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Message
TulaneLSU's Top 10 things to do in Destin
Posted on 2/2/21 at 4:03 pm
Posted on 2/2/21 at 4:03 pm
Dear Friends,
It was a sublime pie: crust browned just enough, edges pocketed, balancing crisp and moist, and filling was fresh, homemade even. The year was 1991 and the whole family gathered for our first trip to Loranger, LA. Only recently had the Solomon Episcopal Conference Center opened there. If you have not been, you should try to go at some point, for few places in Louisiana offer sanctuary and retreat as it does. And the food! It is endless and delicious.
After a day of playing in the outdoors, prayer in chapel, and fishing the family gathered for dinner. We had the dining room to ourselves when Cousin grabbed a whole pie and brought it to the children’s table. He also had a foil pack of Upper Deck baseball cards and slapped it in front of us.
“Whoever gets the most expensive card from this pack gets the whole pie.” In the same way the statue of John Knox in St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh points to the Bible as though it is the source of all authority, Cousin tapped on a magazine whose cover depicted Roger Clemens in a traditional throwing motion, as he said, “According to Beckett.”
There were about ten of us, mostly cousins, a few teens, but most of us were between five and ten years of age, and highly impressionable. Cousin went first and he drew a Bob Kipper, which I believe was worth about 25 cents. Around the table we took our turns. Kiki Jones, Ted Power, Barry Jones, Mike Boddicker. By the time my turn came, the highest valued card was Ruben Sierra. Cousin flipped my card over and it was a Michael Jordan minor league card. “Yes!” I exclaimed as I grabbed the pie. I gave my other cousins small slices, but the biggest slice was for me.
“You always get so lucky,” complained a disgruntled Cousin.
The grownups tables were not far apart and the conversation at one of the tables immediately stopped as a strong voice broke through the room. “Did someone say the L word?” Our table cowered. We knew that voice. It was Mother’s.
The adults once again returned to their conversations, except for one. Mother was not going to let that error go unchecked. She rose and approached the table wearing her stern face. “Cousin, did I hear you say lucky?” Cousin knew he was caught and turned his shameful eyes to the ground because he knew what was to come. “You know that no one in this family uses that term. There is no such thing as luck. It is a heresy, a belief of the apostate and atheist and it has no place on any of your minds or any of your lips.”
Mother is the best Calvinist I know and she directly quoted Calvin as she reproved Cousin. “There is no such thing as [luck], fortune, or chance. Suppose a man wandering through the desert finds help in his straits; having been tossed by the waves, reaches harbor; miraculously escapes death by a finger’s breadth. Carnal reason ascribes all such happenings, whether prosperous or adverse, to fortune. But anyone who has been taught by Christ’s lips that all the hairs of his head are numbered will look farther ahead for a cause, and will consider that all events are governed by God’s secret plan.”
I interrupted her. “Providence, Mother. God’s grace is providence.” I wanted her to know I had been listening to her lessons. She smiled a smile of approval.
Mother continued, “The only corruption of our language worse than God’s name used in vain is when God’s superintendence is attributed to the hands of fortune and luck. Never let me hear any of you spread such blasphemy.”
Through the years, I have heard Cousin trespass against and deviate from Mother’s true teachings. When he has, though, he hits the backspace bar and corrects himself. As for me, I do not know if I have ever used the word luck or lucky, or karma for that matter, except to strike down such philosophies with the sword of truth.
Our family spends several weeks each year east of Destin. Getting there usually means we drive through Destin. As you also know, the entrance to Destin, just before the bridge, hosts a large billboard with a dancing blue marlin with the words “Welcome to Destin, the world’s luckiest fishing village.” I remember the sign from the early 2000s that had an angry dolphin chasing a flying fish. As you guessed, Mother hates both signs because they contained that phrase.
“It is for this reason that we do not have property or stay in Destin,” Mother reminds us each trip as she points to the sign. That may be the primary reason for our Destin abstinence, but it is not the only. There is a sort of overcrowded carelessness about the place that none of us particularly likes. It has increasingly become a sliver of repulsive Southern hedonism where tattoos, alcohol and other drugs, promiscuous behavior, and material ostentatiousness rule. Whereas such feculent behavior was once concentrated in dens of disrepute, like bars, now there is democratized sin, and each corner of the beach or rented pontoon or cigarette boat gives way to the carnal desires. Could Destin’s current state be due to its embrace of the god of luck?
We do, nonetheless, spend some days in Destin when the storms of winter roll through town and push out the fair weather visitors. Recently, we had the pleasure of spending a few days in Destin, and while there, I realized I had yet to make a TulaneLSU’s Top 10 things to do in Destin
It was a sublime pie: crust browned just enough, edges pocketed, balancing crisp and moist, and filling was fresh, homemade even. The year was 1991 and the whole family gathered for our first trip to Loranger, LA. Only recently had the Solomon Episcopal Conference Center opened there. If you have not been, you should try to go at some point, for few places in Louisiana offer sanctuary and retreat as it does. And the food! It is endless and delicious.
