Our month in Panama City Beach.
Retrieved car from Dog River Marina.
Our refrigerator stopped cooling the day after we arrive. Fortunately, we were not in the middle of crossing the Gulf. The marina recommended a guy that specializes in diving and cooling. Quite a combination. He seemed to know what was wrong and was able to get the part in short order. We were up and running that afternoon. I was able to save most of the freezer items in the ice maker (a separate unit). We bought dry ice for the fridge and kept almost everything else cold while it was being repaired.
Met Gary and Roz on Panazia. They are bike riders also and showed us around the area. This is a wonderful area for bike riding especially for me, mostly flat. We tried to ride everyday.
Jerry checked out the bait shop asking about salt water fishing. He bought an annual license since we'll be in Florida for a couple of months. So far he's caught a couple of salt water catfish and almost brought up a crab. Having fun though and learning all the time
The marina had a Christmas lunch Wednesday before Christmas. They provided fried turkey and dirty rice. I brought corn macque chox and blueberry/peach cobbler. Cajun theme. Not many folks were there and before we were finished it poured down rain. Back to the boat for the rest of this cloudy, rainy day.
Weather this month has been above average temps. Most days in the 70s. Couldn't ask for nicer weather.
Panazia invited us to Hunts Oyster Bar, a local must see place. It's a dive but good seafood. I'm not an oyster fan, so ordered the seafood platter. All was excellent, crab cakes (the best I've ever had), grilled grouper and bay scallops were good. Jerry ate the fried oysters. This place has an interesting tradition. They place saltine crackers by the sleeve on each table. The deal, so we were told, is to eat the crackers with the cocktail sauce while waiting for your meal. They have boxes of saltines stacked by the check out so if you run out, just help yourself. Also, the driveway is not gravel, but broken oyster shells.
Christmas Eve, I made my mom's recipe for chicken velvet soup. Our tradition for many years. Christmas day we rode bikes, watched a movie and talked with all the kids.
Jerry worked on a bunch of to-do items from the "list".
Went to dinner at the Pasta Grill on Front Beach with Panzia and Larry and Sherry, Lady KK. We ordered one of the specials, tenderloin and grouper. Grouper was excellent, but the tenderloin was tough and no flavor. Boy, eating beef anywhere but home is a tough act to follow.
Went to the chiropractor and had a massage. Well deserved, I must admit.
Drove to Ponce De Leon, FL, to the State Park. The fresh water spring has been enclosed sort of like a swimming pool with steps into it. A couple of guys were getting out of the 68F water as we were walking down the path. Didn't get in ourselves, just felt the water. Not much else in this town. We drove to DeFuniak Springs and found a pretty little town with a beautiful lake drive with huge, old mansions looking over the lake. We drove on to Port St Joe to check out the marina. Not nearly as nice as Bay Point Marina.
Visited Jan and Bob Colvin at their home in Gainesville, FL. Had a wonderful time. We decided we hadn't seen each other in about 15 years. Planned to stay another night but April ended up in the hospital with contractions so we decided it would be a good idea to head to Atlanta for a few days to help out.
April is doing fine and so is the baby. They got the contractions to stop for now. She just needs to take it easy. Easier said than done for a mom with 2 busy, young girls. We headed back to Panama City.
January 9th, we had a visit from Chuck and Sara Pugh. Good to see friendly faces from home. We took them out on the boat for a "3 hour tour". Jerry wants to check out the Gulf so we motor out that way. The bay is nice and calm but the Gulf is choppy. Chuck and Sara did great considering how much rocking and rolling we were doing. Turned around and headed back into the bay for a nice lunch anchored in a cove. We saw some jelly fish around the boat and a few dolphins but nothing close to the boat. We passed our turn back to the marina. Turning around, we see a cargo ship coming towards us in the channel. We moved off the channel to let it pass. The coolest thing, we saw dolphins jumping in the bow wake of the cargo ship. Tried to get pictures but nothing came out. Back to the marina and said good by to Sara and Chuck. It was wonderful having company.
Almost time to head out. We've been at Bay Point Marina a month now. Did the usual stuff, laundry, groceries and stocked up on bagels from Panera. Jerry has our routes uploaded to the GPS, we just need good weather to go. There is a small craft advisory in effect so will wait for this to clear.
