Hello there, and welcome to my blog. My name is Captain Christian Meyers, and I have some wonderful tips and advise that will fill your stay in Destin with all the best of what this big little town has to offer 🙂 I grew up in Destin, and besides my time in Tallahassee at college, I have lived most of my life here. This means that I know all of the best things to do, the best beaches, the best things to do with kids, the best places to eat, the best romantic date spots, and so much more. Let me be your local guide, but you’ll have to forgive me for my grammatic prose – I’m a Captain not a writer 🙂Â
This is on the old (East) side of the Destin Harbor Boardwalk. Photo taken sometime in the 80’s.
Since the late 30’s, my family ran fishing boats from these docks. My grandma Joyce Walter sold tickets from the booth while her husband, my grandfather Capt. Harold Walter, ran the Lady Eventhia. Harold – I knew him as Papa – and his daddy Edgar built the Lady on top of the hill and launched her in the final months of the 70’s. Capt. Bobby Walter, Papa’s little brother, ran the Elizibeth Ann. It was a family operation then, they all pulled together for a common good. I am proud of the men and women who walked these docks before me, they who built this American Dream that their children could carry and pass along to the next generation.Â
The photographer of the photo above, probably my great grandmother Vera (Eventhia) Walter, is standing where The Harbor Tavern is today. If you visit the Harbor Tavern, and I HIGHLY recommend you do, you can note that the Relentless Charter Fishing Boat ties up in the Lady Eventhia’s old slip. This is how I remember these docks from my earliest memories, and it looked the same until Hurricane Opal in 1995. So long ago, but I’m there in a moment if I close my eyes and think of humid mornings and the smell of diesel smoke. What a time and place to grow up.Â