New Year's Eve

Once again the end of a year is here and a new one is waiting in the wings.

About 20 years ago we lived in a small neighborhood where six or seven couples would gather at somebody's home for a New Year's Eve party. It was great fun. We all ate together, talked and joked, danced, drank, and shot fire crackers at the appropriate time. The parties usually lasted into the wee hours of the morning. At the close, we could all walk home.....some in straighter lines than others.

Then on New Year's Day I was always up early enough to watch the Rose Parade preview and then the Rose Parade. I love watching that parade.

After the parade, there was lunch and the bowl games started and went into the evening hours. I always had two televisions cued up so I could see all the games. They were not spread into two or three days as they are now. I would settle into my oversized recliner with a pitcher of martini's and a jar of olives at hand along with various other snacks for the days viewing. I'd watch some football and down some martini's. I usually napped through the Rose Bowl and awaked in time to catch the end and the start of the Orange Bowl. By the time the Orange Bowl reached it's 45 minute halftime (really), I was tired of football and looking forward to the end of the game.

After we moved from that neighborhood, we rarely went to New Year's Eve parties. We've never been party animals and really never enjoyed going out to bars or clubs for celebrations.

This year our routine is.....well, routine. We ate pork pie which is a tradition in our house along with black eyed peas and greens. My wife was in bed by 10 pm and here I am blogging as I await the final outburst of noisy fireworks.

Tomorrow, I'll get up and watch the Rose Parade again. Afterward I'll tune in to the bowl games. I'll probably nap through at least the half of one and maybe two. And I will eat cold pork pie....I love that stuff cold...always have. There will not be any martinis because I'm out of olives. Anyway, I drink more water than anything else these days.

I'm sure my "celebrations" would be boring to most people. But that's alright. I'll enjoy the evening before and the first day of the new year because I get to do exactly what I want without worrying what others might think. The biggest decision I'll have to make is whether or not I want to shave.

And you know what? I probably will shave.

Here's wishing you a happy New Year....yippee....yeah, yippee. Now can I go to sleep?

And my next watch will be...

I had a pleasant surprise when checking my email following Christmas.

I ordered my wife a Timex watch from Timex and paid $10 for overnight shipping. The watch arrived as promised and she was quite happy with it.

Right after Christmas, Timex emailed me with an apology. I ordered overnight shipping and they said they messed up and sent the watch by regular shipping. They apologized for any inconvenience it may have caused. In addition, they are refunding my $10 shipping fee and, as an added token, refunding me 15% of the cost of the watch. It will all be posted to my credit card.

That's what I call service. Thanks Timex!

The “GET TO Club”

That term probably doesn’t make much sense. A neighbor of mine introduced me to the “GET TO Club”. He’s a two time cancer survivor and thinks about it every day.

I’m a heart disease patient who is doing very well and I still think about it every day.

Both of us have been given a second chance to do God’s will. These days we don’t have to do anything, we get to do it. We’re thankful for work, for chores, for paying taxes and bills, for being able to do all the things we do, because we were given a second chance and now we get to.

I often tell the story that 10 years ago I would get winded just walking across a room. When the small limbs would break from the trees during a storm, I could not manage to pick up more than one wheel barrow’s worth. Then I would have to sit down and rest.

At age 56, my pep seemed to start failing me. Little by little over five or six months, I would get just a little worse each day. But I held it in, sloughed it off and plowed straight ahead trying to hide my discomfort.

Eventually, it became so bad I could not get a full breath. It was then that I decided to go to the doctor. I packed an overnight bag just in case, called the doctor to see if they could work me in, and drove myself to the hospital. The children weren’t at home and my wife was at work. They did an EKG and then dared me to move. Do not even lift an arm or leg. “No, you can’t go to your car and get your bag”.

I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, atril fibrillation, and deteriorating heart muscle. On top of that, the Doctor told me I have scar tissue from several heart attacks. I was surprised because I had never had a heart attack…hmmmm.

I guess it was possible to have encountered a heart attack. I have a type A personality and was going 110 miles an hour 18 to 20 hours a day and trying to be a perfectionist in all my undertakings.

