Raindrops Keep Falling on Our Heads in Pensacola

I had a Friday off from work, and I was getting sick of reading the same books at home and decided to go to the local Books a Million store on Davis Boulevard in Pensacola, Florida. After getting 8 of Janet Evanovich's funny and awesome Stephanie Plum books for my bedtime reading, I was a bit hungry. Not eat a horse famished, but hungry enough to get some food into me before heading home to take Loki to the dog beach with Mom.

In the same shopping plaza as Books a Million, I discovered this little Japanese restaurant called Sushi Fuji Grill and noticed on the windows that they had lunch specials under $10. "Sweet!", I thought to myself. "I will go there for lunch after I stop in Petland next door to get my fur child Loki some senior dog food for his breakfasts.

It was before noon when I got into the Sushi Fuji Grill, and it wasn't that crowded, and I was able to be seated fairly quickly at the bar since I wanted sushi. Sushi Fuji Grill has a Hibachi Grill and all you can eat lunch buffet there for $6.99, and the Sushi Bar has many specials for about the same price. They seated me at the sushi bar which had a great view of the chefs preparing many sushi goodies in front of me along with a view of the many kinds of fish with a guide to their names by your place setting.

My waitress was an older Japanese woman who was nice but not overly nice who came and took my drink order. I only wanted water and got that immediately and sipped it while reading the menu. For $6.99, I could have the Shrimp Tempura Platter which came with a salad and soup for appetizers and fried shrimp with tempura veggies and 4 California Sushi rolls along with fruit for dessert. Just enough to fill my tummy without overdoing it. My waitress came back a couple of minutes later and took my order, and I continued to look around the place which is decorated so nicely with Japanese prints and artifacts.

Not long after ordering, my waitress came back with my soup and salad. The salad consisted of only iceberg lettuce (not my favorite lettuce with no nutritional value whatsoever), a tomato, a cucumber, and a nice honey mustard dressing. The soup was a lukewarm tofu soup that was mild in taste but good.

Not long after finishing my salad and soup, my waitress came with my entree, which was a work of art itself. Artfully done on a Japanese divided dish, I had just right portions of tempura shrimp and veggies along with a scoop of white rice, the California rolls, and honeydew melon and oranges for dessert. After snapping the masterpiece with my camera, I dug in, using the chopsticks given to me when I was seated most of the time. For a lefty, I think I do very well eating with chopsticks.

The tempura shrimp was really tasty with a nice breading that wasn't heavy, and the sweet dipping sauce added a little enhancement to the shrimp. The veggies were a little blah even with using the sauce, and I wished I had asked for some wasabi or hot sauce to spice things up, but the veggies were still edible for me. The rice was plain white rice that accompanied the shrimp and veggies nicely, and the California rolls tasted fresh and yummy. My fruit was a nice end to the meal, and the whole thing cost only $7.51 + tip.

Sushi Fuji Grill is open daily from 10:30 to about 10 p.m. daily and has a huge lunch and dinner menu. I only dented the surface going there for lunch, and I wouldn't mind returning there to sample the habachi buffet or other items on the menu for dinner when I have more time. Located next to Petland on N. Davis Boulevard in Pensacola, Sushi Fuji Grill is a good place for lunch after a day shopping, a business lunch, or dinner with family or friends.

During the week leading up to payday last week, I would be eating lunch in the break room at the Pace Home Depot when I would see some of my co-workers coming into the room with bags from Firehouse Subs, a sandwich shop located down the road from work. The sandwiches my co-workers were eating looked really good, and I had heard from other co-workers that Firehouse Subs was so much better than Subway and had great food that was served quick and courteously.

So the Saturday after payday, I decided it was time for me to see what Firehouse Subs was all about. Founded in 1994 by two firefighter brothers looking to have a business catering to their fellow firemen, they didn't expect it to be so successful that they would open several more Firehouse Subs throughout Northwestern Florida and the Southern USA.

