Author: Mark Palma

A nice start to the day.

[Carrabelle Day #16 2025-03-13 (Thu)] In all our times staying in Carrabelle we’ve never driven farther up the coast than Port St. Joe. So today we drove to Panama City about 80 miles west up the coast. Just a little past Port St. Joe is Mexico Beach where Hurricane Michael made landfall in October 2018 as a category 5 storm. At Tyndall Air Force Base outside of Panama City wind speeds of 139 mph were measured before sensors failed. As we drove through this area there were still signs of destruction everywhere. Construction was also everywhere, especially at Tyndall AF Base. The beach itself had reconstruction and reinforcement in progress using heavy equipment. Steel pipe was being placed, apparently for forming a breakwater.

We’ve only eaten one meal out since leaving WI 18 days ago, so when we saw there was a Culver’s in the Panama City area Lyn was *very* excited. The one we ate at was newly built/opened a couple months ago. There was a photo on the wall with some Packers players, and it felt just like being at home.

One of the reasons for driving up this way was to see if we might want to stay in the Panama City area next winter. But it’s a lot busier and built up than the Carrabelle area, and no easy access to dog friendly beaches. We came to the conclusion that we had it about as good as we could get right where we are, and have reserved a site here at Carrabelle Beach for the month of Feb next winter.

After dinner today we went into Carrabelle City to walk around and do a little photography. I was hoping for nice light near sunset, but a few minutes after we arrived cloud cover moved in. I did get one nice marina photo before the light disappeared.

Small marina on the Carrabelle River. Nicely lit by the sun behind us, just before the clouds moved in.

The sun struggles to break through at Carrabelle City this evening.

Cooking breakfast outdoors.

[Carrabelle Day #15 2025-03-12 (Wed)] Lazy day today. We put the pop-up screen room up yesterday and spent some time in it today. Serious relaxing.

St Mark’s Lighthouse at sunset today.

[Carrabelle Day #14 2025-03-11 (Tue)] The highlight of today’s wandering “Florida’s Forgotten Coast” was a revisit to St. Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge where we got some really really nice photos of the lighthouse just as the sun was setting and lighting it up beautifully. This afternoon was bright sun and windy, and the wildlife seemed to be mostly tucked away. Didn’t see nearly as much as last time we were here. But the lighthouse photos were definitely worth the trip!

Low tide, and standing in mud and rocks offshore for this one.

A bit of wildlife, but not much, at St Mark’s NWR today.

As a special bonus for today’s sunrise Lyn got out of bed and saw it in person! First time for that this trip!

Bayside Coffee, Eastpoint FL.

After watching the nice sunrise Lyn needed coffee STAT so we drove to Bayside Coffee in Eastpoint for coffee and apple turnovers. We watched lot’s of local customers stop for their morning coffee as we sat outside in a small patio area.

A nicer day today!!!

[Carrabelle Day #13 2025-03-10 (Mon)] We enjoyed Apalachicola last Friday but it was quite busy, so we thought it might be less crowded on a Monday. We were wrong, seems to be a very popular “tourist” city, but still had a nice time there having coffee and wandering around the city a bit.

At Apalachicola Coffee & Chocolate again!

Marina, Apalachicola FL. “A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships were built for” – John A. Schedd 1928.

The highlight of our wandering around was an out of the way marina full of old fishing boats. The place was so picturesque that there was a large group of painters there painting it as part of a “Painters/Artists Week” group that was spending the week in Apalachicola (as we learned from chatting with one of them). Apparently there’s over a 100 participants who gather somewhere is this area of the Gulf Coast annually. We saw them in several locations.

The weather was windy and intermittently sunny then cloudy, making for some photos with interesting moods. The photos posted above were saved with a “high dynamic range” profile, I’m experimenting with trying to better show high contrast scenes like we had today.

Carrabelle beach a little after sunset.

For our sunset walk we headed west up the beach to a place where old palm tree stumps remained, hoping they would add a bit to a sunset photo.

No sunrise photos today.

[Carrabelle Day #12 2025-03-09 (Sun)] Carrabelle received just shy of 2 inches of rain today. When there were breaks we walked down to the beach, but otherwise mostly were stuck inside. For excitement and to get away from Mark, Lyn drove the Jeep to the Publix in Crawfordville this afternoon, the first time she’s driven since before we left WI 2 weeks ago. Otherwise just a quiet day, tomorrow is better weather forecast and we’re looking forward to getting out and about then!

A few rays of hope at the end of the afternoon after a rainy weekend.

