8 posts tagged “florida”
Especially NOT when you're headed to Florida for two glorious weeks of sun, surf, snorkeling and seafood! I've been getting ready to go by replacing most of our beach gear and my footwear. I found these glorious flip flops at the Beehive in Ruston. I got brown and blue ones to wear with my new swimsuit.
And peace to wear with everything.
I couldn't resist the camo sparkly ones even though I have very little to wear with them.
I got this great bag to take to the beach when I wear my black swimsuit.
Don't 'cha just love the fleur de lis flip flops? I couldn't resist the blue bag and had it monogrammed with a brown B to coordinate with my new blue and brown swimsuit.
Tomorrow, hopefully by noon, we'll be headed here:
Be back in mid-July! Happy Summer!
Well...almost. We still have a couple of weeks but I'm getting in the spirit. I seem to have a mild case of food poisoning so I decided to spend the day online shopping for our upcoming vacation at the beach. Our old beach chairs had served us well but have seen better days. Here in North Louisiana, you can't buy beach chairs...guess that's because we have no beaches...go figure. Anyway, after spending quite a bit of time wondering whether to take the chance that I might not find exactly what I wanted when we stop for fishing licenses and supplies in Florida, I found some exactly like I needed.
As you can see, they have all the important features...CUP HOLDERS, book holder, multi position recliner, 12" seat height (so I can get my fat butt out) and PADDING...really excited about the padding since our old ones didn't have that.
Much to my dismay, my old swimsuit bit the dust this year. If it would last forever I'd probably never buy another one. But I have had to buy a couple. Here is the one I ordered today...just hope it fits!
Naturally, that lead to the need for a new coverup. So I found this one:
I think I have hats to match...will just have to wait and see when it gets here. Now if the EZ Up shelter is still in working order we're set. Oops! Except that I need a new beach bag....back later, gotta go shopping!
Yesterday I spent the entire day cleaning house. I'm a little closer but have a LONG way to go to get ready to paint the den. I have more of the same scheduled for today...but...the Goodhousekeeping Fairy (my Mom) helped me yesterday. She folded a mountain of laundry yesterday. Now for the final vacation pics.
On our way back to the campground from Apalachicola we stopped by to see the Cape San Blas Lighthouse. The gift shop was already closed but I was able to get a couple of pictures of the lighthouse which is also undergoing renovations.
On the way back out the drive I took this pic through the trees so you could see the actual light better.
The following pics are the final two pictures of the park at sunset.
As I said in earlier posts...the sunset were NOT spectacular this visit...either too many clouds or too few.
Pat had taken off an extra day but we were not able to stay at the park so we headed to Chauvin, Louisiana to visit his sister and her DH. We can park the motorhome in their front yard on the slab where their home used to be before the hurricane. There is a nice view of the bayou and shrimp boats and Pat enjoys fishing and crabbing from their little dock.
Shrimp season isn't open right now in the closer waters so most of the boats are docked.
There are way more 'for sale' signs on the boat this year. The diesel prices are killing the shrimpers.
And that concludes the vacation report for this year. Yesterday I booked TWO WEEKS at the same park in Florida! Way more cost effective that way and we will be celebrating a big anniversary next year. Back to the cleaning grind for me! Have a great day!
After our delicious lunch, Pat and I strolled around Apalachicola snapping a few boat pics before heading to St. George Island to check out the state park.
We drove over to St. George Island to check out their state park. The beaches there are beautiful and uncrowded midweek but not as pretty as above Apalachicola. The sand isn't as white. The campground is nice but you cannot easily walk to the beach with all your gear. Their facilities are very nice though.
The St. George Island lighthouse was under renovation so you couldn't get too close but I took this pic from the parking lot next door.
And that concludes our outing for the week...the rest of the week was spent relaxing on the beach, fishing, snorkeling for scallops and watching beautiful sunsets.
Pat and I absolutely love raw oysters! Apalachicola is THE place to get them. As you cross the bridge over Apalachicola Bay you see tons of boats tonging for oysters.