When I walked into Firehouse Subs, I was greeted by the young people working behind the counter as I perused the menu behind the counter. The menu had many options including hot and cold subs, salads, and the choice to have just a sub or put it in a meal for $1.75 more. Several of the meals have funky names such as "The Hook and Ladder" and other firemen lingo related meals.

I ordered a foot-long Hot Smoked Turkey Sub in a meal with a large Diet Pepsi and sea salt kettle chips. The boy at the register asked me if I wanted my sandwich "Fully Involved" which is with onions, lettuce, tomatoes, mayo, and I said "yes!" After I paid the cashier, I walked around looking at the firemen posters and other memorabilia hung throughout the restaurant while waiting for my food, which wasn't very long. Within five minutes, the cook handed me my turkey sub in a bag, and wished me a nice day.

The yummy smells of my sandwich in the car as I made the quick dash back to work were driving me nuts, and I couldn't wait to eat my sub in the breakroom. The wait was well-worth my time, and the sandwich was soooo good with the sweet onions and smoked turkey on a fresh wheat roll. A pickle spear came on the side, and that was really good, too. I would have eaten the paper bag my food came into, being that hungry, but I stopped at the sandwich and chips and went back to work about 40 minutes later full and happy.

At $9.31, my Firehouse Sub meal was more than I am used to paying for a sub anywhere else, but it was well-worth it. I took a copy of their menu home with me for Mom and I to try Firehouse Subs together one night this week, and I noticed that they have hot veggie subs and chicken salad cold subs. Before I left work that day, our lead generator gave a bunch of us workers coupons for a free chips and soda when you buy a sub at Firehouse Subs, and that will come in handy for my next visit.

Firehouse Subs are open daily from 10:30-10 and later on weekends. There are about 20 locations throughout the Florida Panhandle, Alabama, and Mississippi, and they have internet and phone ordering along with catering for large parties (www.FirehouseSubs.com).

So the next time you are near the Gulf of Mexico and need a good lunch, stop at Firehouse Subs. You won't be disappointed!

Last Saturday afternoon, I got home from work in Pace about 4:30. I was beat after a busy day helping customers and stocking shelves and wanted to catch my breath before starting dinner for Mom and me. When I got in the door, Mom said that my sister Erika and brother-in-law Todd had taken a spontaneous trip to Biloxi, Mississippi and its casinos and it would be just Mom and I for dinner that night. Mom noticed I was dragging ass and said not to bother with dinner, and we could go out to dinner. Being Saturday night, I was concerned we would be waiting for a long time for a table and suggested take-out Chinese from Hunan Wok, but after looking at their menu, nothing rocked our worlds. Then I suggested to Mom we risk the crowds and go to Miller's Pensacola Ale House or the Pensacola Ale House to locals. Erika said that she and Todd ate there once, and it was very good with a huge seafood menu along with burgers and other items for the seafood haters. I said to Mom if we had to wait for a table, we could have a beer at the bar as long as it was a non-smoking bar and relax. Hey! Just give me a cold Sam Adams and ready access to ESPN at a bar, and I am a happy camper!

After Mom and I cleaned up and changed clothes, we were off to the Pensacola Ale House. The parking lot was pretty full when we got there, and some people were waiting outside, but we got inside and there wasn't a line, but a 30-minute waiting period. No problem. We gave the hostess our name and she gave us a number and said to look for our number, 40, on the digital screens near the bar and at the back of the restaurant near the patio exit.

Happy that the bar was non-smoking, Mom and I made our way to a couple of free barstools and waited for someone to take our beer order. After a couple of minutes, we placed our order for a Sam Adams Boston Lager for Mom and a Sam Adams Summer Ale for yours truly. The drafts arrived nice and cold, and we sat back watching a couple of night baseball games on several TV screens scattered throughout the restaurant.

After about 20 minutes, our table was available, and we were escorted to a booth next to an autographed picture of New England Patriots Linebacker Tedy Bruschi. I snapped a picture of the picture and said to Mom we could tell people we had dinner with Tedy Bruschi. However, we didn't like the picture next to our hero Tedy, which was a picture of Yankee Stadium after they won their last World Championship in 2000. UGH! It could have been worse, it could have been a picture of Eli Manning, which would have had me calling for a match!