They whisked me up to a room, put me in one of those awful hospital gowns (hey I had pajamas in my bag), started IV’s and did more EKG’s, a heart catherization, and two cardioinversions (which didn't work for me). I didn’t stay in the hospital but three days, but getting back to normal took longer than I would have ever expected.

Anyway, I’m doing well. I take my prescribed medications, go to the doctor once a year, and do pretty much whatever I want to do. I have learned to listen to my body. When my body gets tired, we rest. If I’m in the middle of yard work, it will wait for another time. I’m reasonably laid back now and have slacked up a bit on perfection. Perfection is great for Olympic athletes. I don’t fall into that category.

I am an official member of the “GET TO Club” and proud of it. Thanks be to God.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!

It is indeed a special happy time of the year when we celebrate the birth of the Christ child.

As the world celebrates we send each other greetings. We share food and drink with each other and give presents. We even wish peace for everyone.

In the process, some haughty Christians (is that a misnomer?) profess to be insulted if someone wishes them “Happy Holidays” or “Greetings of the Season”.

Those Christians scoff at the notion that, during this time of the year, it is just plain nice manners to greet each other with politeness, cheer and good wishes for the days ahead. No, no the only acceptable greeting to them is “Merry Christmas”.

I don't get insulted if someone politely and merrily wishes me a happy holiday or season’s greetings. Likewise, I don't get insulted if someone says, “Merry Christmas”. In either case, the person who speaks is making a genuine effort to cheer me up. They don't have to make a statement at all.

This is a time for joy, happiness, sharing, hope, and love. It is, to me, a time to reflect on the birth of our Lord and Savior. In the spirit of Christianity, I wish each of you season’s greetings, happy holidays, and a merry and blessed Christmas.

May the Peace of Christ be with you.

Another Subscriber Gone

I did something this year that I never imagined I would do. After 47 years of continuous reader loyalty, I cancelled my subscription to my daily paper.

I’m somewhat of a newsaholic. I watch the news, national and local, on two different networks in the same time period thanks to digital video recording.

I read about a dozen news sources on the web including BBC, German News, Australian News, NY Times, Washington Post, and about 6 local Mississippi papers.

Even so, I always looked to my local paper as my prime source of news. But, alas, no more do I seek out the local paper for news. Why? My local paper quit investing in the news. They basically fired their news reporters and are no longer the best source for Mississippi news.

There was a time when people bought newspapers because they were the main source of local news. Then television came along with a fifteen minute national newscast, then a thirty minute newscast, and the local stations followed suit. Even then, I still looked to the local paper for detailed information about the fifteen to thirty second stories run on television.

Over a period of time, newspapers began to emphasize advertising over news. They substantially increased the size and pay of staffs devoted to advertising. They de-emphasized news. The news staff at the “Clarion-Ledger” has become a revolving door of fresh college graduates. If they write a dozen stories worth reading, they are quickly snapped up by other papers, government, or private industry with a substantial increase in compensation.

Over the past few years, my local newspaper, the “Clarion-Ledger”, under the misguided leadership of Gannett, has steadily lowered it’s standards and decreased space devoted to news. Finally this year, when I got my annual bill with a significant increase in the subscription rate along with a notation that they were going to charge me extra for delivering the ad laden Thanksgiving paper, I decided I didn’t want to subsidize such foolishness any longer.

So chalk it up Gannett. I am now a former subscriber.

Eating in the Car

As I was driving home this morning, I looked in the rearview mirror at the stoplight and saw a man, a woman, and a young child in the SUV behind me.

The guy had his baseball cap on backwards, was wearing sunglasses, and was obviously eating. In fact, all of them were eating.

He had some kind of fast food item and a cup of coffee. She was eating on something and chasing it down with a Mountain Dew. I couldn’t tell what the child was eating but he too had a drink.

As we left the stoplight, he followed closely behind me taking a bite, chewing, licking his fingers, and then having a sip of coffee. The problem was he never let go of the sandwich and used his driving hand to hold the coffee cup. I’m just glad he didn’t get a cell phone call.

