Be pleasant; be reliable

One of the most gratifying parts of our quick trip to the beach was revisiting places that held precious memories of family vacations of yesteryear. Grayton Beach is squeezed between Destin and the Watercolor/Seaside developments. The actual little town is surrounded by the beach on the south side, the beach road (30a) on north and Grayton Beach State Park – with its magnificient dunes – on the east and west.

When we first vacationed there, the roads were gravel and many of the houses were weathered beach shacks with names like The Luv Shack. There was an unofficial petting zoo, one restaurant, one ice cream shop, one vegetarian cafe/bed & breakfast, and not much else – other than beautiful white beaches and huge dunes anchored with sea grass. We loved it.

So, I was a little worried that the Emerald Coast development powers-that-be would have swallowed up our charming Grayton Beach town. It had been at least a dozen years since we last visited. Yes, things had changed, but not as much as I had feared. The roads are now paved. The old shacks are gone, replaced with upscale beach houses, (but not as upscale as down the road in Seaside). The ice cream shop is long gone, as is the petting zoo. But the Red Bar lives on, serving up good food and mean live jazz.

The little vegetarian cafe, The Hibiscus, has changed hands and added some meat options to its menu, but otherwise looked the same. We were pleased to see that Wonder Waffles were still featured on the menu as was a daily frittata. The best part is that the new owner has continued the tradition of posting a daily command on the black board outside the cafe. Each command starts with the verb: Be. We were only there two days, but were commanded to "Be pleasant" and "Be reliable."

I take these commands seriously and challenged myself to try to be more pleasant and reliable. Wonder what today's command is?