Tallahassee 2024 Part 2

Food and drink are part of life and seems like our vacation spots revolve around them. Our arrival on a Sunday evening pared down those choices. We found a local brewery, Proof Brewing Company, that also had a food truck as part of their business model.

They had a really nice outside eating & drinking area, ensuring families felt comfortable stopping by with yard games and room for kids to run around.

Local beers were the plan.

Along with fish & chips (Eric) and pork BBQ sliders & fries.

Eric knew that Apalachicola’s Oyster City Brewing had an establishment here and we stopped one afternoon.

My Icelandic sheep made a few appearances. I had the Legacy Lager – a beer that tasted like beer.

Here’s a quick shot of what was on tap.

Eric ordered the Red Right Return – glass on right – a perennial favorite.

One last shot before leaving. Everyone has to have a ‘instamgrammable’ wall nowadays. Okay, I guess it worked. I got a shot and I’m posting it on the internet.

We stayed downtown with plans to walk for dinner. In the past we went to an establishment called Cypress. Alas, it no longer existed. We found another restaurant within walking distance…..

Guess what? Same place – different menu and name but same building. Go figure. Started with some drinks, selecting a pink cocktail for me, a tropical sangria. Delicious!

Eric stuck with iced tea as he was feeling a bit under the weather.

The starter recommended was an excellent choice: pickled veggies amd eggs.

Eric ordered grilled octopus along with a bowl of soup (sorry, no photo).

My filet mignon with a demi-glace was excellent and I had plenty to bring home.

Desserts were a great end to our meal. My selection highlighted glazed bananas and ice cream – an excellent choice. The photo of Eric’s ice cream (2) scoops didn’t make the cut. 🙂

Unfortunately, we cut the trip a few days short. A hurricane had been brewing in the Gulf and looked like it was headed to Central Florida. We needed to prep our house and likely go into work to assist with efforts.

Not knowing what grocery stores or gas stations would be looking like, we gassed up before leaving the city and picked up a few groceries. Stories abounded on social media of shortages in both arenas and we wanted to be prepared. Driving was great – on our side of the road. Only us, some semis hauling supplies and electric companies were headed south.

The governor opened up the far left ’emergency’ lane – crazy – and it was full of drivers.

I looked over once……………..and no vehicles heading north. Oh no. Yep, accidents were seriously delaying the escaping traffic headed north.

So glad we were not on that side of the road.

We made it home safely and prepped for the impending storm. Things like removing potential airborne outside objects, strengthening outside doorways and sand-bagging windows on the house expecting driving rain. One of the biggest challenges……..clearing space in our garage for 2 vehicles! Here’s proof we did it. It wasn’t pretty, but space was found. The guys were waiting on the storm to arrive.

Connor stepped outside for a brief moment, getting soaked in a short minute.

It reached our house at 3:20am. The force of the wind picking up branches, leaves and other debris was nerve-wracking – woke me up. Thanks, hon, for staying up the entire time to keep us safe. 🙂

Did we have any damage? Not directly, but a number of branches were down or broken from the trees we had recently pruned – thank goodness for that.

Plenty of cleanup in the days to follow. Now just waiting for the debris to get picked up.

Saw this post and it seemed fitting – and oh so true. I was talking to the neighbors 7am that morning as we all surveyed the damage in the daylight.

Exciting times are coming with my next series of posts. Heading north again, waaaaaaayyyy north. We will be packing warm clothes. Any thoughts or ideas about our destination? Three of us are going back to one of my favorite spots. Posts will be coming soon.

Tallahassee 2024 Part 1

We headed north for a short trip!

The weather was going to be wet, very wet. Why you might ask? It’s hurricane season and one was brewing in the Gulf at that time.

We drove up via the interstate system and once we turned onto the main east/west route, we quickly ran into tree damage. A recent hurricane had gone through this part of Florida and the damage was still visible.

We could see exactly the path of the storm as the trees were broken differently on the opposite sides of the storm and eyewall.

Work was progressing for tree removal but ever so slowly.

We had one side trip planned before getting into Tallahassee. We own a plot of land and we hadn’t seen it in awhile. I’ll admit……………..we took a few wrong turns until we found the right turnoff.

Yep, the property was still intact – more overgrown than our last visit but no squatters had claimed it.

Rolled into Tallahassee later that evening and stopped at the rooftop bar for a nightcap and view of the city.

Our plan for the first full day in Tallahassee was to drive to Bradley’s Country Store via one of the ‘canopy roads’.

Canopy Roads are designated highways in the county protected by law and have a governing board.

They came into existence from old Indian trails that turned into market roads. Plantation owners lined both sides of the roads with LiveOak trees which gradually grew together to form a tree canopy.

Hurricanes and windstorms do a number on these roads and work was continuing when we visited. Right after the storm passed, looked like some of those roads were blocked.

Just a few minutes and twelve miles northeast of Tallahassee was our destination: Bradley’s Country Store – linking the present with the past.

It stands just as it did in 1927. Their trade, plain and simple, is selling the best, old fashioned, country smoked and fresh sausage that money can buy. Their front porch invites customers to sit awhile and enjoy the view. Indeed, while we were there a number of customers stopped, picked up a sausage sandwich and ate their lunch.

The tradition has endured through four generations of the Bradley family and still attracts thousands of customers from around the area and Southeast. They have expanded their offerings and while supplying a number of Tallahassee families and business with their products, they also ship upon request.

We also enjoyed a sausage sandwich before leaving and had the foresight to bring a cooler in order to bring home some of their sausage.

One more post highlighting our Tallahassee time.