After a day of playing in the outdoors, prayer in chapel, and fishing the family gathered for dinner. We had the dining room to ourselves when Cousin grabbed a whole pie and brought it to the children’s table. He also had a foil pack of Upper Deck baseball cards and slapped it in front of us.
“Whoever gets the most expensive card from this pack gets the whole pie.” In the same way the statue of John Knox in St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh points to the Bible as though it is the source of all authority, Cousin tapped on a magazine whose cover depicted Roger Clemens in a traditional throwing motion, as he said, “According to Beckett.”
There were about ten of us, mostly cousins, a few teens, but most of us were between five and ten years of age, and highly impressionable. Cousin went first and he drew a Bob Kipper, which I believe was worth about 25 cents. Around the table we took our turns. Kiki Jones, Ted Power, Barry Jones, Mike Boddicker. By the time my turn came, the highest valued card was Ruben Sierra. Cousin flipped my card over and it was a Michael Jordan minor league card. “Yes!” I exclaimed as I grabbed the pie. I gave my other cousins small slices, but the biggest slice was for me.
“You always get so lucky,” complained a disgruntled Cousin.
The grownups tables were not far apart and the conversation at one of the tables immediately stopped as a strong voice broke through the room. “Did someone say the L word?” Our table cowered. We knew that voice. It was Mother’s.
The adults once again returned to their conversations, except for one. Mother was not going to let that error go unchecked. She rose and approached the table wearing her stern face. “Cousin, did I hear you say lucky?” Cousin knew he was caught and turned his shameful eyes to the ground because he knew what was to come. “You know that no one in this family uses that term. There is no such thing as luck. It is a heresy, a belief of the apostate and atheist and it has no place on any of your minds or any of your lips.”
Mother is the best Calvinist I know and she directly quoted Calvin as she reproved Cousin. “There is no such thing as [luck], fortune, or chance. Suppose a man wandering through the desert finds help in his straits; having been tossed by the waves, reaches harbor; miraculously escapes death by a finger’s breadth. Carnal reason ascribes all such happenings, whether prosperous or adverse, to fortune. But anyone who has been taught by Christ’s lips that all the hairs of his head are numbered will look farther ahead for a cause, and will consider that all events are governed by God’s secret plan.”
I interrupted her. “Providence, Mother. God’s grace is providence.” I wanted her to know I had been listening to her lessons. She smiled a smile of approval.
Mother continued, “The only corruption of our language worse than God’s name used in vain is when God’s superintendence is attributed to the hands of fortune and luck. Never let me hear any of you spread such blasphemy.”
Through the years, I have heard Cousin trespass against and deviate from Mother’s true teachings. When he has, though, he hits the backspace bar and corrects himself. As for me, I do not know if I have ever used the word luck or lucky, or karma for that matter, except to strike down such philosophies with the sword of truth.
Our family spends several weeks each year east of Destin. Getting there usually means we drive through Destin. As you also know, the entrance to Destin, just before the bridge, hosts a large billboard with a dancing blue marlin with the words “Welcome to Destin, the world’s luckiest fishing village.” I remember the sign from the early 2000s that had an angry dolphin chasing a flying fish. As you guessed, Mother hates both signs because they contained that phrase.
“It is for this reason that we do not have property or stay in Destin,” Mother reminds us each trip as she points to the sign. That may be the primary reason for our Destin abstinence, but it is not the only. There is a sort of overcrowded carelessness about the place that none of us particularly likes. It has increasingly become a sliver of repulsive Southern hedonism where tattoos, alcohol and other drugs, promiscuous behavior, and material ostentatiousness rule. Whereas such feculent behavior was once concentrated in dens of disrepute, like bars, now there is democratized sin, and each corner of the beach or rented pontoon or cigarette boat gives way to the carnal desires. Could Destin’s current state be due to its embrace of the god of luck?
We do, nonetheless, spend some days in Destin when the storms of winter roll through town and push out the fair weather visitors. Recently, we had the pleasure of spending a few days in Destin, and while there, I realized I had yet to make a TulaneLSU’s Top 10 things to do in Destin
This post was edited on 2/2/21 at 4:04 pm
2
Posted on 2/2/21 at 4:03 pm to TulaneLSU
10. Destin History and Fishing Museum
Local museums are a treasure trove of information and culture, and whenever I spot one, I visit and usually spend an entire day there. Destin’s is excellent and Mother and I spent five hours touring it, even though we were told it would only take 30 or so minutes. Originally located in the strip where McGuire’s sits, this former house yields a wealth of information and stories about Destin. A sizable portion of the museum is dedicated to its fishing heritage and annual fishing rodeo in October.
