Gulf Breeze Pet Fest

One of the fun things about having a photo blog is being able to show you a lot more photos than the local papers. This was one of the charming faces they missed yesterday at the Gulf Breeze Pet Fest.


Poor baby looks so sad. Perhaps it's because no one has adopted this gentle giant yet. Please check out this link to the Northwest Florida Great Dane Rescue. They have many wonderful dogs who need good homes.


Or even consider becoming a foster home!

Ah ha! There were some amazing exotics at yesterday's Pet Fest.

I must admit to not being overly fond of reptiles, but this fellow was pretty incredible.

What a beauty! Look at those ice blue eyes.

Sizing up the competition.

Hey, Buddy!

A Bichon angel...and she actually has wings to prove it.

Representing the exotics, these two young ladies have three entries, but you'll have to click on the photo to spot them all.

Back side of the dog...

This is the front.

The Wooly Booger Bawl

It was a dark and rainy night... but still great for the Kiss the Hurricane Goodbye Wooly Booger Bawl on the beach.


The Wooly Boogers came together to celebrate the end of the hurricane season and also crown their new Queen Sugah.


Outgoing Queen Sugah Kathi did a fantastic job of keeping the hurricanes away this year. Now everyone waits as she announces who will take her place.


"Moi!!????" Shelley Johnson, editor of the Island Times, seemed truly surprised -- and it's not easy to pull one over on this lady who knows everyone and everything happening on this island!

Passing of the tiara and beads...

Queen Sugah Shelley! We're betting she has some powerful gris-gris to protect us from the hurricanes next year too.

There to help celebrate was Queen Sugah Shelley's handsome son, Jeremy, and beautiful daughter-in-law Rachel. You can see that one of the Queen's favorite gifts last night was a pink-feathered fan.

Entreaty to Queen Sugah

Oh, Queen Sugah, draw us near,

Ease our Wooly Booger fears.

Protect our island night and day,

And keep the hurricanes away!

After Ida

I'm very appreciative that Ida was pretty much a non-event for us here on Pensacola Beach -- at least in my neighborhood. We didn't so much as lose a palm frond in our yard and we had no flooding. Issues of beach erosion and road conditions within the National Seashore may be another story.

Ft. Pickens Road and Bowden Way (the road to Navarre Beach) are both closed. I was hoping that Bowden Way would reopen quickly, but now I'm not so sure after looking at some of the photos in this morning's Pensacola News Journal online. It is going to take a while for the water to drain and the sand to be plowed off the road.

You may check out some of the PNJ photos of Pensacola Beach after Tropical Storm Ida by clicking HERE.

Tropical Storm Ida

Tropical Storm Ida continues to weaken.


Lifeguards keep a watchful eye at Casino Beach, but even the surfers are staying out of this churning surf.

Don't forget that you can check conditions at the beach near the Pensacola Beach Fishing Pier via the Island Empress webcam. It is located under "Local Cams" in the left-hand column of this page.

Coming home

Today is the first day I've been able to drive and you can't imagine how excited I was. This afternoon I drove almost to Park East to get photos of the surf. Suddenly, in the distance, I spied the Blue Angels!


Many times the Blue Angels fly over the beach on their way back to Pensacola Naval Air Station after a weekend performance. This time they were returning from Jacksonville, Florida.


It's always exciting to see them return, but today it was especially beautiful with the high surf and golden haze.

As they flew west the F/A 18's began to disappear into the sun.

Suddenly, as they neared Portofino, the jets signaled their arrival home with long, glowing contrails. What a remarkable sight.

Grommets

A couple of tuckered-out younger surfers (grommets) lay atop an old gun turret at Ft. Pickens watching waves sweep into Pensacola Pass.


Surfers lined up along the beach near the Pass catching a few nice waves as the surf started to build this afternoon.

Red flag

Red flags are going up along Pensacola Beach as the surf gets higher.

Ft. Pickens

At least I'm making it to my computer now. This break has given me a chance to organize my photos a bit and I came across this photo taken a couple of weeks ago at Ft. Pickens. It's a great place to spend an afternoon, especially with this cooler weather.