Our waitress's name was Jennifer, and she came up to our table right after we were seated and took our drink order. Since I was driving, I just got water and so did Mom. We had pretty much decided what we were going to eat while reading the menu at the bar, but Jennifer gave us a few minutes in case we wanted to change our mind. Our minds were set, and Mom got the English Fish and Chips ($7.99), and I got the Seafood Platter ($12.99).

While Mom and I waited for our food to come, we talked and watched the Royals/White Sox game on one TV, the Nationals/Braves game on another screen, and the Cubs and Astros on another screen. The Red Sox played that afternoon, and we won't talk about the outcome, not pretty!

The restaurant was jumping, and the servers were back and forth to the kitchen getting their customers' orders at a quick rate. Within 20 minutes, our food was in front of us on our table, and I am glad we didn't order appetizers. The portions were HUGE! Mom had freshly fried cod fillets with french fries, cole slaw, and tartar sauce while my Seafood Platter was full of fried cod, clams, scallops, and shrimp. I also got french fries along with coleslaw, cocktail sauce for the shrimp and tartar sauce for the rest. Everything was freshly cooked and oh so good! Mom and I were pretty stuffed by the end of the meal and glad we went out to dinner instead of slaving over a hot stove in the heat of the Florida summer.

But I made the mistake of looking at the dessert menu, and the Key Lime Pie ($3.99) was calling my name. "I'm going to hell, Mom, but at least I will die with a Key Lime smile!", I told Mom, who laughed. So, I ordered the Key Lime Pie to go for later that night.

With separate tabs, Mom's meal was under $15 with the beer + tip while my food was a little under $25 with my beer + tip. The prices are very reasonable at the Pensacola Ale House, and the atmosphere is great. If you don't want to wait for a table on the weekends, visit during the week when it's not that busy.

Later that night, I had my Key Lime Pie, and it was heaven on a fork with tart limes and cool whipped cream on top and a graham cracker crust. I knew I would be on Erika's treadmill the next morning, but it was well-worth it!

Miller's Ale Houses are located throughout Florida, and Mom and I enjoyed our time at the Pensacola location very much. We hope to return here for another meal in the near future. Very highly recommended!

One of the first things I wanted to do when Mom and I moved to Pensacola was to look for a beach that allowed dogs. Come on now, there are a bunch of beaches in the Pensacola area, and one of them must allow dogs to swim and have fun with their owners.

Shortly after arriving in Pensacola, I got on-line and through the National Park Service's website at www.nps.org and www.pensacoladogowners.org, I was able to find a beach that would allow animals and had many bells and whistles for dog owners to enjoy a day at the beach with their fur children without being bothered by little kids and people who are afraid of dogs complaining all the time.

The Bayview Water Park for Dogs is located on the Bayou Texar off of East Lloyd Street near Downtown Pensacola. It is a small beach exclusively for dogs and their owners and not a children's play park. Now, I needed to convince Mom that old Loki needed a trip to the beach in order to cool off and mingle with other dogs because he has not been adjusting to the heat and humidity of Florida very well, and the Gulf water is warm enough (about 84 degrees F) for Loki to enjoy swimming without his arthritic legs not getting crippled by cold water. That was one of the major reasons why Mom and I had to stop taking Loki swimming in Idaho.

I finally got Mom on board for taking Loki swimming at the Bayview Water Park, and we decided to go on a Sunday. Mom and I packed a cooler full of cold water for all of us along with some homemade Greek Shrimp Pasta salad for me, fruit and yogurt for Mom and me, and towels and a change of clothing in case I got really wet in the water. The camera was also added into my bag for those Kodak moments with Loki enjoying his day at the beach, and Mom and I were off about 12:30 Sunday afternoon.