One of the more fascinating things I learned during the visit was how a small man-made ditch changed Destin forever. The summer of 1926 was rather uneventful for Destin. Long, hot days gave way to hope of an early Front Day in September. But by the middle of the month, storm clouds approached from the southeast as the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 made landfall 50 miles west.
The hurricane pushed a surge of 14 feet into Choctawhatchee Bay. And it also clogged up the pass with sand, creating essentially a lake whose water level was nearly six feet higher than sea level. Until that point, the pass to the bay was an oblique passage, hardly north of parallel to the Gulf, just as it had been when the founding father of Destin, Leonard Destin, a Connecticut fisherman who arrived to its barren shores around 1850. Its orientation meant there was very little water passage and the bay was mostly freshwater.
But now the fishermen of Destin were landlocked. Four such men were not deterred. According to Destin legend they, like kids on the beach, began digging a small ditch on the Gulf Side of Santa Rosa Island, three of them using a shovel and a fourth the handle of a paddle. When a communication between gulf and bay was made, the water began roaring. The men ran to their boats, narrowly escaping a wall of water, taking with it enormous amounts of sand, pine trees, and dunes, that would scour the pass as it courses today.
Left behind was the old pass, which became Destin Harbor. In its place was this much wider and deeper and swifter pass. Also changed was Choctawhatchee Bay, as it became a salty bay with strong tides. In New Orleans we are taught how terrible man-made canals, like the MRGO and gas canals through the marshes, have been for our ecology and land. In Destin, their man-made canal has been a blessing.
Destin also prides itself in its month-long open fishing rodeo in October. It started in 1948, two years after the City Park Bass Rodeo (1946) and two decades after the Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo (1928). It has grown into quite a spectacle. I won a trophy in the Destin Rodeo for a red snapper caught on Uncle’s Viking many years ago. It took a cigar minnow half that I distinctly remember came from a box like this one:
The most interesting part of the museum, and the section that requires the most research and expansion is the church history section. Our tour guide, descendant from one of the original families of Destin, the Marler family, has been working on this display and is quite excited to show it, as we were to receive it. The stained glass and cross come from the former St. John Orthodox Church.
St. John’s was finished in 1984, a chapel paid for by John George Maltezo’s daughter to honor him. Maltezo was a ship builder who built quite an industry and fishing fleet in Destin, including the Primrose, pictured above. It has always been our view that churches should only honor the Trinity or one of the Persons of the Trinity, but that is for another matter. Anyway, the chapel was completed in 1984, the same year Destin gained its right for self-control and independence from county rule. By 2013, the building was derelict and sold for just $330,000. The buyer supposedly was to turn it into a restaurant, but ended up tearing it down and an unsightly Moe’s BBQ chain out of Colorado took its spot on this Earth. There is not anything sadder than when a community of Christian faith dies.
Admission to the museum is $5 and well worth it. Every trip to Destin should start here.
9. The Boardwalk
The Boardwalk has been there for as long as I have known Destin, but when the Emerald Grande towers were completed around 2007, the Boardwalk boomed. There are plenty of restaurants here, most of them tourist traps, but I like to walk along in the afternoon or evening to see what the fisherman have caught. I have been known to climb a rockwall and do a zipline, too.
8. Fishing
When Uncle has his boat in Destin, we will usually go offshore and focus on kings and snapper, if in season. Most of the time, though, I like to fish on the northeast point of Santa Rosa Island, just across from the Coast Guard station. I have caught several 25” specs there. Florida law is quite strict so read up on them before keeping. The only downside of this location is sometimes you are faced with the unpleasant and revolting debauchery happening on Crab Island, truly paradise lost.
7. Norriego Point
Most of Destin is overcrowded, but Norriego Point seems forgotten. By the time summer comes, the improvements to the point will likely be completed. Before the concrete wall was installed last year, the point was simply a tiny sandspit that divided the harbor from the pass. Now that development is nearing completion, I doubt I will have any quiet, lonesome walks in one of Destin’s last secret beaches. I expect the dunes and the coves to be overrun with tourists next year. The good news is that it will soon be wheelchair accessible.
Local museums are a treasure trove of information and culture, and whenever I spot one, I visit and usually spend an entire day there. Destin’s is excellent and Mother and I spent five hours touring it, even though we were told it would only take 30 or so minutes. Originally located in the strip where McGuire’s sits, this former house yields a wealth of information and stories about Destin. A sizable portion of the museum is dedicated to its fishing heritage and annual fishing rodeo in October.
One of the more fascinating things I learned during the visit was how a small man-made ditch changed Destin forever. The summer of 1926 was rather uneventful for Destin. Long, hot days gave way to hope of an early Front Day in September. But by the middle of the month, storm clouds approached from the southeast as the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 made landfall 50 miles west.