I’m sure they were enjoying themselves and I really do not have a problem with that. I wonder what the inside of that SUV looks like.

I don’t eat in the car and never had the desire to do so. When our children were young, they were not allowed to eat in my car either. If we went to Sonic or someplace like that, we got our food, got out of the car and ate at one of the picnic tables provided. I don’t do drive through windows except to make a purchase to take elsewhere to eat.

When our kids were young, my wife would let them eat in her car. Oh my goodness, the mess they made. Potato chips make oily spots when ground into seat covers. Spilled drinks are obvious days and weeks later. I can remember once….honest truth…. that I found ants inside my wife’s car. Did it bother her? No.

I don’t know what it is about driving that makes women hungry, but it does. Observe the drive through lines at fast food joints. The drivers are predominately female.

But, as I said earlier, I don’t have a problem if you wish to eat and drink in your car, but please don’t try to use the cell phone at the same time….especially if you are following me.

WalMart.Com……BAH, HUMBUG!

I have to admit that overall I like WalMart, the physical store. A lot of people don’t, but I do. Generally, the store is neat and clean. The shelves are well stocked and the prices are right. Checkout sucks, but everything else is OK.

I like their return policy too. I have purchased items which I had to return because, for some reason, the item is not right for what I want, or it's defective, and there’s no way to tell until I get it home. I’m not one of those people who purchase an item, use it and then return it. Nope, that’s not right.

BUT, WalMart.Com is a totally different animal. It’s like driving a Model-T on a super highway. There’s more wrong than right and nobody knows what is going on or why. I’ve had two experiences and neither has been pleasant.

The first purchase I made was for a 40 inch, Samsung, 1080p, LCD HDTV. The price was right so ordered it for my father-in-law to give to him for his birthday.

I may be incorrect by a day or two, but the TV arrived at WalMart in Brookhaven about three days after the order was input. That was from the manufacturer to WalMart. Then for the next 12 to 14 days it sat in a warehouse in Brookhaven before finally making it’s way to the Pearl store.

Never would I have thought it would take two weeks to get from Brookhaven to Pearl. Consequently, we gave my father-in-law a card and a promise for his birthday. He lives in McComb and we had to drive by Brookhaven on the way down, but we were not allowed to pick up the set in Brookhaven because it was to be delivered to Pearl whenever WalMart would get around to it.

To give you a comparison, I ordered some electrical entertainment equipment from Vann’s in a remote location in Montana and received it at my door in Brandon, in four days. Vann's is rated among the highest in on line purchases. But I digress.

The TV finally arrived in Pearl. I went out to pick it up after work. The next day we made a special trip to McComb to present it to my father-in-law a week after his birthday. I opened the carton and was shocked to find the tv screen broken in one corner. So I hauled it back to the store in Brandon where the clerk happily and quickly refunded my purchase price.

I had also purchased a three year extended warranty on line. The clerk at the store said they did not sell three year warranties and I would have to get WalMart.Com to refund me the purchase price on that.

So I went to the back of the store where WalMart.Com customer service is located and asked for a refund. The clerk said that was not a WalMart product (whaaaaat?) and she couldn’t return my money. She said I would have to go on line to get my money back. I went on line only to have WalMart say they couldn’t give me a refund. Humph, no TV and a three year extended warranty. That’s no good.

Finally after much pleading, the folks at the local store found somebody at WalMart.com who could make a decision and my credit card was credited with a refund. That took a couple of weeks to work through.

In the meantime, I found the TV in stock at my local store for about $40 less than the on-line price. I purchased it and asked if I could use the three year warranty I had purchased on line. No. That warranty was only good for on line purchases and I had to buy a two year warranty from the store. I bought it and took the TV to my father-in-law two weeks after his birthday. I gave WalMart a scathing review for their on line service.

For Christmas this year, I want to give someone a digital camera. I selected a Canon Power Shot sd1200. WalMart didn’t have it in the store. The local camera stores were also sold out. So I found it at WalMart on line for $179 which also included a 2 MB memory card. The product could be delivered directly to my home for 97 cents. That’s a good deal, especially since the camera doesn’t come with a memory card.

