Our favorite places

(Editor's note: This is the first in what we hope will be a series of reports on favorite winter time activities of our classmates. Thanks for helping out on this, Bonita. Who's next?)


Hi Stan and Bobby,

A while back you asked if anyone was going anywhere for the winter.  We will be.


Dave and I will be heading south, but not until January 2nd.  We are "official snowbirds" as we live in Seagrove Beach, Florida for three months.  Seagrove Beach is up in the "panhandle" about 20 miles east of Destin and 20 miles west of the infamous spring break capital, Panama City Beach.  The majority of people who work in the stores, restaurants and other businesses are from Alabama so we have to listen very closely when we first get down there as they have very strong accents.  By the same token, when we come home we can hear the Minnesota accents with the drawn out o's and the long ssssss.  For example Neewsssss  (for news)

Turquoise to sapphire blue
The sand is white.  In fact when we first get down there if I'm looking out of a window, I end up having to mentally shake myself as I'm used to living in snow for the prior months and it LOOKS like snow.  It's that white!  (They even put snow fences on some of the beaches to stop erosion.)  After about a week I make the mental switch and recognize it as sand...thank goodness.  The water color is spectacular.  It varies from turquoise to sapphire blue.  Sometimes it's just breathtakingly beautiful.  Flowers, shrubs, green trees and of course palm trees...ahhh.

Bingo Every Monday
But there are also days when the wind is blowing off the gulf, and the waves are huge, crashing on the beach and it's cold and damp. On those days we go shopping, drive to the Naval museum in Pensacola, or go to the Fort Walton Library and snuggle in with a good book.  Once a week we get together and play Mexican Train Dominoes with  6 to 8 couples from Alex and our condo association has Bingo every Monday (for cash).  I usually win enough to pay for what I lost during the rest of the winter.  We go to a dog race track a couple of times a month and bet on our favorites and we golf at a beautiful course not too far from our condo.  We also have a huge selection of places to eat wonderful food.  They cater to us "birds" by offering great prices.

On to Arizona
This year we will be ending our winter in Gold Canyon, AZ.  Our son-in-law and daughter bought a house there last year and we decided we should drive from Florida to see it.  We will be on the road for two or three days to get there but al least we shouldn't have to drive in a blizzard as we have going back to "Minnasooda" for the last couple of years.  From humidity to dry, arid heat.  It should be a shock to our bodies.  Our daughter Kristi says "There's never a bad hair day in Arizona".  I certainly can't say that about Florida . . .or at least that's my excuse...LOL  

Enough, I'm sure you have guessed that we like it down there and you're right!

Bonita Olson Gilbertson