Pirate Post: Fear and Loathing in Panama City

Pirate post by Art Carden

We've spent the last few days in Panama City, where we eat well (here's a discussion of Panama City Beach from our friend Lance at Local Traveler).  We borrow a trailer from some family friends, and Shannon has been coming here for as long as she can remember.  I've been working on a few projects while Shannon and Jacob enjoy local amenities.  In the last few days, we've had the following meals:


Thursday Night (En Route to Birmingham):  Chick-Fil-A in Tupelo, MS.  This is the Happiest Place on Earth, apparently.  Jacob seemed to think so as they had someone in a cow costume going around the restaurant taking pictures with the kids.  In a few years, I'm going to see if Chick-Fil-A will sponsor Jacob's birthday parties.


Sunday Lunch: McDonald's in Troy, Alabama.  It's McDonald's, so you know what to expect.  They had a nice indoor playground that was separated by glass from the rest of the dining room.  Jacob had a blast, we got to enjoy a (relatively) quiet lunch, and we all left happy.  It was the perfect road trip lunch stop given that Chick-Fil-A is closed on Sundays.


Sunday Night: Montego Bay.  Decent, but nothing special.  We were going to go to Captain Anderson's or Angelo's, but they were closed.  The spaghetti from the kids' menu that we got for Jacob was enormous, and he's still working on it.  I fed him some for lunch yesterday while Shannon was out and made a mental note to myself not to feed spaghetti to Jacob again unless I have a pressure washer and a Shop Vac handy.

Monday Night: Angelo's.  Angelo's is a regular stop on Shannon's family PCB trips, and we've made it part of our rotation in the times we've been here.  Their ribs are great, the onion rings are fantastic, and their sauce is very distinctive.  In a fit of creative destruction inspired in part by having seen most of "Man vs. Food" the night before, I made an ersatz sandwich out of the buttered toast they serve with the meal, french fries, rib meat, sauce, and a small dollop of the ranch dressing that came with our onion rings.  I like to think Joseph Schumpeter and Gordon Ramsay would be proud.

Tuesday Night: Shrimp City.  Another regular feature of Shannon's family PCB trips is take-out steamed shrimp from Shrimp City.  We got the really big shrimp.  They were great, as always.  Steamed shrimp and Hawaiian rolls make a very nice po'boy.

Wednesday Night: Captain Anderson's.  The advertising and promo material say it's regularly listed as one of the best restaurants in Florida.  We've been a couple of times, and last night did not disappoint: the food was amazing on all margins.  Shannon got Amberjack.  I got the seafood platter.  Jacob got mac & cheese.  We got crab stuffed mushrooms as an appetizer, and they were also fantastic.  It's a great place for a Very Nice Dinner in an atmosphere that isn't stuffy.

Tonight:  Dunno.  It's Family Night at a local Chick-Fil-A, though, so we might go there.

Coffee, Wifi, and a Place to Work Every Day: McDonalds.  The coffee is pretty good, the company is interesting, the service is great, the wifi connection is pretty good, and they don't seem to mind basically renting out a table for most of the morning.