The camera arrived exactly on time as promised. I opened it and there was no memory card. Perhaps the card was being sent separately. So I went on line to track the order and WalMart.com said they did not have any current or recent orders from me. All they were showing was the TV purchase of four months ago.

Then I called WalMart on line and talked to a lady in St. Louis. I gave her my order number, mailing address and my secret ID information. She could find a final record of the purchase but not a record of the order. Her computer was messed up. She apologized and made a note on file that she had talked to me but couldn’t resolve the problem and that I would be calling back.

In the meantime, I went to WalMart.com and found the price had dropped to $149 and still included the memory card.

I called back and talked to a gentleman who found the note from the lady. The young man said they did not sell the product with a memory card. Since I had the screen right in front of me, I read him what it said on the screen. He said they were sold out of the product. I told him that didn’t matter because I had the camera in hand, but did not have the memory card. He checked his screen and said his screen did not say anything about a memory card. I had him read his screen to me and then told him to look down one more line and he would see where the memory card was included. He found the wording but said there was no proof that I had ordered “the bundle”. I finally told him to forget it that I would just return the camera and get my money back. Then he said he would adjust my purchase price and give me a $30 credit which I could use to purchase the memory card. I told him I wasn’t happy with that and he disconnected me.

So, I called again and talked to another lady. She confirmed that my credit card had been credited with $30 but couldn’t answer any other questions.

So today, I am going to purchase a memory card for my camera gift. Will I ever use WalMart.com again? Not unless we have a white Christmas, I won’t.

Guess what. It snowed last night.

If I Were President

If I were President and addressing the nation this evening, this is what I would say.

My fellow Americans, I am here to bring you good news this evening. I am ordering a halt to our military operations in Iraq and in Afghanistan. I am asking those in charge of our troops to have them back in the United States as soon as possible and definitely no later than March 31, 2010.

There are probably some of you who will say this means we have lost the wars. I ask you, what would entail a victory? To me a victory is having our sons, daughters, fathers and mothers safely back on American soil. A victory to me is not having to write any more letters to the loved ones of our dead military members. A victory is seeing the number of war wounded at our military hospitals reduced to zero.

To the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, we wish you only the best. If you seek democracy and freedom, you need to do what we did at the onset of this great country. You must use all your heart, mind, and body dedicated to the effort. You must get your citizens actively involved in the process. And you must do it on your own. It is not the responsibility of the United States of America to thrust our way of life on your people.

As soon as our troops have been safely removed from Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States will cease sending any further materials or equipment to those countries. In addition, the United States will cease all monetary foreign aid to those countries.

To those who think this is a sign of weakness on the part of the United States, you should think again. If we must defend ourselves, we have the ability to do it without ever putting an American on foreign soil. It means that we will not be elective in choosing our targets, but we will extract eye for eye and tooth for tooth. The United States remains as strong as ever. We are committed to protecting our people regardless of the pain and damage we inflict on our enemies. You do not want to be an enemy of our country.

I am looking forward to welcoming our dedicated service people home. I want the National Guard and Reserve members to be able to resume your normal life without having to worry about another tour in Iraq or Afghanistan. I want our active duty force to have a opportunity to rest, reunite with your families and continue your willingness to defend and protect our great country as events demand.

Thank you for your attention. Good evening and God bless the United States of America.

New Speakers Are Keepers

Well, it’s been about a month since I installed the new speaker system. And yes, I like it. It’s a keeper. I threw the box away which means I have no desire to return it to the store of purchase.

When coupled with my two year old Pioneer receiver, the new speakers give me a lot of flexibility in different listening modes. The bass is not as good as in the old system, but the overall separation of sounds is much, much better. The only problem I had with the installation was the length of wire Bose supplied. They supply 50 feet of wire for the rear speakers. The size of our room is such that fifty feet would not go down one side and to the far corner of the rear. I had to splice and add more wire. But that was a very minor problem.

For those who are think you must have monster wire for everything, you should to know that Bose does not use that large diameter of wire. I thought that to be interesting. Now I have nothing against monster wire, but I have known for years that it is not a necessity for good sound systems.

