Month: October 2024

“The Beatnik, Ocean Springs – Happy 60th Anne!”

I treated Diana to Happy Hour oysters at Superior Seafood on Tuesday.  We sat at the bar and first saw Fred enter with a guy who was assessing him for his psychiatry accreditation (we didn’t blow it for him), and then our neighbors Britney, Tony and little Auggie, Britney telling Diana that she and Tony met at Superior years ago – she was his waitress.  Me thinks a bit more investigation of that story is needed.

I attended Dat Dog trivia after oysters and we had a mediocre fifth place win – my contribution was also mediocre.  We need to pick up our game!  Anne and Kara joined for the second half and might have been a bit of a disruptive distraction, depending on one’s point of view.

Anne’s sixtieth birthday was a couple of months ago, and Denny had presented her with a certificate for a beach getaway.  We picked up Kenny and Kara, made the ninety minute drive to Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and rendezvoused with Fred and Kelly to surprise Anne at the Beatnik.

This is a motel with four units, a pool, firepit and nice seating areas.  Denny rented out the whole shebang for Thursday and Friday night.  The ladies put together a beautiful array of charcuterie, dips and fruits, and I think Anne was genuinely surprised on arrival – she thought it was just going to be her and Denny.  Smart idea from Kelly to move our cars over to the dive bar across the street so as not to blow the surprise.

Here’s a map to orient you on Ocean Springs location:

We walked across the street to Sweets Lounge in the evening and had good fun playing various different pool games.

I had Diana challenge the amount of the bill when we left – “It can’t possibly be that inexpensive.”  The bartender explained that drinks were reduced when a Saints game was showing – even before that they were prices from 15 years ago.

 

I walked across the street to the Lazy Oak for breakfast on Friday morning.  McD joined me after her run around town and ate the fruit that I had pushed to the side of the plate.  Then we had a nice time hanging out in the pool for a couple of hours.

We wandered around downtown Ocean Springs in the afternoon.  What a nice and eclectic little town.

Glory Bound provided us with a yummy Greek dinner.

We hung out around the firepit in the evening, with Kenny participating in a pool tournament at Sweets, and as is typical, making friends with a number of the locals.

We drove back via the coastal road on Saturday, meeting up with Kenny’s long time friend, Chris, for lunch at a marina side taco joint in Bay St. Louis.

Diana had texted Amy, also a resident of Bay St. Louis, to see what the chances of swinging by for a boat ride looked like.  The timing worked out well and we drove to Captain Randy and Amy’s place after lunch.  We were soon out on the water and enjoying the Jourdan river trail.

I had planned on watching the Cowboys and 49ers game on Sunday night – wrong weekend – the Cowboys are on a bye week and that’s next week.  Probably good for the Boys to rest up before that challenging game.

My book this week was “The Radleys” by Matt Haig.  I had enjoyed another of his books, “The Midnight Library”, and this one sounded good, except that I totally missed it was a story about vampires trying for abstinence from vampire activities.  Here’s an online review:

“Just about everyone knows a family like the Radleys. Many of us grew up next door to one. They are a modern family, averagely content, averagely dysfunctional, living in a staid and quiet suburban English town. Peter is an overworked doctor whose wife, Helen, has become increasingly remote and uncommunicative. Rowan, their teenage son, is being bullied at school, and their anemic daughter, Clara, has recently become a vegan. They are typical, that is, save for one devastating exception: Peter and Helen are vampires and have—for seventeen years—been abstaining by choice from a life of chasing blood in the hope that their children could live normal lives.”

Given the silly subject matter, I did still find this tale well written and entertaining.  I’m sure it’s not for everyone.

A very good cover:

And an even better cover – I love this one a lot:

And finally, some great 70s feel:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all!

 

 

“Return to Roatan”

It was a very early start on Monday – in an Uber to the airport at 4:30am.  We caught a 6am flight to Miami, “enjoyed” a couple of hours layover, and then took the next short flight to Roatan, Honduras.  A very bumpy thirty minute ride over an often washed out road and we arrived at the Kimpton Grand Roatan Resort.  The resort was purchased by Kimpton since we visited two years ago, and they have made many improvements, upgrades, and expansions.  While quite luxurious, with new restaurants and amenities, we missed some of the character of the old set up.

