{"id":452,"date":"2014-06-04T06:43:45","date_gmt":"2014-06-04T13:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/?p=452"},"modified":"2014-06-04T06:51:48","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T13:51:48","slug":"memorial-day-weekend-in-the-northern-most-caribbean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/2014\/06\/04\/memorial-day-weekend-in-the-northern-most-caribbean\/","title":{"rendered":"Memorial Day Weekend in the Northernmost Caribbean"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finally, summer has begun… officially for me and those in the \u201cNorthernmost Caribbean\u201d. For a lot of people it has been a long, cold winter. Memorial Day is sort of the un-official start to summer, but in the Northernmost Caribbean it is officially summer. Thousands of people flocked to the beaches this week-end… including me.\u00a0 There is a commercial for charcoal that runs each year that is exactly how I feel as I emerge from the frozen tundra. (OK… I didn\u2019t really live in the \u201cfrozen tundra\u201d but I felt that way just the same.) Here\u2019s a link to that commercial. Winter (YouTube link)<\/a><\/p>\n

The great sugar white beaches are a great place to begin summer.<\/p>\n

\"Memorial

Memorial Day at the beach<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Warm

Warm water and sun make it a great place to spend the week-end<\/p><\/div>\n

I spent at least some time every day, starting on Friday and going through Monday, at the beach. And I visited my favorite Tiki bar for a frozen concoction to help me hang on. This is actually at the Ramada Inn on Okaloosa Island, Fort Walton Beach. It is a big hotel right on the beach. If you stay there you literally can crawl from the Tiki bar back to your room. It\u2019s really a nice place, but this time of year be prepared to indenture your first born son if you stay there very long.<\/p>\n

\"Ramada

Ramada Inn Tiki Bar right on the beach.<\/p><\/div>\n

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night they had live entertainment right there at the Tiki Bar. John is the \u201cone man band\u201d that plays there in the afternoons every week-end of the summer. He has been playing there for years and people (like me) have been coming back to this Tiki Bar partly because of the party atmosphere and music John Brings with him.<\/p>\n

It seems that there were a lot of people that had been having their frozen concoctions all day long. (Yes I have their permission to post this pic.)<\/p>\n

\"Plenty

Plenty of frozen concoctions to help you hang on at the Tiki bar<\/p><\/div>\n

Another of the big activities on Memorial Day week-end is the \u201cboat party\u201d at \u201cCrab Island\u201d. \u201cCrab Island\u201d isn\u2019t really an island. Instead, it\u2019s sort of a sand bar where the water is only a few feet deep. People with boats come there to party with a few thousand of their closest friends. Just drive your boat up and pop a cold one. Don\u2019t worry if you don\u2019t have a cold one. There are vendors that bring out \u201cbarges\u201d to sell you something cold to drink. And don\u2019t worry if you don\u2019t know anyone because everyone there make friends very fast.<\/p>\n

\u201cCrab Island\u201d is usually quite a sight… there are thousands of boats anchored on and around the sand bar. The water is warm enough this time of year that lots of people are in the water… standing on the sand bar. It\u2019s only a little ways off shore and some people will just swim out. But don\u2019t be fooled, there are tidal currents there and you have to be a very strong swimmer to get out to the party. You\u2019ll also have to dodge the Coast Guard that has a station there. The Coast Guard tries to prevent swimmers going to Crab Island. So, if you want to join the party and don\u2019t have a boat, there are plenty of watercraft (canoes, jet skis, pontoon boats, etc) nearby to rent.<\/p>\n

What a great way to spend a few hours making friends.<\/p>\n

\"On

On the way to “Crab Island”<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Party

Party with a few thousand of your friends<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The week-end, like all week-ends was over too fast. Now I\u2019ve got to find a place to live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finally, summer has begun… officially for me and those in the \u201cNorthernmost Caribbean\u201d. For a lot of people it has been a long, cold winter. Memorial Day is sort of the un-official start to summer, but in the Northernmost Caribbean … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460,"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions\/460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}