They're cleaning them up a bit before bringing them in to sell.
This one was docked behind the restaurant where we had lunch.
We had a fabulous lunch at Boss Oyster in Apalachicola.
Oysters on the half shell were, of course, the appetizer (even though I could have made an ENTIRE MEAL of them). I also had some very delicious soft-shell crab as a main course.
Mmmm...yummy! Our view wasn't too shabby either.
Whew, this is making me hungry...time to fix breakfast. Have a great day..or evening!
One fine day during our vacation we decided to drive down to Appalachicola to do a little sightseeing, shopping and get some fresh oysters on the half shell. One of our stops was a favorite shop of mine, The Tin Shed. The Tin Shed specializes in nautical antiques and coastal decor.
Treasures abound here.
I had planned to buy a couple of navigation charts and maybe a rum jug but didn't this trip. Nevertheless, we always enjoy a trip through the store.
This was an old dugout canoe full of sea sponges. All the pics I took were outside during the harshest daylight hours.
These old floats aren't THAT old but very interesting anyway.
You gotta love the old salvaged parts from ships.
I have no idea what kind of floats these are or whether they're even old but I would love to have some.
More pretty sponges.
Aren't these the coolest starfish? I would have gotten one but they were really stinky. Maybe next year.
These huge net floats were beautiful.
These old oyster tongs are not that different from the ones they still use to harvest the oysters in Apalachicola Bay.
Next post will show a few pics of the oystermen and oysterwomen doing just that. Have a great day!
After relaxing on the beach for a couple of days, the weather was finally stable enough for a snorkeling expedition. Our camping neighbors had not had much luck with the scallops but admitted that they were not experts. Nevertheless, we loaded up our tiny boat and headed out to our favorite scallop spots. I didn't bring a waterproof camera with me so I don't have any boat or actual snorkeling pics this time to share. We have to motor about 45 mins to go the three miles or so to our starting point in St. Joseph Bay.
It took about an hour to find a spot with plenty of scallops but they were there just waiting for us to pick them up!
Here are a few pics of Pat and the scallop-cleaning process. He's gotten better at cleaning them, it only takes him about 2 hours to clean our 4 gallons.
The delicious final product before it is released from the shell for cooking.
Pat finishes with a sip of his favorite beverage and it's on to the next one.
That's enough for now. I have tons of cleaning to do here and need to make a trip to WalMart this morning. Tomorrow I'll post the pics of my favorite nautical antiques shop in Appalachicola.
We spent our first full day in Florida just relaxing on the beautiful beaches of Cape San Blas in St. Joseph Penninsula State Park.
After getting our fishing licenses, icing down some beverages, collecting our gear and books, we headed out to the beach for a relaxing day of fishing, reading and sunning.
We enjoy the shore birds and other wildlife.
The surf was fairly high the first couple of days and the purple flags were out warning of jellyfish in the water. Our beach neighbor caught this Remora and wandered over to inquire whether to keep it or throw it back. We also caught one but this pic is of hers.
After finishing one book, failing to catch dinner and getting plenty of sun, we enjoyed our first sunset of the week. None of the sunsets were special all week...either too many clouds or too few...today it was too many.
But anytime you're at the beach watching the sunset, it IS special!
I have a ton of things to do today. Get a haircut, go help my boss with her new toy...a new Canon digital SLR...can't remember which one but my lack of cell and internet service while on vacation meant that she had to pick out her camera without my help. We're going to play with it today. And get started on this filthy house! We picked out new den furniture while on vacation and I need to get it ordered. We have to paint the room first so we have to empty it. Big project. Here's a pic of our new sofas. They're slipcovered in denim. Most appropriate for us!
I'm letting Pat keep his ugly recliner but I'm getting this chair and an ottoman that matches the sofas.
I'll paint the room a light khaki color...I think. The sofas are on sale so I'm ready to get started. Have a great day ya'll!
