Yesterday we hit the Pensacola Farmer's Market. The weather has been rainy the whole time we are here. Yesterday morning there was a brief lull in the showers. A few of the vendor slots were empty at the market. They hold it in a park right in the middle of downtown. We found parking right across the street then headed over. I took a raincoat for insurance that it wouldn't rain.
Some FMs trip Vrai fills an entire bag with goodies. Lafayette's market was 1 of those stops. We ended up with a bunch of things to snack on. Yesterday we just got some exotic cranberry bread from 1 of the bakers. The rum cake lady priced her goods at $13 for a small cake. I didn't want it bad enough to cough over $13. I guess if I was really crazy about it then maybe.
After we walked around their downtown area. It's very southern looking and has hints of New Orleans's architecture. It's filled with a few high end stores. Sadly a lot of the historic downtowns were we visit are reduced to antique stores, tattoo parlors, nail salons and dollar stores. P'cola's DT shows a vibrant, local economy. Later we stopped for a drink at O'Riley's Irish pub. It's a bit subterranean. You go down a few steps into the basement. It has a rich, dark wood style bar. The servers wear kilts. I thought those were Scottish attire. Anyway, we then looked over the menu, we got a couple of snacks. When we left it had begun to rain again. If it rains any more, I may start to grow moss. The only good thing is all the rain has kept the temperature low in the lower 60s.
Back at the car I wanted to see if a place I had visited was still opened. When I was sent to Pensacola for training I didn't have much free time to visit the area. We hit this 1 place because it was St. Patrick's weekend and they had a lot of events going on. They actually nailed boards across the front doors and everything was held outside. The GPS said it was only a few miles from where we were currently. So off we went.
The area didn't look familiar to me. But a lot changes in 33 years. The place now has a huge parking lot. It's so big they have enter and exit only signs all over. As luck would have it, we snagged an up close parking spot. It's still raining and there are lake sized puddles all over the place. Opening the front door to McGuire's, we are greeted by about 20 people, all waiting for a table. It's late afternoon on a rainy Saturday. I guess everyone got the idea to go to the local water hole for some food and drink.
Vrai gets us 1 of the tables off from the bar. So we avoided the long wait for a table. Glancing around you notice all the one dollar bills hanging from the ceiling or tacked to the walls. Evidently there are over $1 million worth hanging on that place. Imagine how much that must weigh. There is a lot of memorabilia hanging on the walls. There is a stuffed hippopotamus head adorning 1 of the walls. There are probably around 200 steins hanging around also. It appears that individual customers can leave a personal mug there for their next visit. Given all the trinkets and dollar bills the place isn't a dusty mess. A lot of our stops that have doodads hanging on the walls also have cobwebs and inches of dust on those things. Not this place.
Digging on their website shows that they have 615 seats in that place. It's a big place but I never imagined it was that big. They have an enormous staff. I saw visible management roaming around communicating with headsets. None of the employees had time to stand around due to the crowd. Some nights they have live entertainment.
Eating and drinking isn't the only thing we do. But when it's raining out, there really isn't much else to do. Between rainstorms on Friday I went fishing down at the campground pier. Hurricane Sally came through this area last September. The campground has since rebuilt their pier. But along the shores you can see the remains of a lot of piers that got tore up. I managed to catch 15 fish. Nothing big. I had a lot of bites. I suspect that there are a ton of little bait stealers in that area. I hooked a pinfish. 1 of the other anglers asked if he could have it. He tossed it out on 1 of his lines but didn't catch anything with it. Even the kid with the zebco pole that didn't cast very far caught a fish. My hope is to find some bigger fish while I'm here.
Right now it's somewhat sunny outside. Perhaps we'll take a drive in the opposite direction today. We still need to see Gulf Shore, Perdido Key and Orange Beach while we are here.
Some FMs trip Vrai fills an entire bag with goodies. Lafayette's market was 1 of those stops. We ended up with a bunch of things to snack on. Yesterday we just got some exotic cranberry bread from 1 of the bakers. The rum cake lady priced her goods at $13 for a small cake. I didn't want it bad enough to cough over $13. I guess if I was really crazy about it then maybe.
After we walked around their downtown area. It's very southern looking and has hints of New Orleans's architecture. It's filled with a few high end stores. Sadly a lot of the historic downtowns were we visit are reduced to antique stores, tattoo parlors, nail salons and dollar stores. P'cola's DT shows a vibrant, local economy. Later we stopped for a drink at O'Riley's Irish pub. It's a bit subterranean. You go down a few steps into the basement. It has a rich, dark wood style bar. The servers wear kilts. I thought those were Scottish attire. Anyway, we then looked over the menu, we got a couple of snacks. When we left it had begun to rain again. If it rains any more, I may start to grow moss. The only good thing is all the rain has kept the temperature low in the lower 60s.
Back at the car I wanted to see if a place I had visited was still opened. When I was sent to Pensacola for training I didn't have much free time to visit the area. We hit this 1 place because it was St. Patrick's weekend and they had a lot of events going on. They actually nailed boards across the front doors and everything was held outside. The GPS said it was only a few miles from where we were currently. So off we went.
The area didn't look familiar to me. But a lot changes in 33 years. The place now has a huge parking lot. It's so big they have enter and exit only signs all over. As luck would have it, we snagged an up close parking spot. It's still raining and there are lake sized puddles all over the place. Opening the front door to McGuire's, we are greeted by about 20 people, all waiting for a table. It's late afternoon on a rainy Saturday. I guess everyone got the idea to go to the local water hole for some food and drink.
Vrai gets us 1 of the tables off from the bar. So we avoided the long wait for a table. Glancing around you notice all the one dollar bills hanging from the ceiling or tacked to the walls. Evidently there are over $1 million worth hanging on that place. Imagine how much that must weigh. There is a lot of memorabilia hanging on the walls. There is a stuffed hippopotamus head adorning 1 of the walls. There are probably around 200 steins hanging around also. It appears that individual customers can leave a personal mug there for their next visit. Given all the trinkets and dollar bills the place isn't a dusty mess. A lot of our stops that have doodads hanging on the walls also have cobwebs and inches of dust on those things. Not this place.
Digging on their website shows that they have 615 seats in that place. It's a big place but I never imagined it was that big. They have an enormous staff. I saw visible management roaming around communicating with headsets. None of the employees had time to stand around due to the crowd. Some nights they have live entertainment.
Eating and drinking isn't the only thing we do. But when it's raining out, there really isn't much else to do. Between rainstorms on Friday I went fishing down at the campground pier. Hurricane Sally came through this area last September. The campground has since rebuilt their pier. But along the shores you can see the remains of a lot of piers that got tore up. I managed to catch 15 fish. Nothing big. I had a lot of bites. I suspect that there are a ton of little bait stealers in that area. I hooked a pinfish. 1 of the other anglers asked if he could have it. He tossed it out on 1 of his lines but didn't catch anything with it. Even the kid with the zebco pole that didn't cast very far caught a fish. My hope is to find some bigger fish while I'm here.
Right now it's somewhat sunny outside. Perhaps we'll take a drive in the opposite direction today. We still need to see Gulf Shore, Perdido Key and Orange Beach while we are here.
So Monello says, "Do you use 00 flour?" and the guy says, "I've been making pizza for over (however many) years and have never heard of that." 
