First Night on the Town: Schooners

Despite being particularly short on funds, we took advantage of our one weekend of free babysitting before Grandma flew home and hit the town the Saturday after I arrived. After the craziest and toughest few months of my life (new baby, husband finishing dissertation, selling a house, moving across the country...you get the point), it was well earned!

We wanted a restaurant with both good seafood, good atmosphere and, most important, where we could watch the sunset over the Gulf. From previous business trips to the Beach, my Super Hero knew Schooners would fit the bill nicely. Just in case the wait was ridiculous (I did, after all, have a nursing baby waiting at home), we checked out tripadvisor.com for a back-up option and settled on J. Michaels (which I've since had a few people recommend to me).

I'm looking forward to trying out J. Michaels in the future, but I'm glad that the wait at Schooners was acceptable -- about half an hour. Parking was easy and convenient, and while we waited for our buzzer to go off we ordered a couple drinks from the bar and stepped down onto the sugar white sands to watch the sunset. The live band was good, and every one around us was happy, friendly and smiling.

Unusually for us, we ordered an appetizer. The shrimp was excellent, as expected. Super Hero went all out and ordered the seafood platter (though it was called something else). Everything on it tasted great, especially the grouper. My jerk chicken sandwich was only $8, and it was HUGE. I only had a couple bites, but I'm glad I ordered it because it made for fantastic leftovers when I chopped up the chicken and mixed it into some four cheese Rice-a-Roni the next day. So good, in fact, that I'm going to start cooking up and freezing some jerk chicken at home from now on to mix into casseroles. If anyone has a good jerk seasoning mix to recommend, please tell me about it in the comments section!

In conclusion, my perfect day would kick off with a Grande White Chocolate Mocha Frappacino from Starbucks and end with a pina colada on the beach at Schooners. If only I could do that every day with busting my waistline (what remains of it after baby #2, anyway) or my budget!