St Andrews Marina

As I continued down the beach, I came to St Andrews Marina.  This is like a little community of it's own within Panama City.  I understand they have a nice Farmers Market there on Saturdays but it is Tuesday today.

This marina has a lot of different types of rentals and boat trips available.  Just one of several piers advertising rentals.

Out on the end of the marina, I found this unique bicycle rack.

There were also quite a few shrimp boats at the end of the marina.  I guess they were already in for the day.  There were a couple of places where you could buy shrimp.

This crew must have been relaxing after a long day fishing or netting for shrimp.

There were also a number of shops and restaurants in the area.

This unique sign was on one of the corners.

I drove down one of the residential streets near the marina.  With no sun and all this moss, it was pretty dark.  Kind of creepy if it had been nighttime.

This was one of the larger restaurants in the area.

But this place was the busiest place in the area and it was the middle of the afternoon.  They were lined up behind the boat.

If you keep heading along the shoreline, you will cross the bridge to Panama City Beach.  I decided to take a look at the beach when the weather was far less than desirable.  There are public access points all along the beach even though there are large hotels and private homes.  Notice the flags telling weather conditions.

 Let's see, this is a red flag for high hazard.  Not quite closed but the next step to it.

So what do the visitors think?  It's warm.  We came a long way to get to the beach, it's been raining but, we are going to go to the beach and get in the water anyway.  Reminds me of the people who try to cross at the low water crossings in Texas even though there is water across the road.

Later in the day, Steve and I went to dinner at Pepper's not far from the Mall in Panama City where we each had the California Burrito.  It included grilled steak, beans, rice, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and avocado and was delicious.

The sun finally came out about dinner time so the Traveling Longdogs got a walk after we came home.

Panama City, FL

Today started out with a bang.  I woke up to torrential rain, loud thunder, and brilliant lightning.  Now that in itself was not bad because I did sleep in as did the Traveling Longdogs.  In fact, I was up before they were.  Things went downhill from there as I discovered that Steve had headed out for his morning bicycle ride.  He normally rides anywhere from 25 to 50 miles.  It was obviously not raining when he headed out but by now it was going on 9:00AM and I was getting worried with the constant lightning flashes.  He didn't answer his phone and that really made me really nervous.  Although there are many cyclists in this area, the vehicle drivers are not very supportive or careful so with the reduced vision, things were not looking good.  I finally jumped in the car and headed out to look for him.  After going just a few blocks, I saw him heading towards me.  He wasn't worried about the rain but I felt like I lost 10 years off my life this morning!  You might be fast but you can't outrun lightning.

This afternoon, Steve was tied up so I decided that I was going to get out and do some sightseeing, rain or no rain.  One of the first things I saw was this neat water tower.  I was at a stop light so I couldn't get the part that said Panama City.

Then I headed to downtown Panama City which I had only seen at night during the First Friday Car Show.

It has a small town, laid back atmosphere with lots of little shops and trees along the main street.

The main street curves with more shops and then opens out to the water front after you pass the Marina Civic Center.

There are lots of boats anchored in the marina at the end of the road.

I saw a shrimp boat out in the bay.

The marina also has a little store at one side of the parking lot.

Birdie, this picture is for you.  Not an exotic species but he was posing so I just had to take his picture.

There is obviously a nautical theme to the area.

I continued my drive along the waterfront.  I love waterfronts and beaches.

As you can tell, it finally quit raining while I was touring but it was still dark.

I continued along the road towards St Andrews which is still in Panama City but another waterfront area but that will be my next post.

A Rainy Day Revisited

Okay, just looked at my camera photos and realized that we had a little more going on than I let on in the last post.  This is Willy sleeping with Cameron before the grandkids left.

We did have a birthday party!

and part of the birthday present was an overnight trip along the Forgotten Coast (but it got rained out before they got to the overnight part!

And we spent one of the very rainy afternoons at the Mall where we made a stop at the arcade.  There was a wild game of air hockey.

A racing game with Steve steering and Cameron working the gas pedal.

Morgan was an enthusiastic cheerleader.

