Florida Days

On Tuesday morning we headed about twenty miles west on Route 30A to visit the little town of Seaside, Florida.  This little community was built in the early 80s and was designed to look like an old-fashioned beach village.  Each house is a different color and they are built in different styles: Victorian, Neo-Classical, Modern, etc., and each house is named.   Everything looks so perfect it kind of reminds you of a movie set. In fact, Seaside was the prime filming location for the movie, “The Truman Show”.

Seaside has lots of little unique shops and restaurants, including several Airstream Trailers set up as food trucks.  We ate at one: Meltdown on 30A.  This truck focuses on grilled-cheese sandwiches (cheese toasties for my Decatur readers) and boy…these are some of the best grilled-cheese sandwiches we’ve ever had!  Yum!

This day turned out to be a day of seeing wildlife.  Deer along the road.  Four foot long manta rays.  Pelicans and egrets.  And, finally….alligators!  Saw the alligators in St. Andrews state park.  A five footer was only a few feet off the trail and seemed be posing just for us.

A cold front moved in last night so the temperature never hit 70 today.  Brrrr!  It’s not going to hit 70 again till Friday so we’ll just have to tough it out till then.

Our dollar on Dusty’s ceiling

Wednesday morning was misty and chilly.  Kind of chilled out in the condo watching Jeff Dunham till lunch time, then headed for Dusty’s for oysters.  A dozen oysters on the half shell were $6.95 and they were delicious!  Shrimp and oyster Po Boy’s rounded out the meal….great little place!

Our next stop was to be an air boat ride.  We got there and waited for the rain to stop….never happened.  Postponed the ride till Thursday.

Headed back to the resort for a wine social at the club house.  Wine and cheese were provided and we met new friends from Ohio and Indiana.  Love these events!

We started our Thursday with a long walk through the resort property and then out on a pier at the nearby Wyndham Resort.  Saw lots of sea birds and hermit crabs, but no dolphins.

Geared up and ready to go!

Afterwards, we headed back to Dusty’s for lunch and then to the airboat.  This time it wasn’t raining so we boarded and headed west on the intercoastal waterway.

Did you know…  The intercoastal waterway was started in 1824 and stretches from Maine to the Mexican border in Texas…almost 3000 miles of safe waterways!  Safe, that is, from attacks: British attacks on American shipping are what started the whole intercoastal idea.  The waterway also provides protection against Altantic and Gulf storms, thus there is a lot of barge traffic here.  (Amazing what we learned from our airboat captain…a small slip of a girl who has been driving airboats for seven years!)

Best seat on the boat!

This ride was c..c..c..cold!  But, lots of fun!  We skimmed across the water at 30 miles an hour and learned that you stop an airboat either by hitting a tree or by doing a tight 360 degree turn.  We stopped lots of times, but without hitting a tree!  We turned into a creek where normally there are 10 foot and 12 foot alligators, but none today.  Too cold!

Sculpture in St. Andrews (Panama City)

Panama City was next on our itinerary.  We visited their small historical district and then had a drink at Uncle Ernies…watching in vain for the sunset.  We finally figured out that you can’t have a sunset without a sun.  Duh!!!

Hunt’s was our dinner location.  It’s just a little hole-in-the-wall spot, but wow, great food!!!!  Thanks Shannon and April for the tip!

Made it back to the Marriott and to 30 Degree Blue to listen to karaoke…yep, just listen.  No singers in our group!  They had some really great singers, reminding us of our favorite haunt in Palm Desert.  Best was Summer who sang Adele’s “Someone Like You”.  Simply awesome!

Fun day in spite of the cold…but we are really hoping for some Friday sunshine!