaving out places like Port Arthur, LOL). If I was going to live back east, the Florida panhandle, southern Louisiana, Mississippi, or south-east Texas would be high on my list, as long as I was close to the Gulf. Damn, now I'm getting all nostalgic....

[Shakespeare]

8. You sound like me!

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy up here in the wine country, but there are some things I miss terribly that you just can't get here: REAL red snapper, gulf shrimp, crawfish, real Texas barbecue (everybody up here thinks briskets are supposed to be corned...bleah), and soul food.