Foodspotting: One In A Series

I have been participating in a new hobby for about two years or so now I guess. It is a foodie site called Foodspotting and is a place for posting food and related pictures called spots.

They have just announced that they will join Open Table, an outfit I have used for years now to reserve tables at restaurants. Seems OT bought them for $10 million so Alexa and team must be pretty pleased.

The transition will happen over the next little while it seems and it will be interesting to see how things play out going forward. They seem to have been all consumed with this merger or buyout and had little time to pay much attention to the FS site itself although there have been a few instances of back and forth communication with them and top users such as myself.

As with any open site like this, the array of characters runs the gamut and as always, you have those who are envious of others, have serious control issues or think the site should be run ONLY as they see fit. Then of course you have some delightful folks as well, a whole lot of them. And then you have the ones somewhere in between.

I currently have more spots I believe than anyone on the site and they also track rep points for different things for each spot you upload to your account on the site. I just went over 7300 last night on a visit to Kobe Steakhouse in Orlando. Some others are close. There are certainly some very high quality accounts on the site as well as people take in camera's to their dining places. In fact some of the top "ranked" in terms of rep points do not have even close to the number of images but they have blogs and other areas of outreach that allow them bigger followings and therefore rep points.

In the coming weeks and days I will highlight some of the fun on FS, some of the colorful people and some of the inside stories behind the scenes from a Foodspotting Top Spotter. Check back in FS nmembers and you may see yourself in lights here on my humble little blog. And you may even like what you see......and some may not.

My Stay Along 30A

I was able to get away for a few days recently and stay out farther along 30A in the Rosemary Beach, Seacrest Beach area and what a relaxing time it was for me.

Daily walks, networking and a few dozen good raw oysters were some of the highlights of my getaway.

The Scene On The Main 30A Just East Of Alys Beach

The scenery and personality of the area differs depending on which little slice of it you are visiting at the time. Rosemary Beach is like a little European Village on the coast, Alys Beach is still sparse but appears to be headed in the image of a Greek or Italian Isle with white being the main color. Farther down or is it up? 30A you have the one who started it all, Seaside and it's Truman Show beach town feel. On both sides of it you have some other little burgs aptly named something like Watercolor, Seagrove, Santa Rosa Beach, Grayton Beach and so and so on.

Village Of Seacrest Beach Where I Stayed

Not much was happening in Seacrest Beach and much to my dismay the Mexican restaurant I had wanted to try was closed and the other high end place, Bentley's seemed to be open and completely dead to the public. I walked in one night to grab a beer before heading out and stood for a few minutes in the place with no one appearing from the back so I left, never to return this trip. Maybe in season. They have a Sports Bar of sorts off to the side called Maddogs which is where I was going.




The Beach Altered In My Photo Editor

There was a Sundries place I happened into on day one to introduce myself, find out what they had and see what their hours were and I hit them a few times on the trip for beer, milk, coffee and some various and sundry items. Thank goodness they were open.

Seacrest Beach is pretty expansive home wise and has a nice huge pool somewhere near the center of the little town. I did not use it much as it was cooler but did come sit by the pool and relax a few times on the visit.

Seacrest Beach Pool

I was almost alone for the most part, especially on the weekend I was there. I think I walked over 35 miles on my trip and got to see much of the area and will follow up on some more posts here on the blog. Seacrest was a great home port so to speak as it aollwed me to go back and forth to other spots easily.

I have made a mental note to try them out again as soon as possible.

Life's Beach Baby! Soak it in!
                                                                                                                                                              

Pictures not needing any words from 30A in Florida