It is your DESTINy...by the sea

It's November and that means it's time to go back to Destin, Florida!  Ashlee decided to snow-bird again this year over the holidays, so we will be spending a majority of our time together over the next two months back at the beach!!

Sunday, November 1 - I figured I would post this screen shot from today since it's probably the only time I will be in the lead and predicted to win as Ashlee and I go head-to-head as league-leaders in record in our fantasy football league this weekend.  The final score will be determined after Monday Night Football tomorrow...

...late on Monday, November 2 - well,  I somehow did it and eeked out a slim win over Ashlee by just over a point (100.50 to 99.33)...I was sure I was going to get GRONKed, but my NY Giants running back that I got off the waiver-wire scrap heap rolled in for a touchdown to give me the slight edge.  Good game, honey! 
I stayed in first place in record (second in points) and Ashlee dropped to second in record (3rd in points), so we are both still contenders with half the season to go.  Go Rays and go Sardines!! 

(Editor's note:  We did both make the playoffs, but didn't get to play each other.  I got upset in the first round, but Ashlee made all the way to the final before stumbling into 2nd place, but still a great finish and a fun year!"

Thanksgiving?  What's that?  The day after Halloween and Ashlee already has Christmas decorations up.  This sun-loving snowman does fit nicely next to our closed pool.  

Wednesday, November 4 - Man, we almost missed Christmas advent calendar release day at Aldi's today.  I had to go to the Mt. Juliet store to secure some of these new cat-treat ones.  I also picked up Ashlee a wine calendar and some chocolate ones for both of us.  No luck on the cheese or beer ones this year.  Sad face.  

Friday, November 6 - We headed east this afternoon taking some time off from work to have a long weekend at Fall Creek Falls State Park over near Spencer.  We rented a pet-friendly cabin and with four cats-in-tow our only stop on the way was quick, but important, at Hix Farm Brewing (for me) and across the street to the legendary Ralph's Donuts in Cookeville for both of us.  I got some beer to go and we got a dozen assorted donuts to enjoy in our cabin on the lake.

We chose Landside Cabin # 4 at Fall Creek Falls State Park which had a great view of the lake through the trees whose leaves are still turning autumn colors thanks to the Indian summer we've had going this month and last.  The weather was warm and sunny for most of our stay here.  The layout of the cabin is great with lots of room to relax and unwind a bit.

Four cats in a cabin may sound like a lot, but as I mentioned we had a ton of room to spread out in.  The cats even had their own bedroom and it was the first time traveling for Dudley (photo above) and Marge, our little foster.  Everyone did well and seemed to have enjoyed themselves.

Saturday, November 7 - We woke up today to beautiful fall colors and the sun dappling off of Fall Creek Falls Lake.  Our deck was very private and we couldn't even see another cabin from it.

Being set next to the woods and the lake, there was lots of squirrel and bird action outside the cabin.

We set out fairly early this morning to take a look at the six (yes, six) waterfalls that are easily accessible in the park.  With beautiful weather and warm temps, it was definitely gonna get crowded here today.  We started with the crown jewel of the park itself, the namesake, Fall Creek Falls which was running great.  Incredibly, this was Ashlee's first time seeing this beauty.  So hard to believe!
Technically, the second waterfall we saw is just to the right in the photo above.  Coon Branch Falls wasn't  running much today, but it is a separate stream, thus a separate waterfall.

Next up after a short drive and a short, but steep, walk was my personal favorite of the six waterfalls we saw today, the uniquely shaped Piney Falls.  We had to settle for just the overlook view because a swinging bridge needed for a closer look is still under repair.

We made a quick stop at pretty George Hole, a man-made fishing and swimming pool on Cane Creek whose downstream natural waterfalls we were visiting next.

Cane Creek Falls (l) and Rock House Creek Falls (r) drop into the same spectacular gorge.

Just upstream from Cane Creek Falls is Cane Creek Cascades where you can easily get up close and personal with the falling water.  This closed out our day of seeing 6 waterfalls.  Not a bad half-dozen! 

It was while we were hanging out at Cane Creek Cascades that we got the wonderful news that Joe Biden had finally gotten enough electoral votes to be our next president!!  What a wonderful place to find out this news.  Joe's probably not going to be anything special, but you can damn sure bet he would care and appreciate this park more than that other guy (we sure aren't printing that name in our blog) who probably wouldn't lower himself to even play on the golf course here.

We also checked out the brand new swinging bridge over Cane Creek and popped into the park's Nature Center before heading back to the cabin to check on the kitties.

After hanging with the cats a bit back at the cabin and taking a pretty darn nice nap, we saw that there was a great little paved trail around our end of Fall Creek Falls Lake that we took right from the cabin.  What a great way to end a beautiful day in so many ways!! 

Sunday, November 8 - We loaded up and headed out this morning wishing we had another day in our great cabin.  Even, Byron, our most-scared cat was starting to like it here a lot.  Sorry, Byron.  We headed straight home since we had the cats in tow, but we did take a quick side-trip on the way back to check out the fascinating and historic tent graves in Mt. Gilead Cemetery in Sparta.  We even got a quick history lesson from the caretaker of the cemetery who happened to be there when we stopped.  These graves date back to the mid-1800's and were installed as such to keep grazing cattle off of them.  They are in amazingly good shape considering their age and close proximity to a road.
 