The hurricane pushed a surge of 14 feet into Choctawhatchee Bay. And it also clogged up the pass with sand, creating essentially a lake whose water level was nearly six feet higher than sea level. Until that point, the pass to the bay was an oblique passage, hardly north of parallel to the Gulf, just as it had been when the founding father of Destin, Leonard Destin, a Connecticut fisherman who arrived to its barren shores around 1850. Its orientation meant there was very little water passage and the bay was mostly freshwater.
But now the fishermen of Destin were landlocked. Four such men were not deterred. According to Destin legend they, like kids on the beach, began digging a small ditch on the Gulf Side of Santa Rosa Island, three of them using a shovel and a fourth the handle of a paddle. When a communication between gulf and bay was made, the water began roaring. The men ran to their boats, narrowly escaping a wall of water, taking with it enormous amounts of sand, pine trees, and dunes, that would scour the pass as it courses today.
Left behind was the old pass, which became Destin Harbor. In its place was this much wider and deeper and swifter pass. Also changed was Choctawhatchee Bay, as it became a salty bay with strong tides. In New Orleans we are taught how terrible man-made canals, like the MRGO and gas canals through the marshes, have been for our ecology and land. In Destin, their man-made canal has been a blessing.
Destin also prides itself in its month-long open fishing rodeo in October. It started in 1948, two years after the City Park Bass Rodeo (1946) and two decades after the Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo (1928). It has grown into quite a spectacle. I won a trophy in the Destin Rodeo for a red snapper caught on Uncle’s Viking many years ago. It took a cigar minnow half that I distinctly remember came from a box like this one:
The most interesting part of the museum, and the section that requires the most research and expansion is the church history section. Our tour guide, descendant from one of the original families of Destin, the Marler family, has been working on this display and is quite excited to show it, as we were to receive it. The stained glass and cross come from the former St. John Orthodox Church.
St. John’s was finished in 1984, a chapel paid for by John George Maltezo’s daughter to honor him. Maltezo was a ship builder who built quite an industry and fishing fleet in Destin, including the Primrose, pictured above. It has always been our view that churches should only honor the Trinity or one of the Persons of the Trinity, but that is for another matter. Anyway, the chapel was completed in 1984, the same year Destin gained its right for self-control and independence from county rule. By 2013, the building was derelict and sold for just $330,000. The buyer supposedly was to turn it into a restaurant, but ended up tearing it down and an unsightly Moe’s BBQ chain out of Colorado took its spot on this Earth. There is not anything sadder than when a community of Christian faith dies.
Admission to the museum is $5 and well worth it. Every trip to Destin should start here.
9. The Boardwalk
The Boardwalk has been there for as long as I have known Destin, but when the Emerald Grande towers were completed around 2007, the Boardwalk boomed. There are plenty of restaurants here, most of them tourist traps, but I like to walk along in the afternoon or evening to see what the fisherman have caught. I have been known to climb a rockwall and do a zipline, too.
8. Fishing
When Uncle has his boat in Destin, we will usually go offshore and focus on kings and snapper, if in season. Most of the time, though, I like to fish on the northeast point of Santa Rosa Island, just across from the Coast Guard station. I have caught several 25” specs there. Florida law is quite strict so read up on them before keeping. The only downside of this location is sometimes you are faced with the unpleasant and revolting debauchery happening on Crab Island, truly paradise lost.
7. Norriego Point
Most of Destin is overcrowded, but Norriego Point seems forgotten. By the time summer comes, the improvements to the point will likely be completed. Before the concrete wall was installed last year, the point was simply a tiny sandspit that divided the harbor from the pass. Now that development is nearing completion, I doubt I will have any quiet, lonesome walks in one of Destin’s last secret beaches. I expect the dunes and the coves to be overrun with tourists next year. The good news is that it will soon be wheelchair accessible.
This post was edited on 2/2/21 at 4:14 pm
Posted on 2/2/21 at 4:03 pm to TulaneLSU
6. The Donut Hole
Destin is not home to many great places to eat, but The Donut Hole is one of the few. It is a quintessential vacation dessert house because if you were to eat here often, you probably would not live a very long time. Its cakes are decadent, with icing smeared on the cake like a bricklayer troweling mortar on bricks. The hamburgers are also noteworthy, and better than nearby McGuire’s. But everyone who has been here knows the reason it is famous: its donuts.
I am not willing to say the donuts here are better than the Tastee in Kenner, which has the best donuts I have ever had, and I have had many. (Please keep in mind that the same Tastee also sells the city’s best king cakes. Any Tastee king cake not from the Loyola Avenue shop is not going to live up to my hype, so make the trip there to taste for yourself). But I am willing to say that they serve a Top 10 donut in America. I will also share TulaneLSU’s Top 10 donuts at The Donut Hole:
10. Key Lime filled
9. Iced velvet cake
8. Strawberry snow angel
7. Blueberry cake
6. Chocolate snow angel
5. Chocolate peanut butter
4. Vanilla snow angel
3. Glazed chocolate cake
2. Chocolate glazed
1. Chocolate covered angel’s food (we do not name our food after evil entities)
Prices have gone up a bit over the years. A dozen now costs $16, but one snow angel is enough to fill most appetites, as TDH’s proclivity to stuff you with icing hits its highest note with these varieties. Most of these varieties are gone by 10 during tourist season, so I recommend getting there at 6 AM.