Never trust a beagle.

[Carrabelle Day #11 2025-03-08 (Sat)]  It rained all day today, with only a few breaks to get out and walk Tucker. It was nice to just relax and read, write, and (for Lyn) crochet.

On the way to the beach this morning I could see it might be a good sunrise …

… and yes, it was awesome!!!

[Carrabelle Day #10 2025-03-07 (Fri)] Today we decided to head west along the coastal highway, stopping first at the Apalachicola Coffee & Chocolate shop in Apalachicola. A nice place where we could sit outside at a table on the sidewalk with Tucker for our coffee and pastry. Apalachicola has a several blocks of a “tourist area” of which we walked around, and while of course Lyn liked this even I did on such a nice afternoon. I didn’t take any photos while we were there, so I grabbed a Google Street View of the coffee shop to share here.

Apalachicola Coffee and Chocolate, courtesy Google Street View

Cape San Blas Lighthouse, Port St. Joe FL

Next we drove to Port St. Joe where we walked around Maddox Park (a.k.a. Lighthouse Park) and a set of seaside trails. We started from a parking area near the Cape San Blas Lighthouse. Facing east, with the sun behind us in the west, the lighthouse was nicely lit up and there was a small pond where we could also get a reflection, which made for a really nice photo.

Maddox Park, Port St. Joe FL

Lastly we drove the “St. Joe Peninsula” up to the State Park at the end of it. Basically just 100’s of beach houses, much like St. George Island. I’m kind of jealous of the folks who have these places.

Bald Cypress Trees, Otter Lake – St Mark’s NWR

[Carrabelle Day #9 2025-03-06 (Thu)] This afternoon we went to Otter Lake just outside of Panacea FL. This is part of St Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge. Our goal was just to scout it out and look for either wildlife or scenic photo opportunities (presumably to return to at dawn sometime). Here we found some of those cool looking trees that grow in the water way down south. I had to reverse image search them on Google – there’re bald cypress (or swamp cypress) trees and they usually feature Spanish moss hanging from them. They’re so beautiful!!!

More bald cypress trees

In a few trees there were large nests. Near one nest a long way from where we could stand there was a bird. Even using an 800mm lens it was hard to make out but a tight crop looks like it might be an osprey. That would make sense here.

Osprey and nest??? I’ll be back!

Between the cypress trees and nesting birds here this is a place that I will return to at dawn sometime to get good light and hopefully active wildlife.

Ochlockonee River State Park

Next, nearing sunset with nice light, we stopped at Ochlockonee River State Park which turned out to be a beautiful place to walk around and grab a few photos with just the iPhone.

Back at base for the night.

[Carrabelle Day #8 2025-03-05 (Wed)] Thunderstorms and heavy rain just before dawn, then high winds (gusting 40+ mph) throughout the day. We got the south end of a huge storm system that extended from the Gulf of Mexico to up north to Wisconsin, and produced deadly tornadoes in between. We spent some time outside today but it was hard for Lyn to crochet and I had to hold onto my laptop to keep it from blowing off the picnic table. So we spent much of the day inside the motorhome which fortunately is very comfortable, in fact much better than I expected (admittedly I had low expectations). You really don’t need much.

Our space indoors. It’s all we need.

We took a walk to the beach to see the high surf but it was a short walk as there was blowing sand at beagle eye level and I didn’t want to expose Tucker to that.

Ring camera view in front of our house today

I’m not complaining about the weather, it’s sunny and beautiful here, and warm enough to be outside walking around with shorts and a sweatshirt. I looked at one of our Ring camera views back home and was reminded just how lucky we are to be here!

Coffee at St. George Island.

[Carrabelle Day #7 2025-03-04 (Tue)]. We’re trying to choose a single place to explore every day, and today was St. George Island. This was our 4th time here, the first was in 2017 when we just got our Airstream and towed it to Carrabelle Beach for a few days that winter.

We really liked this view of the St. George Lighthouse.

The beach at St. George State Park.

It was nice to pop the roof panels off the Jeep and take our time wandering around the island, eventually winding up at St. George State Park at the far end. Lyn and I walked to the beach, but since no dogs allowed there it was a short walk, with Tucker waiting back in the Jeep. There was a nature trail opposite the beach which was one of the few places in the park dogs were allowed, so we did a hike on it with Tucker. It was a beautiful walk, but I forgot to take any photos to share.

An ice cream stop made Lyn very happy.

Then back home to grill some chicken for dinner.