Mom and I had no trouble finding the Bayview Water Park for Dogs because at the end of Lloyd Street, there is the Bayview Community Center and to the right, the dog beach with a big sign saying DOG BEACH sticking out of the water. I parked the car, and Loki was pretty eager to get to the water only after inspecting every blade of grass and tree in his path. Loki will be Loki!

There was a small crowd of people there on this warm Sunday afternoon with their dogs. Most of the dogs were swimming and enjoying time with their owners playing fetch or swimming with them. After Mom and I put our stuff on a picnic table, we took Loki to the water, and it was nice and warm. Loki waded around getting his legs wet and checking out the other dogs in the water near him. After a while, the old boy went swimming, and any worries about Loki having trouble went away when he was swimming like the old days. Many of the other dogs ran around us jumping into the water and splashing us, but Loki and I didn't mind at all.

The Bayview Water Park for Dogs has many things that will make a visit with your fur child comfortable. There is a grassy area for them to go potty and play fetch along with a pooper scooper station just in case poochie does #2. After the furry ones play in the water, there is a rinse station so that you can rinse all of the sand off the dogs and yourself before going home so that driving home won't be like driving in a sandbox on wheels. There are rules posted at the gate leading into the beach and park area and they are enforced, but the no people food rule wasn't enforced because present company included, we had our people food, but Loki eats yogurt as part of his diet, so I would have fought that one, if needed.

Near the end of our fun and sun, a good-looking guy came to the beach with his pit bull mix and a Great Dane puppy who was as tall as Loki was. Talking to the owner, we found out the pooch's name was Harley, and he was a 5-month-old pony/dog. Harley didn't like the sun much and spent most of the time under our table sleeping. The owner apologized, but we didn't mind Harley at all. In his old days, Loki would have not been happy about this other dog stealing his thunder, but today, he ignored Harley's presence.

Mom and I spent about 2 hours at the dog beach before rinsing Loki off at the rinse station and headed home. Never fail! On the way home via Route 90, we got stuck in another thunderstorm that has been the main theme of our time here in Florida.

The Bayview Water Park for Dogs is open seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. To get there from several parts of Pensacola, you can get onto Mobile Highway to 19th Avenue and take a left or right depending on which direction you are coming from. Once on 19th, go down about 1/2 mile and take a right onto E. Lloyd Avenue, and the Bayview Community Center is on the right along with the dog beach. Admission is free, and as long as you obey the rules of the park, you can enjoy a fun-filled day of swimming and playing with your furry friends. Bring tons of water for you and your dog, and make sure you use sunblock because you will wind up looking like a lobster like my back is now. Mom and I are planning on returning on a weekly basis since Loki benefitted from the water and interaction with the other dogs.

This was Mom's first time visiting Pensacola Beach, and I wanted to show her as much of the Quietwater Pier as possible that I enjoyed so much when I visited Pensacola Beach last August. I thought going on Sunday afternoon would be good because it wouldn't be as crowded with people getting ready for work the next day and we would have the beach to ourselves.

Mom and I planned to leave for Pensacola Beach from Erika's house further inland in Pensacola itself, but Mother Nature had other plans for us in another torrential downpour and thunderstorm that lasted about three hours. Oh well! The Red Sox were playing the St. Louis Cardinals on MLB Extra Innings, and we watched the first 7 innings of the game before heading to the beach.

Last year, I drove to Pensacola Beach via Michigan/Brent Avenue to I-110 to the beaches, but I discovered a better and shorter route to Pensacola Beach was to jump onto Mobile Highway, which Erika lives right off of, too, and go all the way into the North End of the city before turning onto 98 East that led to Pensacola Beach. Mom and I got to Pensacola Beach in a shorter time, but we didn't know that there was a Mackerel Fishing Tournament in town that weekend, and it was still pretty crowded at 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Mom and I parked at a beach near Quietwater Pier, and walked the short distance to the boardwalk that surrounds the Pier. Things haven't changed at all on Quietwater Beach in the year I last visited it, and I showed Mom several of the shops that were there along with Hooters. I guess no beach is the same without a Hooters nearby. HA HA!

