Vacation Recap, Part Two: after a lovely, lovely night's sleep on the world's most comfy pillowtop, we took an early morning walk on the beach and introduced Sprocket to the Gulf of Mexico. He quite liked the sand part, but was unimpressed with the sea. He saw several pretty lasses, at whom he barked ferociously.

After a brief excursion to Publix for provisions, we returned to the beach and Alan actually entered the water! I swam out pretty far and floated in the calm water. This activity, or lack thereof, occupied me most of the day. Michelle had a lot of restaurant menus collected, so we reviewed them along with her recommendations and selected Harbor Docks for that night's dinner. Alan had a steak and I had a platter of tasty fried sea things. The view was great, watching boats come in along the marina; sunset over the water was gorgeous. We fetched leftovers home for the boys: steak for Sprocket and fish for Finnovar but Sprocket wound up getting both as The Finn scorned his, probably because it was fried instead of being lightly killed, brushed with a delicate blend of gourmet herbs and Irish butter and served upon a bed of lemongrass. He's like that.

Monday dawned overcast (the only non-sunny day we experienced) so we took that opportunity to prowl around the village of Baytowne Wharf. It was a very pretty area with courtyards, fountains, wrought-iron fencing around flowerbeds, but I was a little disappointed with the shops. It's marketed as upscale boutique shops but the selection wasn't particularly impressive. I didn't see much I wanted to buy, even in the bath-and-candle store. The local Publix had a far more extensive wine collection than the Seagrapes wine merchant and the clothes were mostly jeans - ordinary stuff, not beach stuff or designer wear. At a store called Bark Avenue, Alan bought some bling for Sprocket; his collar now sports a silver doggy-bone charm with red engraved letters reading "TREATS". We lunched at Acme Oyster House and I had a dozen raw, which I do like but ordered mainly for the fun of grossing Alan out. I also had a cup of oyster-artichoke bisque, which grossed him out more. That afternoon I napped, still exhausted from the trip and all the drama preceding it. We had dinner in because it was raining and thundering mightily. Alan had a sandwich and I ate leftover pizza while we watched my DVD of Pirates of the Caribbean. How can anyone not love Johnny Depp in that movie? "But why is the RUM GONE?!?"

Tuesday we beached all morning, went shopping for fresh seafood and visited the bookstore. Bookstore score: Helly $63, Alan $45. Alan cooked dinner while we nibbled cheese and crackers. We ate a romantic meal by candlelight out on the large screened porch. The dinner was garlic-roasted pork tenderloin and potatos for Mr. I-Don't-Eat-Seafood while I had stuffed mushrooms, crab legs and Larry. We both had fresh corn-on-the-cob.

Wednesday went a lot like Tuesday: beach in the morning, reading and relaxing all afternoon. Alan liked Jordano's pizza so much we ordered from them again for lunch. An excursion to the typical tacky Florida souvenir shop (operated, oddly enough, by a wacked-out French family) completed the afternoon. We bought postcards, t-shirts and I found two pairs of Hanes track pants for $5 each, both with "Destin" across the butt. Alan also got a nice, thick hoodie - black - with "Destin" in white letters across the front. He spotted this gorgeous bright blue dress on a back wall so I bought that for myself; I got loads of compliments on it when I wore it to work this week. Good job spotting that, honey!

Tomorrow I shall relate more days of lazing about, beaching and eating way too much fabulous food.