I have listened to one movie in THX sound and it was a wonderful experience. I’m looking to rent more in that sound category. Music is reproduced in excellent fashion and sports are fun with the available sound mode. So if you want to drop a grand or so on speakers, I recommend you check out the Accoustimass 16 speaker system from Bose.

We're Ice Cream Junkies

Those who know us, know we like ice cream. We always have ice cream available in our home freezer. When we go somewhere, we usually find an ice cream parlor to try. When away from home we like to try gelato. Usually we have a bowl of ice cream every evening about an hour or so after supper. The grandchildren think it's special to come to Paw Paw's house and have ice cream because they have a choice of flavors.

For several years we have been faithful to Blue Bell. It's just good ice cream. There are some flavors that we aren't overly fond of, but we like the vast majority of flavors we try.

We always like to have a choice of flavors on hand. Since we eat so much, we try to load up when it is on sale. Well, it was on sale this weekend. We were down to a partial half gallon of Home Style Vanilla.

Now we have a fine choice to last us until the next sale. We have Butter Pecan, Chocolate Chip, Dutch Chocolate, Strawberries and Cream, Chocolate Brownie Overload, Mocha Almond Fudge, Pecan Pralines and Cream, Groom's Cake, and the remainder of the Home Style Vanilla.

Grooms Cake is a new flavor that we liked so much, I went back to get another half gallon for future consumption. It consists of chocolate ice cream, chocolate cake, chocolate coated strawberry hearts, swirls of strawberry sauce and chocolate icing.

So, if you're in the neighborhood and have an ice cream attack, stop by. We love to share.

New Speakers

A few weeks ago I ordered some new speakers for my sound system. After lots of looking, I decided on Bose Acoustimass 16 speakers. It's a 6-1 speaker system, meaning there are three speakers in the front and three in the back and a powered subwoofer to pick up the low lows.

My old speaker system is pushing 20 years old and is a 6-1 system. It still works well but sound has changed a lot in the last 20 years. My old system was new in the advent of Dolby surround sound. Then about ten or fifteen years ago, audiophiles were introduced to Dolby Digital which put out a crisper sound with explicit delineation through out the sound spectrum of the human ear.

Then there was the advent of THX surround. That was the sound system used in the original version of Star Wars. THX surround has been around for at least 20 years but not on the medium priced end of home systems. A couple of years ago I purchased a new receiver/amplifier that can handle THX surround. As much as I tweak my old speakers, I can't seem to get the full range of THX.

Knowing I had new speakers on the way, I tweaked my system again last week. Right now it's probably putting out at peak performance and by golly it sounds pretty darn good.

I've heard the Acoustimass 16 system play THX and it was really a fine sound...almost exquisite. Yeah, yeah I know there are other systems that the high end folks like better and systems with better stats than Bose. But speakers are personal. They're like wine in that your taste may like a $10 bottle more than a $40 bottle. It's all in what you like.

So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to unhook the current speaker system very carefully by labeling each wire I have in the back of my receiver. All 22 of them. (I'm currently running front left, center, and right speakers, rear left, center, and right speakers, two woofers, one powered subwoofer and two additional speakers in the basement.) Then I'm going to hook up the new system, fine tune it, and listen to it for a week or so to see if it really is better than what I've got. If it's not, I'll pack it up and ship it back to the store where I bought it.

And then again, I might like the new system so much that I want to permanently install it before the weekend is out. I'll let you know.

IPOD Connection

I learned something today. I have an IPOD and have wondered how to plug it into my music system. I have a receiver/amplifier and connections for all my electronic equipment and probably some or all of your's too.

A few years ago, I DJ'd a party for some people and didn't want to use my home CD player because of the problems of pulling CD's out and stuffing others in. So I went out and bought two inexpensive single CD portable players that run off batteries (Think Walkman). I bought two cords at Morrison Brothers where I rented the amp and speakers. Plugged the two CD players into the amplifier and played music for about four hours.

Some friends have asked me to provide background music for an outside engagement party. Fortunately, I have a small Honda generator, 2,000 watts, that is very quiet running. So I decided to set up the generator and my old Pioneer receiver with some Bose speakers (some older Bose speakers which still put out a very good sound). Since I can just start the music and let it play on it's own, I don't have to bother with playing requests or varying the tempo.

