So Long Summer – A Weekend at Crab Island

This weekend was our official “So Long to Summer” since Labor Day weekend everyone on the Gulf Coast was trying not to float away in the wake of Tropical Storm Lee.   Since I was already in Destin for the Grand Opening of Kirkland’s, we decided to make it a little mini vacay and stay with my uncle in his ninth floor condo overlooking the Gulf of Mexico.

We felt sorry for him… poor guy has to make up to THIS horrible view each day:

I know, awful, right?

After church on Sunday we had lunch and then took the boat out to the most popular spot in the area – Crab Island.  Now, if you have never been to Crab Island… well, it is an experience.  At any given time you will see dozens of boats – from dinghies to yachts – pulled up to a huge sandbar just west of the Destin Harbor.

In the center of Crab Island you will find the “party barge” – where depending on the day you may find a DJ, live band, bikini contest, chicken fights, volleyball tournaments… or all of the above at the same time.  One thing you can count on – it’s ALWAYS a party.  They even have boats that serve food, drinks, and even my favorite – boiled peanuts!

Pets are welcome, as are kids… although you will never see me take MY two there… maybe when they are teenagers.  It’s a bit too wild and crazy for me to think children should go, but there were some playing football and frisbee and other fun games in between all of the boats.  It is a relatively “safe” place for kids to hang out and play… you just may have to shield them from the occasional thong bikini…

The water is just crystal clear, and I wish now that I had broken out the Canon to capture the COLOR of the water in and along the Destin Harbor.  I have always been amazed at just how beautiful it is.  No wonder they call it the “Emerald Coast” – it is just as green as any emerald you have ever seen.  And you can see clear through to the bottom even when it is like 20 feet deep – pretty amazing to see all of the fish, dolphins, and other sealife – just looking over the side of the boat.

We stayed at Crab Island just a few hours – long enough to get a fantastic end-of-summer sunburn and have a few adult beverages – and party with several hundred people saying Good Bye to the Summer of 2011.   It was a blast – many many laughs – and made me look forward to going back again next year.

Who knows, maybe by then I can convince Mike that we TOTALLY could have taken that other team in the Chicken Fight…