Here’s a map that shows the location of Roatan island:

After some lengthy negotiations, we secured a beach front condo with a wonderful view.

The trip is to honour the top performing employees from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – there were about forty of them in attendance.  We had a reception for them on Monday night, and the girls enjoyed dinner on their own – a wonderful paella topped with lobster.

Tuesday was a full day of presentations and discussions.  I participated in a panel discussion on “mindset” that seemed to be well received.  My very favourite segment was a presentation by Andrea Cardona, the first Latin American woman to summit Everest.  This was the best business talk that I’ve heard – beautifully linked back to the topic of the day, and presented with a complete lack of ego.  The answers that Andrea gave to the audience questions were excellent.

Andrea has asthma and it was fascinating to hear all the approaches that she deployed to counteract the impacts at the highest elevations.

Here’s a video of a short segment of Andrea’s presentation:

She said that she had a whole special speech planned for the summit, but just couldn’t get enough air to do it:

Meanwhile, the girls were enjoying some quality beach time.  The weather was not perfect – quite windy – but they made the best of it.

They did pick up an extra member of  the “girls” group – Lee, Belinda’s husband:

There was a fancy reception with dinner and dancing on Tuesday night, starting with a group picture on the beach:

Here’s the leadership team subset:

The dinner was good, and the fun really began with the dancing.

Unlike two years ago, when Lisa and Diana had to get the party started, the group was raring to get the dance floor up and going.  Of course Diana took full advantage of the opportunity to show her moves:

It wouldn’t be a real party without a conga line:

There were meetings again on Wednesday afternoon, and then free time in the afternoon.  The group enjoyed the ocean and sunset pictures.

That’s Diana, Jorge, and Sofie waving to me.

A small group of us enjoyed dinner in the Mediterranean restaurant on Wednesday evening, and then Blair arranged for the very talented guitar player in the restaurant to give us a private outdoor concert :

 

 

 

Some dancers joined in:

The guitar player went in to get a capo, so Jorge took over – is there no limit to this man’s talents?

Most of the group left on Thursday morning, and so Diana and I enjoyed some quiet time by the pool, followed by a relaxing meal in the Mediterranean restaurant.  Diana had some more of the excellent octopus, while I enjoyed some more of the squid ink linguini with shrimp, mussels and clams.  We had shared those with the table the previous night, and were happy to repeat the highlights.

We did take advantage of the “social hour” on the upstairs restaurant balcony before dinner – what an amazing view:

We snapped a quick selfie and then took a shuttle to the airport for our long day of travel back home.  The four hour layover in Miami really was a bit too long, getting us home shortly before midnight.

 

The Kingpin had a band called “The Been Around Band” on Saturday afternoon.  Most of the Krewe (minus Denny and Anne – in Alabama) assembled and enjoyed the music – quite a different kind of band than normal.

The Blues and BBQ festival is an annual event put on by the Jazz and Heritage Festival folks – so the sound and timing are always impeccable.  Here’s the lineup for Sunday:

We arrived in time to see Billy Iuso at noon.  The event was very quiet due to the Saints game at the same time.

We humoured a Jazz and Heritage employee who was taking pictures and videos with signs:

Iuso played a great set of covers and originals.

That was followed by Mitch Woods and his Rocket 88s, with John Fohl on guitar – he really can play any style of music.  Here’s the song I hear every morning as Diana’s alarm clock:

We finished up with a wonderful sounding Eric Lindell band:

What a wonderful free day of music!

We headed back home to watch the Cowboys game and should have stayed at the festival – a pathetic performance all around.

 

I finished up “Tell Me Everything” by the amazing Elizabeth Strout.  What an excellent book – weaving together the characters from all her previous novels into a new set of tales.

 

The characters are some of my favourites in all of my reading.   Highly recommended.

 

Some of that great 70s feel from Candi Staton:

A great sounding song from the Allman Bros offspring:

And finally, a deep cut from Tom Petty:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all!