Port St. Joe, Apalachicola, and Carrabelle FL 12-10 thru 12/14

First let me say we have been having a wonderful time. We are traveling with Mike and Judy from One September. We are relaxed and open to fun. The weather is not cooperating much, though. It was nice while we were in Port St. Joe but now it is cold, grey and windy.

We stayed at Panama City and Port St. Joe for only one day each. Not much to see in either place although the marinas were nice. We traveled in the Gulf for the first time to get to Port St. Joe. Not much to see. The water was flat, the sun was shining, and all was well with the world.

Port St. Joe is a funny little town that has seen better days. Or at least that is what we thought until we say Apachicola and Carrabelle. Almost nothing in Port St. Joe was open. We arrived on Monday for late lunch at the marina restaurant. Everything was homemade and the fish was amazing. We are getting used to being the only folks around - everything is so empty but the food is still good and the wait staff is still friendly.

 

 This one is pretty locally famous, Joe Mama. It was closed too.

 

We found a nice liquor store with comfortable chairs outside for lounging and watching the sunset. We took them up with it.

Mike and Judy Hechtkopf in Port St. Joe's

Our fun seats in Port St. Joe

Watching the sunset in Port St. Joe

 

After sunset we went across the street and stuffed our faces with desserts - key lime pie, something chocolate and something cheesecake. Not sure why. It just seemed like the right thing to do.

One day is about all we could handle.

 

We moved on to Apalachicola, another deserted town, this time with grey, rainy skies.

Along the way we saw plenty of boats and docks impacted by hurricanes or general neglect. We were told that rivers and creeks just off the Gulf along the Intercoastal Waterway are called "hurricane holes" were folks from as far away as Mobile and New Orleans bring their boats to be safe during hurricanes. Sometimes they sink, like this one.

Apalachicola is on the Apalachicola River right on the other side of the bridge off the Gulf. You can tell it is old and not well taken care of. Or at least the town is changing from a working fish town to tourists who evidently are not in town in the winter.

 

 

 

 

There are towns and communities and amusement parks all over the country that strive for this kind of rustic. But this is the real thing. Beat up and decorated very cute. The decorations look like someone took a lot of time to arrange old beat up stuff in an artful way. There are lots of art shops, "antique" shops, and restaurants. The seafood is out of this world. Apalachicola oysters are world renouned. Pulled from the Gulf right near Apalachicola.

 

This sign says it all. What Would Fairhope Do?? Meaning town people are very aware of what is going on in Fairhope AL, a town that oozes money and cuteness. Apalachicola does not ooze money or coolness but it does have a certain rustic charm.

 

Interesting, rustic looking shops with lots of "antiques" that are really junk shops, but interesting junk shops staffed with overall wearing locals that look like weathered seamen.

 

This buildings look like this all over town. Sometimes shops are located in these kinds of buildings.

This one happens to be just behind our "marina" or rather the dock we tied up to. This is the front where we docked.

 

The stuff almost looks like fine art the way it is arranged.

Wild landscaping, which is what happens when no one really takes care of the things that grow in the yard.

We ate out a lot, almost every meal because there were so many restaurants. The best by far was Boss Oyster House right on the water next to the Boss Oyster processing building. This is Judy and Mike Hechtkopf at our table.

I took a picture of my grouper because it might be the finest best fish I think I have ever eaten. Later we talked it over and decided it probably wasn't grouper because it was so thin. I don't care. It was amazing. So amazing I had to take a picture.

 Kermit ate oysters several times. At Boss' he, Judy and Mike ate them fried. They said these oysters were really tender.

The oysters are fish are processed in this building and other buildings like this. When we sailed into town this cool chuga chuga noise was going on while the guys processed oysters for sale all over the region.

An oyster house.

We ate dinner at this restaurant one night. It turns out that the chef has the same last name as Judy's maiden name, Mittelman. When he came out to say hello turns out he looks exactly like Judy's late uncle, even though Ira the chef is from New York and Judy's family is from Scranton. It is a very small world.

 

Rusty enjoyed walking around. Most stores and store keepers are very dog friendly, with water bowls and treats everywhere.

 

On the other side of town (such as it is) is this park with a copy of the Vietnam War memorial statue. I never really understand why towns pick the statues they pick but this one is pretty cool.

 

The memorial is located in a park at the foot of Orman House, an antebellum home turned into a museum. Like many buildings in town, it was not open while we were there.

 

The yard had sculptures of frogs and turtles sculpted in the tree stumps. Don't ask me why.

The homes along the road back to town are kind of funky. Lots of artists must live here.

 

 

 Check out the wire sculptures on the porch here.

 

We met Queen Anne's Revenge, a trawler we originally passed on the way to Panama City. We took turns having cocktails on each other's boat in Apalachicola. First at One September, then Queen Anne's Revenge, then Good Karma. It was a good excuse to clean the boat.

 

The Dog River experience reared its ugly head this week. A quick check of our credit card bill revealed the amount processed was almost twice as much as the bill we approved when we left the marina. Kermit was furious. He spent the last few days crawling all over the bills, breaking them down, until he was able to offer a counter proposal to the management. We are still waiting to hear a response. More on that later when we hear.

 

We moved to Carrabelle on 12/13 Thursday. This town has even less to offer than Apalachicola but many aspects of the town are better than Apalachicola. For example, the marina is nicer here at Carrabelle, we get cable, and the IGA is the nicest we have seen lately.

 

The best thing they have is what they call the World's Smallest Police Station located in a phone booth. Trust me. This is the highlight of this town. We did have a great shrimp and grouper lunch at The Fisherman's Wife Restaurant. But other than that, not much here.

 

One thing wierd happened last night on Thursday night. We were happily asleep when about 1am we heard this awful chuga chuga chuga. We leaped out of bed, threw on our clothes and ran around like crazy people figuring out what was going on. At first we thought One September's windlass turned on. Turns out something wierd turned OUR windlass on!! Fortunately it was hooked so the anchor didn't actually move but the chain and rope moved around making lots of noise. Kermit disengaged it and we went back to bed.

 

The other thing that was good is the gas prices. Gas here is $3.85 per gallon!! We put on 180 gallons so we are ready for the 180 mile Gulf crossing.

 

We are planning to take the leap across the Gulf tomorrow on Saturday 12/15. We will file a float plan with our family so if we go missing someone will know it. With that said, we are confident everything will go well. Kermit worked on the engines and set up the lights. I have the food ready to go. We will probably leave before noon and arrive sometime before noon on Sunday. Wish us luck!!