america: florida: ft walton beach

continuing my visits of friends and their homes around the states, i came to the panhandle of florida to hang out with a friend of 15 years. i've known john since the summer i lived in iceland!
my first flight left BWI (baltimore) at 0650 (yes, that means i was up crazy early to get to the airport ahead of the flight) on time...the connection was in charlotte (north carolina, a surprisingly large airport, or at least it's surprising to me) and also left on time. i got to ft walton beach about 20 minutes early, then had to wait for john to get there.  he arrived right as the plane was supposed to be landing, but i still teased him for being late.

he responded by teasing me about my gray hair. i've definitely had more gray hair in the past three years, and i've noticed it, but he is the first to bring it up. i laughed, i love being teased by my friends. i'm not very good at comebacks, but i try :)
john drove me around town for a while, bringing me back to places i've seen before, and reminding me how to get there while driving. the beach in ft walton beach is technically on an island, not quite part of ft walton beach, but to me they are the same. it's a white sand beach, absolutely lovely.

we had lunch at a place called stewby's seafood shanty. yum. it's a small place, more like a large shack, and is very local. there is no air conditioning, but they have a system that makes it really cool inside. something about keeping the roof cool by water and fans. if john hadn't told me about the system, i would've thought it was regular air conditioning. my lunch ended up being shrimp tacos and fried okra. yum. definitely a place i could go again :)
we went to the supermarket to pick up some food (and tea for me) then made our way home. that afternoon was nothing exciting, but that's okay. we watched multiple episodes of a tv show called bates motel.  it's based on the old movie psycho, but is modern too. despite watching multiple episodes during this visit, i don't know how i feel about it. it's not good, it's not awful.

for dinner that night john heated up soup. i got to have leftovers of a stew he'd made a few days earlier, sooooo good.  different types of meat, and i don't know what else was in there. yum. and ice cream for dessert, yippee!
i fell asleep watching a morgan freeman movie. the last nights, or something like that? not really my style of movie, but he is a fantastic actor, so i enjoyed it.
the next morning i got to go to the beach. john let me drive his truck!! (but he wouldn't let me get any photographic evidence of this.)  it's a big truck, especially with the paddleboards mounted in the back. i didn't really know where the edges were of the truck, but i didn't bump into anything, so woo hoo! the truck growls when you accelerate, it's awesome. john was great, he put a beach chair, and cooler in the back. i didn't bring them to the beach, but having cold gatorade afterward was awesome.
as i said earlier,