Mom and I finally hit Alvin's Tropical Store at the other end of the Pier from where we climbed up onto the Pier and went inside where I wanted to get a couple of gifts for my friend Karla and her better half Steve. Alvin's is still a tourist trap selling cheesy souvenirs, t-shirts, and ice cream to beach goers who flock into there daily, and Sunday afternoon was jammed packed with bathing suit-clad people looking for that unique souvenir for their loved ones back home.

I bought a picture frame trimmed with pretty shells for Karla and Steve a Pensacola Beach mug with an alligator on it saying "I'm grumpy for my coffee!" on it. I wanted to put the picture of Mom, Karla, and me taken at our farewell party in Boise in the frame as a thank you gift for Karla's generosity in giving us the party and her friendship the last 2 1/2 years, and the frame wasn't too tacky compared to a lot of other gifts in Alvin's.

Leaving Alvin's about $15 light, Mom and I headed to Flounder's, where the Mackerel tournament was being held. I was just curious to see what was going on, and the beach at Flounders was jam packed with tents from a local radio station and other Pensacola businesses. The biggest area on the beach was set up for the Mackerel Tournament itself, and fishermen or women were starting to come in from the Gulf with their catches to get them weighed, tested, photographed, and eventually cleaned and fileted for future meals.

I learned a little bit from the DJ who was hosting the whole thing and was announcing when boats were coming in with their catches. Mackerel is high in mercury, and you should only eat minimal portions of it at a time. I don't know if I would want to eat mackerel at all after hearing that information, thank you. But people take their fishing seriously here in Florida, and the Annual Mackerel Competition being held in Pensacola in late-June was a big occasion for hundreds of people going after over $100,000 in prizes with the grand prize being a fishing boat from a local boat dealer.

Like a lot of sports today, the Mackerel contest had strict rules for its participants including testing the fish to make sure the contestants didn't buy the fish at Joe Patti and claim it as the big catch for themselves and lie detector tests for the contestants to make sure that the big mackerel they landed was from the Gulf and caught by them and not cousin Joe on his fishing trip last weekend.

One guy caught a good-sized mackerel and was waiting in line for it to be weighed and processed, and I got a couple of shots of it with my camera before they gutted it. Not wanting to stick around for the gutting ceremony, I told Mom lets get off this beach and go to Hemingway's for dinner.

Mom and I walked all the way from Flounder's Beach to Hemingway's at the beginning of Quietwater Beach for dinner. I told Mom about the to-die-for lobster bisque that Hemingway's offered before coming to the beach, but it was too hot for soup, and we settled on sandwiches and fries for dinner last night. Mom got the Pressed Chicken Sandwich while I got the Jerk Grouper Sandwich, whose BBQ sauce started off sweet in my mouth and then a nice spicy taste came afterwards making my mouth a little numb and tingly, but everything on my plate disappeared along with Mango Madness Margaritas that Mom and I got for drinks. Mom and I sat outside on Hemingway's huge deck under a roof but with a great view of the Gulf and beach and enjoyed a nice meal together before heading to our car and home.

It had started to cloud up again when Mom and I were finishing dinner at Hemingway's, and I thought the storm was going southbound, but I am no meteorologist (Mom and I needed to go back home Northbound), and once again, Mother Nature played a mean trick on Mom and me, and the skies opened and dumped a ton of rain on us as we were walking to the car. Soaking wet but bellies full of good food, Mom and I wished we waited at Hemingway's for the storm to ride out instead of a hot car, but the storm didn't last that long allowing us to get back home to Pensacola, a warm shower, dry clothes, and three happy dogs who were waiting out the storm in bed. Mom keeps telling me that my favorite song as a little girl was BJ Thomas's Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, but I was beginning to hate hearing that song in my head and my parade getting rained on everytime I wanted to be somewhere since moving to Pensacola!

Now that I am living in Pensacola, I am looking to go further than Pensacola Beach and to the Gulf Shores and the islands in the Gulf of Mexico to explore more of this areas history and geography.