So I thought about how to use my IPOD where all that music is recorded anyway. I took one of those cords I used for the battery powered CD players and plugged one end into the IPOD and the other two ends into the receiver, and like magic, relaxing music was easing out of the speakers.

The bottom line is this. If you have a receiver and an IPOD you DO NOT need one of those IPOD cradles with speakers to listen to your music. Nope. All you need is a four foot cord with a stereo plug at one end (that's one that has two black bands on it) that morphs into two stereo plugs at the other end. You put the single plug in the IPOD and the others in the receiver. Then you can sit back and enjoy your music with your best speakers.

I've attached a photo of the ends of the plugs. I imagine you can get the connectors at Radio Shack for about $10. Enjoy!

A Few Sunsets

We saw more people gathered on the beach at sunset than at any other time of the day. At one time, I think I counted about two dozen people watching the sunset. But as these photo's show, the beach was still almost deserted.

Click on any picture to see it in full size.

The first set of pictures with the blue sky were all of one sunset. I like the way the sun reflects off the wet sand.




The picture above is a favorite. I like the colors and the fact that it only shows the water and the sky.



The picture above shows the setting sun against the enormity of the sea. If you click on the picture, you will see a tiny bird in the sun's reflection on the sand.

The remaining pictures are of another sunset. It's amazing to me how God can take the same elements and create an entirely different view of the sunset.



The picture above is another of my favorites. I honestly didn't know I had captured the birds in flight until I downloaded the picture from my camera.

Again, I did not realize I had captured birds in flight in this picture until I downloaded it to this blog and clicked to magnify the view. They are on the far right side of the photo.

A Couple of Sunrises

I guess everybody loves to watch sunsets over the water. I'm a sunrise person too.

Each morning we would awake about 5:30, put on a pot of coffee and head to the beach around 6 a.m. to watch the sunrise. Daybreak came just a few minutes after 6 and the the sun was well underway by 6:30. Admittedly, some of these pictures are not what you picture a sunrise to be. I took them that way on purpose so I could show others what I was really seeing in the sunrise. God puts on a beautiful display starting with a virtually black canvas and slowly adding soft and then vibrant colors mostly of the yellow and pink hues before finally allowing the sky blue to show through. I loved the way the pink would flirt with the waves by slightly tinting them as they reflected the light above. Anyway, here are some sunrise pictures for better or for worse.

Click on any picture to get a larger view.



In the picture above, you can still see the crescent moon and one cloud is being brought to life with color.

The picture below is not the sun rising over some mountains. Rather it is the sunrise over the massive sand dunes at Grayton Beach.



In the picture below, the clouds are lightened in color as the world begins to be defined by the light.


I love the pink tint reflected upon the waves and the wet sand on the beach.





Here is how the same sunrise matured.



The following pictures are of a different sunrise. It was quite cloudy, but the sun, in all it's splendor managed to light up those clouds to give us a magnificant picture. It reminded me of what a lava flow would look like from a volcano. That's what I saw and that's how I hope I have pictured it.

Downtown Grayton Beach

Downtown Grayton Beach consists of one whole block and about five businesses in three buildings.

You can double click on any picture to see a larger version.


I learned a couple of years ago that I could sit on a bench in Downtown Grayton Beach, lean against a palm tree and access the internet without charge.

There are two photos of the same building. A new resturant, "Shorty's" recently opened in this building. It's a fine place to dine in a nice atmosphere. From the upstairs dining room, you can view the ocean. We enjoyed a delightful meal here one evening.

A small clothing store shares the building with Shorty's.

This building is next to Shorty's and across the street from the infamous Red Bar. It houses an art gallery and souvenir shop. Upstairs are condo's for rent.


This is the front door to the Red Bar. The picture below is a side view of the Red Bar. The Red Bar is Grayton Beach's most famous destination. The inside decor fits perfectly with the front entrance. No two tables are alike. No two booths are alike, and maybe, no two chairs. They have a band that starts playing at 7 each evening. The place is loud, but filled with happy people and the food and service is excellent. The first time I went inside, I blew it off as a beer joint. Far from it, it is the local gathering place where old acquaintences are renewed and new ones are made.