5. The beach
Again, the beach and I were not made for each other. I do not like barely clothed crowds. I do not like the sun’s intense rays. I do not like the feel of sand on my feet. I do not like the possibility of being eaten by a shark (1000 pound Makos cruise within casting distance of the shore in the early Spring during the cobia run). I do not like vomiting sea water. The only time I go to the beach is in the winter, when the beach is at its most pristine. Why people vacation to the beach when people are sitting on top each other is beyond my understanding.
One of the most scarring moments of my life happened on the beach not far from the beaches of Destin. I had just finished baking some of Great Grandmother’s Calliope Chocolate Chip Cookies and wanted to share the batch with Cousin. Cousin was with us for the first time in a few years, and he brought his girlfriend who was a student at Vanderbilt. I could not find them in the house, so I grabbed my flashlight and searched the beach.
After ten minutes of searching, I finally caught a glimpse of movement in some dunes a few hundred yards away. “Cousin! Is that you?” I ran toward the dune.
My artificial light bounced about my target as the image became clearer and clearer. By the time I was thirty yards away, there was no questioning what was happening. I will not detail what I saw, but later that night, and without sharing any of the cookies, I had a long and serious discussion with Cousin. “You must marry her, now, if possible, but soon. Otherwise, no good will come of your sin.” The great news is they did get married a few months later. But as you know, Cousin’s wife succumbed to the virus last year. We are all trying to recover from that loss.
4. Dewey Destin
Dewey Destin opened less than twenty years ago, but it has the aura of a place that has been there for generations. That is perhaps because Dewey Destin is the great great grandson of the town’s founder, Leonard Destin. The location of the original, on the pass on Calhoun Avenue, a thoroughfare named after a rich Nashvillan who bought most of Destin in the 1930s, also adds to the charm. It turns out that Destin, Marler and the other founders of Destin had been squatting on federal government property. It was not until the 1930s that the land was sold to the public, and by then, few of the original families had money to buy more than small plots of land.
The actual restaurant is really little more than a deck and a dock with picnic benches. The kitchen is in a mobile trailer turned fryhouse. Only in the last year have they built a semi-covered area on land. The sno-ball mobile has moved to make way for this wood structure, but I am assured it will reopen.
Dewey Destin opened as a restaurant only because the owner’s seafood business was shut due to state law forbidding the use of the nets his fleet used. This was 2000, so he ingeniously came up with the idea of opening this little shack of a restaurant. It is in a perfect spot, just a stone’s throw from his great, great grandfather’s house, which tragically was torn down in 2013 by developers (it is now the location of #1 on this list).
Dewey’s fried shrimp are incredible, some of the best fried shrimp I have tasted. The location at Harborside, though, never tastes as good. And it is rare that you will leave hungry because they give between one and two pounds of French fried potatoes with every entree. They also practice something far more restaurants should: putting cocktail sauce on the table in large squeeze bottles with large apertures. It is so frustrating having to ask wait staff to retrieve cocktail sauce, which is the perfect condiment for most fried seafoods.
3. A walk through Marler Cemetery
Not too many tour guides would suggest visiting a cemetery when in Destin, but not many tour guides are from New Orleans, where cemeteries are one of our most pronounced cultural expressions of faith, hope, and love. Marler Cemetery is located in the oldest inhabited part of Destin. To walk through its live oaks and marble headstones is to hear the voices of the founding fathers and mothers of that little blessed village.
There you may pay your respects to Leonard Destin and his wife, Martha.
Also buried there is Dewey Destin, and many of his descendants. Every time I eat at Dewey Destin, I walk from the restaurant on the pass to the cemetery and give gratitude to the family for their contributions.
While there, you have a great view of one of the prettiest water towers in the South. Also nearby is the Destin Presbyterian Church. We usually go to St. Andrew’s by-the-Sea, which is on the main drag.
Destin is not home to many great places to eat, but The Donut Hole is one of the few. It is a quintessential vacation dessert house because if you were to eat here often, you probably would not live a very long time. Its cakes are decadent, with icing smeared on the cake like a bricklayer troweling mortar on bricks. The hamburgers are also noteworthy, and better than nearby McGuire’s. But everyone who has been here knows the reason it is famous: its donuts.