Saturday, November 14 - We met our friend, Emily, and her husband, Andrew, over at the Opryland Hotel Event Center to check out the "I Love Christmas Movies" Pop-Up and  Walk-thru.  It was kinda cute and cool like when Santa's face shows up in the bell from The Polar Express, but it was over quick and didn't seem worth the hour and half wait in line to go through.  Plus while everyone was wearing masks, the 6-ft. rule wasn't being enforced and it was way too crowded during this pandemic.  

Sunday, November 11 - It's been a late fall around here, but the leaves came tumbling down last night hard and heavy with the help of some rain and gusty winds.  Those winds were out of the west and blew a large drift of leaves against our back fence deep enough to almost bury Santa Claus.  Luckily he was saved just in time! 

Thursday, November 19 - Before heading south for the holidays, we took in the always fun drive-thru Dancing Lights of Christmas extravaganza over at the Wilson County Fairgrounds tonight with our friends, Wendy and Charly.  The clip above is a little taste of the fun.  We also had a little "taste" of fun beforehand at our local Outback Steakhouse for drinks and dessert.

Saturday, November 21 - It was back to Destin today for some more snow-birding.  We grabbed a U-Haul trailer again and loaded up three of our four cats and headed south.  The cats did great with little or no fuss on the 8-hour drive.  We had good weather and decent traffic.  We did get a bit of a later start than intended and wound up having to unload everything in the dark.  Stupid time-change! We listened to most of the best-selling book "Where the Crawdads Sing" which helped pass the time and the many miles.  

Sunday, November 22 - Ashlee found a great deal in the swanky Destiny by the Sea subdivision across the street on the beach side of where we usually stay.  While not right on the beach, it's only a 3-minute walk to it! Our rental house, the Summer Blast, is a little dated, but overall a great, roomy place.  We started our first full day in Destin with some yummy breakfast burritos delivered from the Local Market Destin.  We did some unpacking and waited for Paige, Andy and Ella to arrive from Chattanooga before hitting the beach later today.  We had a late lunch of tasty take-out from The Crab Trap just up the street.

It's such a quick and easy walk to Crystal Beach from our house.  Heck, you don't even need to wear shoes!!  We had awesome weather today and most of this first week here.

Our sunset view from our house porch tonight was spectacular.

Monday, November 23 - Ashlee bought a sharp new bike recently thanks to a fitness benefit at her work, and we brought it down in the U-Haul along with her old Cannondale trail bike and Paige's nice roadster bike.  We had fun this morning just tooling around the quiet, gated neighborhood with little or no traffic.  After another fantastic afternoon at the beach with some booming surf, we had an excellent dinner just down the road at Camille's which has become one of our favorite dining spots here in Destin.

Tuesday, November 24 - We arrived at the beach today to find a real feeding-frenzy going on just offshore.  A large school of fish (note the dark patches in the water in the photo above) were being feasted on by gulls, kingfishers, pelicans, etc.  This is a screen-grab of a video.  Note the kingfisher on the far right just about to break the surface of the water.  Good catch, huh?  

Today was the best beach sunset of the week.  Man, talk about a "golden hour."

Wednesday, November 25 - We happened upon this well-made sandcastle during a morning walk just up the beach from us.  Somebody put a lot of work and planning into this one! We had yet another fine day of beach-bumming with huge waves rolling in and some nice canned craft beers rolling down from the always-great Beach Liquors.

Thursday, November 26 - Happy Thanksgiving from Destin!  The weather turned out to be much nicer than forecasted today, so we delayed our Thanksgiving feast from Cracker Barrel to an evening meal and hit the beach this afternoon instead.  We enjoyed a rousing game of Throw, Throw Burrito - a hilarious card/dodgeball (burrito) game that Paige ultimately won.  Congrats to the Burrito-Slinging Champion! 

The cats adapted nicely to the new house and loved running up and down the stairs which is good exercise for them since they can't really go outside here.  Good exercise for us as well since our bedroom is on the top floor.  Whew! 

Friday, November 27 - Today started off with an intensely thick fog over The Gulf for a good part of the day, and so we went our separate ways as the girls went shopping on Black Friday, and I went brewery-hopping.  We did meet up back on the beach late this afternoon and witnessed the most amazing thing:  two stingrays jumping OUT of the water.  We've never seen anything like it.  The shot above is a screen-grab from a good video that Paige took which clearly shows the shape of one of the rays.  And while this shot doesn't show it, both rays cleared the surface of the water by a good bit on their jumps.  Nature is so amazing!! 

Saturday, November 28 - Well, all good things, right?....we headed to Panama City this morning so I could fly back home for the upcoming work week (boo!), but I can't complain since we had marvelous weather all week.  We did stop at the Hang Five Beachside Bar and Grill for lunch.  Our food was fantastic even though Ella found a fly in here chili-cheese fries...yuck...how does this keep happening to this poor girl??    See ya next month/weekend, honey.  I can't wait!!