If you double click on the side view, you will see people sitting on a bench in front of the Red Bar. They were waiting to meet up with some other people for a unique dining experience.

Watercolor and Seaside

Watercolor and Seaside are planned communities and an architects delight. Watercolor existed first and adjacent Seaside was founded in 1981. Both communities have narrow tree lined streets with houses of various architecture and bountiful colors. Lots are small and most houses, like boats, have names.

Here are some photo's I took to give you an idea of what the communities look like.

You can double click any photo to see it in a larger size.






The picture above and below are of the same house. Note in the picture below, the seaman standing on the upper porch. I always grin when I see this house. That seaman has been standing watch for a long time.






All of the houses in the above photographs are on Hwy. 30A, which is the busiest road going through the communities. The houses below are from neighborhood streets away from the highway. The church is an interdominational chapel where services are held each Sunday.








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The Cabin Campground Beach

You can double click any photo to see a larger picture.




The picture above was taken during a sunrise. You might notice a pink tint caused by the sun at daybreak.







The beach at the park is about 3/4 of a mile long. When we arrived, they were absolutely pristine. The water is beautiful and the waves are plentiful. Adjacent to the beach are huge protected sand dunes which must be 30 to 40 feet high.



As you can tell by looking at these pictures, this beach relatively private. I think the most people we ever saw on the beach was about two dozen who showed up to view a sunset. Usually there would be six to eight other people on the beach.



Immediately to the east of the park beach, are individually owned beach house valued at $3 to $5 million dollars. Some of those are rented out.



On the west end of the beach, we noticed some large condos are being built. The west end of the beach ends with a small inlet that leads to some private homes and has a sign warning to beware of the alligators. The large condos can be seen above my hat while the private residences are to the right of that. In Walton County, no building may be more than four stories tall. So, hopefully the giant high rise condos will never infect this pristine area.



Two years ago, the only way to get from the top of the dunes to the beach was a stairway. Construction is now complete on a wheelchair ramp. It is quite massive. This picure will give you an idea of how tall the sand dunes are and how huge the wheelchair ramp had to be. Note the 5'5" lady at the base of the steps.



A flock of Sea Gulls.



A baby bathing.



Caught a fish without using a rod or bait.



We want to catch fish too.

Our Cabin At The Park

We stayed at Grayton Beach State Park in Grayton Beach, Florida from Monday, through Thursday of the third week of September. There are two parts of the park. One part has public access and includes a beach, a lake, and campgrounds. The other part is a mile and a half away and includes cabins and a beach. The cabin part is gated and entrance by code only which makes it a very private place.

You can double click on any photo to see a larger version.


Each cabin is a duplex with each side having two bedrooms, a bath, a fully equipped kitchen with breakfast bar and stools, a fire place with gas logs, a table with four chairs and a futon (yuck) for a sofa. Each cabin also has a screen porch with a picnic table and rocking chairs and just outside the screen porch is a bbq. The cabins are surrounded by woods and are relatively private. They have central heat and ac, tile floors in the kitchen, living room and bath and carpet in the bedrooms and hallway connecting the bedrooms.

In the picture above, a bedroom is behind the shutters and the kitchen is to the left of the front door. If you look closely, you can see the shutters from the kitchen window on the left hand side of the cabin.

The picture above shows the corner of the screen porch, and the bbq pit. It also gives you an idea of the privacy afforded by the beautiful vegetation.

This picture shows the cabin from the parking area. Each cabin has it's own parking area. The cabins are neat and clean. They do not have internet, television, or telephones. Each one has a queen bed and two single beds. They rent for $110 per night. Our's was 625 steps to the beach. It was actually closer than that, but the road consisted of zig zags...south a half block, west a half block, south a half block, west a half block and south another half block.

Some people drive to the beach area, some ride bicycles. We walked. There is nothing on either side of the road but unspoiled vegetation similar to what we had around the cabin.