I am not willing to say the donuts here are better than the Tastee in Kenner, which has the best donuts I have ever had, and I have had many. (Please keep in mind that the same Tastee also sells the city’s best king cakes. Any Tastee king cake not from the Loyola Avenue shop is not going to live up to my hype, so make the trip there to taste for yourself). But I am willing to say that they serve a Top 10 donut in America. I will also share TulaneLSU’s Top 10 donuts at The Donut Hole:
10. Key Lime filled
9. Iced velvet cake
8. Strawberry snow angel
7. Blueberry cake
6. Chocolate snow angel
5. Chocolate peanut butter
4. Vanilla snow angel
3. Glazed chocolate cake
2. Chocolate glazed
1. Chocolate covered angel’s food (we do not name our food after evil entities)
Prices have gone up a bit over the years. A dozen now costs $16, but one snow angel is enough to fill most appetites, as TDH’s proclivity to stuff you with icing hits its highest note with these varieties. Most of these varieties are gone by 10 during tourist season, so I recommend getting there at 6 AM.
5. The beach
Again, the beach and I were not made for each other. I do not like barely clothed crowds. I do not like the sun’s intense rays. I do not like the feel of sand on my feet. I do not like the possibility of being eaten by a shark (1000 pound Makos cruise within casting distance of the shore in the early Spring during the cobia run). I do not like vomiting sea water. The only time I go to the beach is in the winter, when the beach is at its most pristine. Why people vacation to the beach when people are sitting on top each other is beyond my understanding.
One of the most scarring moments of my life happened on the beach not far from the beaches of Destin. I had just finished baking some of Great Grandmother’s Calliope Chocolate Chip Cookies and wanted to share the batch with Cousin. Cousin was with us for the first time in a few years, and he brought his girlfriend who was a student at Vanderbilt. I could not find them in the house, so I grabbed my flashlight and searched the beach.
After ten minutes of searching, I finally caught a glimpse of movement in some dunes a few hundred yards away. “Cousin! Is that you?” I ran toward the dune.
My artificial light bounced about my target as the image became clearer and clearer. By the time I was thirty yards away, there was no questioning what was happening. I will not detail what I saw, but later that night, and without sharing any of the cookies, I had a long and serious discussion with Cousin. “You must marry her, now, if possible, but soon. Otherwise, no good will come of your sin.” The great news is they did get married a few months later. But as you know, Cousin’s wife succumbed to the virus last year. We are all trying to recover from that loss.
4. Dewey Destin
Dewey Destin opened less than twenty years ago, but it has the aura of a place that has been there for generations. That is perhaps because Dewey Destin is the great great grandson of the town’s founder, Leonard Destin. The location of the original, on the pass on Calhoun Avenue, a thoroughfare named after a rich Nashvillan who bought most of Destin in the 1930s, also adds to the charm. It turns out that Destin, Marler and the other founders of Destin had been squatting on federal government property. It was not until the 1930s that the land was sold to the public, and by then, few of the original families had money to buy more than small plots of land.
The actual restaurant is really little more than a deck and a dock with picnic benches. The kitchen is in a mobile trailer turned fryhouse. Only in the last year have they built a semi-covered area on land. The sno-ball mobile has moved to make way for this wood structure, but I am assured it will reopen.
Dewey Destin opened as a restaurant only because the owner’s seafood business was shut due to state law forbidding the use of the nets his fleet used. This was 2000, so he ingeniously came up with the idea of opening this little shack of a restaurant. It is in a perfect spot, just a stone’s throw from his great, great grandfather’s house, which tragically was torn down in 2013 by developers (it is now the location of #1 on this list).
Dewey’s fried shrimp are incredible, some of the best fried shrimp I have tasted. The location at Harborside, though, never tastes as good. And it is rare that you will leave hungry because they give between one and two pounds of French fried potatoes with every entree. They also practice something far more restaurants should: putting cocktail sauce on the table in large squeeze bottles with large apertures. It is so frustrating having to ask wait staff to retrieve cocktail sauce, which is the perfect condiment for most fried seafoods.
3. A walk through Marler Cemetery
Not too many tour guides would suggest visiting a cemetery when in Destin, but not many tour guides are from New Orleans, where cemeteries are one of our most pronounced cultural expressions of faith, hope, and love. Marler Cemetery is located in the oldest inhabited part of Destin. To walk through its live oaks and marble headstones is to hear the voices of the founding fathers and mothers of that little blessed village.
There you may pay your respects to Leonard Destin and his wife, Martha.
Also buried there is Dewey Destin, and many of his descendants. Every time I eat at Dewey Destin, I walk from the restaurant on the pass to the cemetery and give gratitude to the family for their contributions.
While there, you have a great view of one of the prettiest water towers in the South. Also nearby is the Destin Presbyterian Church. We usually go to St. Andrew’s by-the-Sea, which is on the main drag.
