Bed and breakfast goes back in time

PANAMA CITY BEACH, FL - When Penny Halsell or her husband, Bill, take their 1950 olive green DeSoto for a spin on Front Beach Road or through Pier Park, they find it attracts a lot of attention and compliments from motorists and pedestrians.
   
The DeSoto offers one of many glimpses into the past at Nostalgic 1950s Beach Bed and Breakfast, the Halsells' new Laguna Beach bed and breakfast.
   
True to the business' name, the classic car also inspires a sense of nostalgia from some of the Halsells' guests, including one woman who talked about her first car crash that involved a DeSoto.
   
"And she said, ‘It didn't hurt me and it didn't hurt the car,' " Penny Halsell said Friday, as she, Bill and daughter, Gloria, stood by the DeSoto.
   
Penny Halsell opened the bed and breakfast in 2008.
   
The couple had periodically rented the restored home to vacationers since they bought it in 2001 before she decided to open the business.
   
She said rentals had picked up considerably in the first three months of 2009 as more people get word about the 1952 Laguna Beach cottage and its simple charms.
   
With most of Panama City Beach's traditionalmom-and-pophotelsdisappearing in the last decade, Penny Halsell thought the bed and breakfast filled a need for travelers looking to take a step back in time.
   
The restored cottage also gives visitors a look at one of the area's historic properties, at a time when those are few and far between, she said.
   
"It was a simpler time, and that's what I want to bring back," she said.
   
The three-bedroom bed and breakfast includes an artist's porch, where guests can paint, write or relax as they look out at the Nostalgic's tarpon fountain, and an antique parlor with a fireplace.
   
Nostalgic's interior décor includes a number of early-20th-century family photos, black-and-white photos of Laguna Beach in the 1950s, and beds made in the late 19th century.
 
For an additional fee, the Halsells will take guests on a cruise in the DeSoto down to Pier Park, she said.

Guests can rent individual rooms, or rent the entire house for themselves.

In addition to locals who stay a night, Penny Halsell said she has had Nostalgic visitors from as far away as Michigan and California. Halsell said she got the idea for using the home as a bed and breakfast after seeing an increased local emphasis on ecotourism.

"What is more ecotourism than an original house?" she said.

Potential guests can get a look at the bed and breakfast at www.vrbo.com/9061 or www.bedandbreakfast.com. Nostalgic is located on Toledo Place, a block away from the beach and Charlie Lahan's Carousel.

Penny Halsell said she provides beach chairs, coolers and umbrellas for guests who want to walk down to the beach. With bookings well into the summer, Halsell said her goal is to keep the momentum going and eventually have a rental every day of the year. Bill Halsell said he and his wife enjoy the conversations they have had with their guests.

"We get a lot out of it in return," he said, pointing to the guestbook.