And there were many other games of throwing balls at targets and basketballs in hoops but the camera battery died after this picture.  Guess we did do a few things.

a Rainy Day

Just realized that I haven't posted in close to two weeks.  Things have been going on but not much exciting to post about.  We managed to make it back to Panama City after our camping trip without any problems.  It rained a good part of the way but we lucked out and it was dry the last mile or so and hadn't rained here.  We were worried about how soft the ground might be.  But no problems.

My DH arrived by car the next day.  The kids had made some pictures for him.  We had a belated birthday cake for his birthday.  One of his presents was going to be an overnight motorcycle trip along the coast with Steve.  They took off after the grandkids were picked up by their mom on Sunday.  They made it down past Mexico Beach before a heavy rainstorm headed their way so they changed their route and made it home without getting too soaked.  It sure was quiet around here after the kids left.  Willy put himself to bed on Cameron's bed every night even though he wasn't here so I just moved him to his crate when I went to bed.

We've had plenty of rain here.  The grass is green and long every few days.

DH is headed back to San Antonio in a day or two.  Helen will be heading out on a work TDY and then it will just be Steve, 3 doxies, and me for a few days.  We can handle that.  I bet we can find something to get into.

Raney House Tour , Apalachicola FL

We stayed at Ochlockonee for an extra night.  Helen volunteered to drive back in to work on Monday morning so we could do that.  We got all packed up and headed out in the morning because we like to enjoy the trip as well.  We headed back towards Apalachicola with plans to have our lunch there.  Once we arrived, we decided to visit the Raney House museum.  The caretaker was sitting on the porch relaxing from his groundskeeping activities when we arrived.  We were able to park along the street right nearby and left the longdogs to guard the RV.

This placard out in front of the house gave a pretty good description about the origin of the house and the Raney family but our guide really knew the history and loved telling about the house and family.

There were just the four of us and our guide when we started going through the house.  Here we are in the dining room.  I asked about pictures and he said "knock yourself out, we love visitors".  He told such good stories that even 6 and 8 year olds were interested.

This highchair folded down and converted into a chair that rolled around.

This organ was in the front parlor.  Apparently the daughter of the house was an accomplished player and the music books on it were hers.

This tiny little dress belonged the wife and was very ornate.  Even the furniture from that time was a little smaller.

This bedroom was for the mother-in-law.  She traveled with her daughter and soon-to-be son-in-law from Virginia to Florida.  They just met each other before they left on the trip and she made sure they got married before they arrived.  There was a picture of a little church in a swamp where they got off the boat to get married as they traveled down the river.  Notice how it looks a little darker through this window.  The clouds skidded in and a storm blew through.  Our little party of 4 grew to 8 and then 15 as the rain hit.  You couldn't even see across the road it was raining so hard.

This was the large bedroom for the 4 girls.  They would have had 3 beds in the room.  Apparently they did not put curtains on the windows so that it would be light in the room.  So there was a separate little room where the girls had to change their clothes.  The 3 boys were in attic room on the third floor.  There was no fireplace up there but it was warm in the winter because of vents cut into the ceilings of the rooms on this floor.  They used charcoal to heat in the fireplaces instead of wood so it burned all night.

These are confederate stamps.  Most people through them away so the few remaining are pretty valuable.

This is where the girls changed.  The window is an interior one so no one from outside could see in but they still had light from the hallway.

This is the master bedroom.  There were no closets anywhere in the house because closets were big tax items.  Instead everyone had an armoire for their clothes.

There was no indoor plumbing in the house.  Outhouses were the norm.  However, Mr Raney had a small room set up for his wife with a commode and this "tub".  She was the only one to use it but it gave her some real status in the community because people knew she had it.  My 6 year old granddaughter could barely have set in this because it was so small.  Ms Raney stood in it and servants poured water over her.

It stopped raining long enough for us to get across the street to the RV.  Then it started pouring with heavy thunder and lightning so we fixed our lunch and ate it.  Then the kids had a great time drawing pictures and coloring them while Steve and the traveling longdogs took a nap.  It finally quit raining again and we walked the dogs, loaded up, and headed home.  It rained off and on the rest of the way and we were a bit worried about how soft Steve's yard might be when we got there.  About a mile from the house, the rain quit and the ground was completely dry.  At the house, Steve quickly mowed the side yard before we pulled the RV and set up.  Sweet!   Another great trip comes to an end but then, I'm not home so it really hasn't ended, has it?