This post was edited on 2/2/21 at 4:22 pm
Posted on 2/2/21 at 4:03 pm to TulaneLSU
2. Silver Sands Outlet Mall
No, it is not Bond Street nor is it Fifth Avenue. It is not even Canal Place or the Magnificent Mile, but browsing the outlets is an enjoyable way to spend a rainy or very hot day. I rarely buy anything because most of the clothing is second rate, intended for outlet sales. However, one never knows what surprise is in store. For example, I found two Christopher Radko ornaments at Saks Fifth Avenue. Another trip, an 1818 line of Brooks Brother suit, one of the best factory made suits, found me. Here are TulaneLSU’s Top 10 Destin outlet mall shops:
10. Old Navy
Old Navy produces some very shoddy clothing. In fact, some of the wash rags in our garage are of higher quality than the clothing sold in Old Navy. But the store has a ten point hopscotch court (are they called courts?). It took me many years to figure out how to play hopscotch, but I finally mastered it in tenth grade. Now, no trip to the outlets is complete without a stop at the corner Old Navy for a round of hopscotch. I will challenge any TDer to a round if you are in town when I am.
9. GAP
Numbers 9, 10, and 11 are so close. J Crew just missed the list because its clothing is a bit too effeminate for my liking. GAP is a great place to shop for gifts for people staying in homeless shelters. Why not help the economy and those who have no homes?
8. Polo
Twice I have found nice Cashmere sweaters here, and the ones without the silly logo.
7. Nautica
When Uncle takes me on his sailboat, I try to remember to wear a Nautica polo because it has a sailboat logo on its breast. It is one of the few times I will wear a shirt with a logo.
6. Merrell
My last mountain climbing boots were purchased here and they have held up very well thus far. I purchased a Merrell jacket about ten years ago, also for hiking, and I have enjoyed it, too.
5. L'Occitane en Provence
When Irish Spring or Coast supplies run low, I purchase my soap from LOP. Mother purchases lotion here, but my skin does not yet require it.
4. Johnston and Murphy
No store in this outlet has a more memorable or enjoyable fragrance when entering. Though I have never purchased a pair of J&M shoes, I stop here every trip just to smell their leather.
3. Le Creuset
We purchase most of our wedding gifts for family members that are not on our good side at this store. For cooking purposes, I have found no greater a cast iron Dutch oven than Le Creuset. LC’s other offerings are less good, and only those who care about its great reputation purchase these other silly things, such as ceramic salt shakers.
2. Waterford
Dillard’s New Year’s Day sale has better bargains on Waterford items, but this outlet has a great selection. In certain years, we have found Master Craft line items, which make great gifts for nearly anyone.
1.Brooks Brothers
I have not found a better haberdashery in Destin. Its use is highlighted when you have stained the only Haspel seersucker suit you have packed and are in desperate need of a decent seersucker.
1. Leonard Destin Park
The old public park in old town Destin is in a state of disrepair. Using funds from the BP oil spill, Destin now has one of the nicest small public parks in America. It has not had its official opening, but soon will teem with families and me just as the scores of blue heron which nest here. The park contains a private beach, kayak launch, splash park, boat toy, porpoise ride, rope swing, sand pit, citrus grove, sheltered picnic tables, and cleaner than Buc-ee’s bathrooms.
I hope to get to meet some of you in Destin, or perhaps, east of Destin some time. I pray that God wills it.
Faith, Hope, and Love,
TulaneLSU
No, it is not Bond Street nor is it Fifth Avenue. It is not even Canal Place or the Magnificent Mile, but browsing the outlets is an enjoyable way to spend a rainy or very hot day. I rarely buy anything because most of the clothing is second rate, intended for outlet sales. However, one never knows what surprise is in store. For example, I found two Christopher Radko ornaments at Saks Fifth Avenue. Another trip, an 1818 line of Brooks Brother suit, one of the best factory made suits, found me. Here are TulaneLSU’s Top 10 Destin outlet mall shops:
10. Old Navy
Old Navy produces some very shoddy clothing. In fact, some of the wash rags in our garage are of higher quality than the clothing sold in Old Navy. But the store has a ten point hopscotch court (are they called courts?). It took me many years to figure out how to play hopscotch, but I finally mastered it in tenth grade. Now, no trip to the outlets is complete without a stop at the corner Old Navy for a round of hopscotch. I will challenge any TDer to a round if you are in town when I am.
9. GAP
Numbers 9, 10, and 11 are so close. J Crew just missed the list because its clothing is a bit too effeminate for my liking. GAP is a great place to shop for gifts for people staying in homeless shelters. Why not help the economy and those who have no homes?
8. Polo
Twice I have found nice Cashmere sweaters here, and the ones without the silly logo.
7. Nautica
When Uncle takes me on his sailboat, I try to remember to wear a Nautica polo because it has a sailboat logo on its breast. It is one of the few times I will wear a shirt with a logo.
