Happy Friday and Happy New Year!

Wishing you a wonderful New Year!

See you at the beach in 2011

-Susan

Image of fireworks at Pensacola Beach by Randy Mehoves

Merry Christmas (and happy Friday)

Christmas at Johnson's Beach, Perdido Key

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

See you at the beach,

Susan

Happy Friday

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer"
-Albert Camus

See you at the beach,
Susan
 
photo and directions for making your own sand 'snowman' via www.sandcastlecentral.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

Even turkeys like to go to the beach. Yes, they do!

Gobble Gobble,

Susan

image by adrianebelize via Flickr

Happy Friday

A girl can dream......

See you at the beach,

Susan

Happy Friday

Hope you get to spend some time with your best bud this weekend. 

 See you at the beach,

Susan

image 'buds' by sina [big shot photos] via flickr

Happy Friday

Hope you have a scary weekend.

BOO!
Sue

Happy Friday

I hope you get a chance to hang out with your best friends this weekend.

See you at the beach,
Susan

pier at Good Haven House, photo by threedrodi via Flickr

Happy Friday

Hope you get a chance to sail away for a little while this weekend.

See you at the beach,
Susan

image by Mute* via Flickr

Happy Friday

Beautiful fall sunset on Perdido Key

See you at the beach,
Susan

photo via flickr by christie210

Happy Friday

I hope using one of these is in your plans this weekend.

See you at the beach,
Susan

Photo: beach chairs_take 2 by nomadic tendencies via flickr

Happy Friday

photo Autumn Beach by Erin via Picassa

Summer's officially over and my favorite time at the beach is here.

Autumn is beautiful in Perdido.
Warm, lazy, golden days.
Cool nights to sleep with the windows open.
Let the murmur of the waves lull you to sleep.

Happy Friday,
Susan

We're Off........

I'm on my way to our sister property in Hawaii to get it ready to rent.
Hope to be doing some blogging from there so come on by and visit at the
Bamboo House Blog

See you at the beach (in Hawaii!)

-Susan

Perdido Kid's Park

Alas, we don't have little kids anymore and so I hadn't had a chance to visit the new Perdido Kids Park yet, even though I've driven past the front gate often.

A huge fort themed jungle gym.

A guest we had at Good Haven House this summer took her son there and raved about it so I wanted to share it with you.

The climbing wall with a Blue Angels theme.

Built in 7 days by families from the neighborhood and over 200 Marines a day. All volunteered their time with professional direction from representatives of Leathers and Associates, who designed the park using input from area children.

The Marines and family volunteers.

It is full of play equipment such as two forts, a turtle slide, a lighthouse, a pirate ship, and Blue Angels planes that all have a great Pensacola connection. There's a climbing wall, nature trail, butterfly garden and covered pavilions with picnic tables also.

'Blue Angel plane' play equipment.

If you have little ones this will be a fun outing for you.

View Larger Map

It's about 6.5 miles from the house,
located on Gulf Beach Highway (CR292A) .8 miles west of Blue Angel Parkway (Hwy 173),
the entrance is on the north side of the street.

Lots more pictures of Perdido Kids Park

Oh, to be a kid again!

-Susan

Happy Friday

Have a serene weekend.

Photo "Laughing gull at dawn on Perdido Bay" by Brent Walker via Flickr

See Brent's exceptional photostream of wildlife around Good Haven House

Derby and Foster

via Flickr by threedrodi

Meet Derby and Foster.
They came for a vacation at Good Haven House in the Spring.



via Flickr by threedrodi

Here's what their owners had to say "We had a great time at Good Haven House but our dogs had an even better time! They are older dogs and acted years younger - wanting to play non-stop. The yard and access to water was ideal. "



via Flickr by threedrodi

"Thanks so much Susan for allowing our pets to come with us - made all the difference in the world."



via flickr by threedrodi

Thank you all for staying here and allowing us to share your wonderful photos.

See the whole photostream of Derby and Foster having fun at Good Haven House

See you at the beach!
-Susan

Happy Friday!

This weekend I wish you a long walk on the beach with someone you love waiting at the end of it.

Happy Friday!

-Susan

photo by Shelby Mash via flickr

Double Rainbow Over Good Haven House

Last September, after a particularly long thunderstorm, it finally stopped raining. I went to look out the window and this is what greeted me!





A full double rainbow!





I grabbed my camera and ran back and forth, up and down, front yard, back yard, breakfast balcony, and deck like a crazy woman trying to get a shot of the whole thing before it disappeared.........I never did.

Absolutely astonishing and fleetingly beautiful.

See you under the rainbow

-Susan

The Biggest Pet Yet

Not that it's a contest, (please don't call and ask if you can bring your baby elephant :), but I think we had our biggest pet yet a few weeks ago.



Meet Buddy, a 2 year old English Mastiff, who weighs in at 130 pounds. He will be much bigger the next time he comes as his owner told me English Mastiffs typically reach maturity at 3 years old and his predecessor weighed in at 230lbs! He came with his newly adopted family who rescued him just 2 months before they were to vacation at Good Haven House.