This journal entry will be something like the TV show Seinfeld which was "something about nothing." Well this journal will be about a trip that never took place due to Mother Nature's perfect timing.

I had lucked out and gotten a weekend off from work that I didn't ask for. Mom and I thought it would be great to take that day trip to the 19th Century Fort Pickens about 22 miles from my sister's house here in Pensacola for the day. I packed my backpack full of water since we would be hiking into the fort since the road isn't accessible by car due to Hurricane Ivan in 2005 and water would be needed for us to stay hydrated. I also put my camera and a beach towel in the bag, and Mom and I were off to Fort Pickens by 10 in order to beat the heat and possible 40% chance of rain that was supposed to happen that day.

About 5 miles into the trip, we turned onto Route 98 towards Pensacola Beach and immediately hit stop and go traffic. Mom had heart that the Blue Angels were in town and doing an exhibition at Pensacola Beach. Well we were going in the opposite direction and thought once we got to the Fort Pickens turn after the toll booth to Pensacola Beach, Mom and I would be scott-free and able to get to Fort Pickens without the traffic.

How wrong Mom and I were, and we spent about two hours in stop and go traffic all the way to Pensacola Beach that only got worse as we got closer to the area. Mom and I got to play "license plate bingo" along the way by seeing and identifying the many cars with out-of-state plates as far away as California and Washington State. Other folks avoided the car traffic and were biking or hiking to Pensacola Beach for the 12:25 showtime and 2:00 Blue Angels flyover.

When Mom and I got into Gulf Breeze, Mom was getting frustrated with the traffic, and I offered to turn around and head home, but she said that we were almost to Fort Pickens and said to continue on, and we did over the toll bridge into Pensacola Beach. Right after we turned onto the road to Fort Pickens, Mother Nature played another cruel trick on us, and it started to rain buckets and thunder and lightning accompanied the storm, too. Not knowing when the storm would let up and not wanting to risk an accident with the iffy visibility, we decided to turn the car around and head back home to Pensacola.

The traffic heading back to Pensacola was very light, but the rain wasn't very light, and Mom and I wound up pulling into the Starbucks in Gulf Breeze to wait out the storm. Other folks not wanting to risk an accident on the road were also waiting in the parking lot for the storm to subside, and when there was no end in sight, we all ran inside to get coffee, go potty, and dry off and wait for the storm to let up a bit before continuing on home.

I got Mom and I a couple of Hazelnut lattes, and Mom bought a biscotti for herself and an apple fritter along with a newspaper to read while we were waiting. Mom and I decided when the storm started to let up (or thought it was for good), we would stop at Joe Patti's for our weekly seafood fix and not make this trip a waste of time and gas.

The trip from Gulf Breeze to Joe Patti's went nicely with a lighter rain falling, and Mom and I ran into the fish store for stone clams, salmon fillets, amberback fish, and shrimp and to browze around at the other goodies in the delicatessan. After paying for our stuff, we were ready to take the short ride home, but I think Thor the Thunder God must have had a bad night with the missus and was taking it out on Pensacola, Florida, and it was pouring buckets again. Mom and I had to take a seat inside Joe Patti's in order to wait out the storm with other folks doing the same.

Mom and I finally got home from our rained-out trip about 3:00, five hours after it started, and the rain didn't let up until after 7 p.m. My sister Erika said that the Blue Angels event was cancelled when the rain wasn't going to let up, and that wasn't a surprise to any of us. Mom and I rescheduled our trip to Fort Pickens for this coming Wednesday, which is another day off from work for me.

The moral to this story is: Always check the weather forecast from either The Weather Channel, local news, or the Internet to see what is going on the day you decide to take a trip. Second, always get a local newspaper on Friday in order to make sure where you are going isn't going to be ambushed by tons of tourists for some big event. Mom and I should have done this before but being spontaneous travellers, we didn't and found out the hard way. We now know to take trips during the week when it won't be busy and this Wednesday morning, we will check the weather forecast to make sure that we are not "fools in the rain" once again!