6. Merrell
My last mountain climbing boots were purchased here and they have held up very well thus far. I purchased a Merrell jacket about ten years ago, also for hiking, and I have enjoyed it, too.
5. L'Occitane en Provence
When Irish Spring or Coast supplies run low, I purchase my soap from LOP. Mother purchases lotion here, but my skin does not yet require it.
4. Johnston and Murphy
No store in this outlet has a more memorable or enjoyable fragrance when entering. Though I have never purchased a pair of J&M shoes, I stop here every trip just to smell their leather.
3. Le Creuset
We purchase most of our wedding gifts for family members that are not on our good side at this store. For cooking purposes, I have found no greater a cast iron Dutch oven than Le Creuset. LC’s other offerings are less good, and only those who care about its great reputation purchase these other silly things, such as ceramic salt shakers.
2. Waterford
Dillard’s New Year’s Day sale has better bargains on Waterford items, but this outlet has a great selection. In certain years, we have found Master Craft line items, which make great gifts for nearly anyone.
1.Brooks Brothers
I have not found a better haberdashery in Destin. Its use is highlighted when you have stained the only Haspel seersucker suit you have packed and are in desperate need of a decent seersucker.
1. Leonard Destin Park
The old public park in old town Destin is in a state of disrepair. Using funds from the BP oil spill, Destin now has one of the nicest small public parks in America. It has not had its official opening, but soon will teem with families and me just as the scores of blue heron which nest here. The park contains a private beach, kayak launch, splash park, boat toy, porpoise ride, rope swing, sand pit, citrus grove, sheltered picnic tables, and cleaner than Buc-ee’s bathrooms.
I hope to get to meet some of you in Destin, or perhaps, east of Destin some time. I pray that God wills it.
Faith, Hope, and Love,
TulaneLSU
This post was edited on 2/2/21 at 4:08 pm
Posted on 2/2/21 at 4:20 pm to TulaneLSU
Did you ever eat at the Commanders Palace that was briefly (I believe) in this monstrosity?
Posted on 2/2/21 at 4:24 pm to TulaneLSU
Cool list. Really love the donut hole. Those chocolate angels are amazing. We Get a batch every time we go.
Posted on 2/2/21 at 4:38 pm to TulaneLSU
Simply amazing the time you put into these posts.
Posted on 2/2/21 at 4:50 pm to TulaneLSU
Leonard’s last name is spelled two different ways on those headstones - Destin and Desten.
Posted on 2/2/21 at 5:41 pm to BobABooey
some of your pictures are truly spectacular in quality. what camera are you using and what lens?
Posted on 2/2/21 at 7:16 pm to Y.A. Tittle
quote:I did and it kind of sucked. I also ate at Camelia Grill in the same complex. It wasn't much better.
Did you ever eat at the Commanders Palace that was briefly (I believe) in this monstrosity?
Posted on 2/2/21 at 8:30 pm to TulaneLSU
You have problems. Seriously, seek help.
Posted on 2/2/21 at 8:33 pm to jimbeam
But his skin needs no lotion.
Posted on 2/3/21 at 7:40 am to TulaneLSU
quote:
We purchase most of our wedding gifts for family members that are not on our good side at this store.
A Le Creuset Dutch oven is what I buy as a wedding gift for my favorite relatives.
Posted on 2/3/21 at 8:48 am to TulaneLSU
i seriously can't tell if this is real. like is he/she being serious
Posted on 2/3/21 at 9:01 pm to Jerrysworld
quote:
i seriously can't tell if this is real. like is he/she being serious
quote:
My artificial light bounced about my target as the image became clearer and clearer. By the time I was thirty yards away, there was no questioning what was happening. I will not detail what I saw, but later that night, and without sharing any of the cookies, I had a long and serious discussion with Cousin. “You must marry her, now, if possible, but soon. Otherwise, no good will come of your sin.” The great news is they did get married a few months later. But as you know, Cousin’s wife succumbed to the virus last year. We are all trying to recover from that loss.
While this is some great writing, I have no clue if he/she is being serious here either. I'd like to think he is being sarcastic, but I know one thing, Cousin did not get any of those cookies that night!
Posted on 2/3/21 at 10:36 pm to TulaneLSU
The greatest troll in the history of trolls ......... Friends.
Posted on 2/4/21 at 5:43 pm to jose
quote:
Cousin did not get any of those cookies that night
Cousin didn’t need a cookie. He was busy getting nookie.
Posted on 2/5/21 at 9:25 am to jose
Can you imagine being in a family with such a condescending individual giving advice on your behavior while he is having to ask his momma to borrow a car or to buy a new cell phone?
Posted on 2/5/21 at 10:10 am to TulaneLSU
Friend,
No Destin list is complete without AJ's. And to have a little crap park at #1 is straight garbage.
Best regards,
jvargas
No Destin list is complete without AJ's. And to have a little crap park at #1 is straight garbage.
Best regards,
jvargas
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