I think he liked his first vacation!

Thank you to Buddy's owners for sending along these great photos of the newest addition to their family.

See you at the beach! -Susan

Happy Friday!

Remember backyard camping and that delicious, scary feeling when you heard bears (the neighbors cat going through the hedge) and witches (the breeze rustling the leaves)? Dive for your sleeping bag and pull it up over your head. Sshhhhh, stop giggling, what's that?!

Hope you have a magical weekend.

-Susan

Image from Country Living, June 2010

Aerial View of the Perdido Area

The arrow points to Good Haven House. See how close we are to the beautiful beaches of Perdido Key.

See you on the beach!

-Susan

Happy Friday!

"Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability" -Sam Keen, philosopher

I wish you all a relaxing weekend.

-Susan

Photo by meli254 via Flickr

Happy Friday!

photo by Ann Gordon

Have a thrilling weekend!

See you at the beach,
Susan

Check out Ann's photography. She's a fabulous family photographer in southeastern Michigan.

The J/I Wedding at Good Haven House

S and B were married on a beautiful autumn day last October.





It was a bit rainy that week so they decided to take no chances and set up a beautiful tent on the lawn between the house and the shore.





No detail was left to chance and even the cake was absolutely lovely.




As you can tell, everyone was joyous over the wedding.




Especially these two!

Thank you so much, S and B, for having your wedding at Good Haven House.
It was an honor.

-Susan

The S/T Wedding at Good Haven House

Jenifer and Jerry were the very first couple to get married at Good Haven House.





Jerry is a Pensacola boy who grew up fishing and crabbing in Perdido Bay.
He even persuaded his lovely bride to cast a line with him the morning of the wedding.

Now that's TRUE LOVE :)





They had an intimate ceremony with a small circle of family and and close friends attending.



J and J looking happy!


They were kind enough to send me these great shots to share with you all.

And this entry from our Guest Book:
We had a wonderful time! Very relaxing to be on the water. The wedding was beautiful and we could not ask for more......Thank you so much! -Jenifer and Jerry

It was an honor for us to have you get married at Good Haven House.

Thank you both. -Susan

We'd LOVE it if you'd LIKE us on Facebook

We'll be posting special offers, last minute deals and sales to our Facebook friends so please be a fan and 'LIKE' Good Haven House.

Thanks, Susan

See you at the beach....... and on Facebook!

Happy Weekend!

Photo by Brett Morash-Philaropes via Kodak

Say HI to these guys for me. Have a fabulous weekend.

See you at the beach

-Susan

Certified Humane

image from Certified Humane

As we've so publicly stated on our web site, We Love To Eat! I will say it again, We Love To Eat! My husband and I are both in the Food Service industry. We both like to cook mostly because we love to eat. And a big part of our enjoyment of Good Haven House is getting to enjoy regional southern food when we're here. BBQ, fried chicken, gulf shrimp, gumbo, hush puppies, pecan pie.........Mmm, Mmmm, Mmmmm, I'm making myself hungry just writing about it!

*Meets the Humane Farm Animal Care program standards, which includes nutrious diet without antibiotics or hormones, animals raised with shelter, resting areas, sufficient space and the ability to engage in natural behaviours.


Until recently, I never thought much about where my food actually comes from (unless I forgot to water the tomatoes in the garden!) But it's come to my attention that the way food comes to our markets and tables is not benign.

Please, whenever possible, use locally grown and Certified Humane food products.
Factory farming is harmful to not only the animals that are made to endure it and the farm workers forced to use these methods, but to human health and our society as a whole.




These practices are hard to think about and look at. But we DO, as individuals and as a society, have the power to take action and change the way food comes to our table.

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated" -Gandhi

Thank You, Susan

Happy Friday!

Long Pier Good Haven House by Me!

My photo, Long Pier Good Haven House, was featured on the Sierra Club's "The Daily Ray of Hope" today. What an honor. I couldn't be more thrilled!

"Happiness is a direction, not a place" -Sydney J. Harris

Have a wonderful weekend.

-Susan

Happy Friday!

I hope you have occasion to use at least one of these sometime this weekend.
Have a wonderful one!

-Susan

Happy 4th of July!

image via flickr Some rights reserved by Jill

Have a wonderful 4th of July weekend.
Happy Friday!

-Susan

We Love Pets

We love to have pets come on vacation with their owners. Dogs, cats, guinea pigs, turtles and frogs have all been guests at Good Haven House. They all give it the big thumbs (paws, flippers?) up!



Our German Sheperd loves it there. There's 2 acres for dogs to run around and play frisbee.

We take a $100.00 pet fee per pet (with fur and bigger than the palm of your hand) and a bit larger security/damage deposit that's refunded to you as soon as we verify that there's been no damage (soiling, chewing, etc).



All well behaved pets are welcome at Good Haven House.