Well after not being able to get an Uber, I had to drive myself, which will cost me an extra 15 bucks or so. Check in and security were a breeze and I began my hour long wait at the terminal. I wasn't feeling any more uneasy than I usually do before I fly, I actually tend to relax once I'm on the plane. I checked the flight listing and it was suddenly oversold be one person, meaning about 15 or 16npeople had booked the flight in a 24 hour span. And I counted about 45 people or so in the terminal for the only plane that would leave that airport until 11 am. Then as a family of five wearing LA Dodgers gear showed up 15 minutes before departure, I don't know why, it suddenly set me off. It's actually a blessing for me that I can wear a mask in the airport, so people can't see me glaring.
So the ticketed passengers all get on. There were 5 of us trying to get on. They call a Richardson, who is sitting next to me and clearly smokes a lot of cigarettes judging by the smell. Then they call an Otis. How are these two people going ahead of me?! I'm a D1 and checked in first! Finally the gate agent called my name and I got the last seat on the plane to Charlotte.
Sadly I can't get into the Admirals Club anymore, which makes airport drinking and phone charging a whole lot harder. And all the food I've had in the Charlotte airport has sucked. They have the absolute worst pizza I've had in the last ten years. But I did find a plaza that had Potbelly, Bojangles, Shake Shack, and Wicked Weed beer. Not too shabby.
It is almost scary how quickly my phone drains. I swear, 4 hours of moderate usage, and it's practically shot.
Lunch was at The Shack in Fort Walton Beach. This was my first lunch spot on my trip, I wanted some seafood on the waterfront. Sadly with the heavy rain, we had to sit inside, right next to the storm windows. Would have been a great view on a clear day though. We started with the boom boom crawfish, which had a sett and slightly spicy Asian sauce and served with diced tomatoes and green onions and served over a bed of lettuce. Pretty good, but the crawfish didn't need the sauce Just deep fried with some lemon and tartar sauce or remoulade would have suited me just fine.
For my main course, I had a plate of grilled mahi mahi with French fries and broccoli (I paid an extra 3 bucks to lost the mayo-based cole slaw). Fish was really good, a pretty good sized portion, nicely seasoned, and their tartar sauce was really zesty, it definitely didn't taste like the generic tartar that so many restaurants tend to serve. Their fries were those long wedge slices, and they tasted really good when dipped into some honey mustard.
I wouldn't necessarily call this place special, there are many that I would consider comparable in terms of atmosphere and menu. But on a clear day, it's a nice place to visit.
We did some window shopping down Highway 98, which is the main drag that is just as much under construction now as it was when I first visited a year ago. Two lanes each way and the equivalent of four more lanes that are nothing but dirt, road cones, and empty cranes. We actually stopped into a couple of shoe stores. Sadly, I would've had to pay $140 for another pair of On shoes. Nothing quite worked, so we went to the home on Miramar Beach and unpacked.
Looking for some live music on a Saturday night, we went to Graffitis Funky Blues Shack. Their variety of pizzas named after musicians really caught our eye. I could've ordered the Stevie Wonder, but I don't think I would've been able to see it when they brought it out.
But that aside, we got a 3 topping 12 inch pizza for 9 bucks. It was a pan style pizza, not thin crust, but not so dish either. They served it with a decent amount of parmesan already on top. I think it could've used a little more sauce but it was still a very enjoyable meal. Throw in four good size glasses of happy hour wine, and it cost me $23, and that's with tax included! That's a steal.
They had music going on in the parking lot, a 3 piece keyboard based blues band with a vocalist. Really nice relaxing sound. But then certain types of customers were getting a little too close and it was quite disturbing, so I was ready to go pretty quickly. We stayed for the first set and then left.
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