Saturday, December 3 - Port St. Joe

Egg McMuffin at McDonald's!  What a treat.  Next on the agenda was haircuts for both of us.  It had been 10 weeks since my last one, and I was overdue.
On the way back to the boat we saw a boat in the early stages of preparation for a Christmas parade. We have  seen flyers for lighted boat parades in every harbor, but haven't been in the right place at the right time to see one yet.

Also in the parking lot was a Chili Cook-off with live music.  We didn't buy samples, but could hear the music from our boat all day.

Lynn had told us to be sure and try the grouper fingers at the marina restaurant, so we went there for lunch.  I talked Danny into ordering cheese curds, and everything was very good!

We had watched fishermen on the jetty in front of us every day.  The weather was so pretty we decided to walk over and see what they were catching.

We had hoped to watch Alabama and Florida in the SEC Championship game, but we still can't get "local" channels on our TV, and the ones at the marina bar didn't have sound.  We ended up watching watching the pregame show on the SEC network, then whatever games were on ESPN.  We really need to get this TV thing worked before bowl season!

Two months ago today   What an incredible two months it has been.

Friday, December 2 - Lynn Hardin Visits

What a wonderful day!  My high school friend, Lynn Hardin Thompson, drove down from Tallahassee to see us.  We had hoped to meet her for Thanksgiving, but windy weather and boat repairs held us up.

Lynn's sister-in-law has a house in Mexico Beach, so we headed there to drop off her stuff and see the town.  On the way, we stopped for breakfast.  (What a surprise!)  There are no chain restaurants in Mexico Beach, at least I didn't see any, so we ate at a local restaurant.  I tried Country Fried Steak and Eggs which was surprisingly good.  Next we toured the Beach House.  When it was built, there were two houses between it and the shoreline, now it's on the beach!

As usual when we have visitors, we take advantage of their car!  Lynn was kind enough to take us several places as we searched for a small Christmas tree for the boat and Danny's favorite beer.  She also introduced us to Bluewater Outriggers, an incredible store.  The salesman there convinced Danny that he needed a new fishing lure. Look at the size of that thing!  It should attract some whoppers.

No tree at Dollar General or CVS, so we headed "downtown" where there are a lot of interesting stores.  And one antique mall had the perfect tree!

Next on the tour was Cape San Blas and Indian Pass.  Beautiful drive, and great oysters at Indian Pass Trading Post.

It We enjoyed the visit with Lynn so much!  It's always a delight to spend time with her.

Thursday, December 1 - Panama City to Port Saint Joe

Calmest (is that a word?) morning since we have been here!  Three Looper boats left about the same time, all of us headed for Port Saint Joe.  As always, I have thoroughly enjoyed our time at the marina, but am glad to be on our way to new adventures.

I'm not sure what I had expected on this section of the GICWW, but I was surprised.  Large bays, narrow channels, lots of pine trees, little wildlife, beautiful scenery.

 We pulled into Port Saint Joe Marina about 4:00 and were assigned a slip backed up to our Looper friends from Panama City, Laura and Artie.  Sam and Mary Beth pulled in after us but are on the next dock over.

Wednesday, November 30 - Laundry and Oysters

We HAD to do laundry today!  Thank goodness Panama City Marina had a laundry room with 3 washers and 3 dryers, so it didn't take all day, just all morning.  The laundry room was connected to the office, so there was coffee, tables to work on, and great views out two sides!

I am posting a picture of the laundry room since so many people had questions about our clean clothes on the trip.

We have seen better laundry rooms, and we have seen worse!  Usually there is someone to talk to, and something going on in the office, and a lending library!

As we left the office, it was very windy, and I noticed all the seagulls in the parking lot facing exactly the same direction.  Do they have GPS?

Fellow loopers down the dock had organized a dinner trip to a local oyster place, so 11 of us shared one rental car, in the rain, and enjoyed wonderful oysters and fried cheese curds (thought of you, Trisha Wright Jacobs).  Great way to spend our last evening in Panama City.

Tuesday, November 29 - MBA - Turkeys Anonymous friends

A wonderful side benefit of the Great Loop is visiting with friends along the way.  And in Panama City, we hit the jackpot!  Glenn Seawell, a fellow Turkey when we were in the MBA program at UGA, came over from Seaside, where he is the unofficial mayor, to have breakfast with us.

Again, we had a marvelous time catching up.  And the breakfast place, Bayou Joe's, was delightful.  Glenn couldn't resist the "Garbage Omelette," and the catfish, eggs and grits had my name written all over it!

While we were sitting on the boat after breakfast, June called to say she was on her way, so she and Glenn had a chance to visit before he left to host royalty (another story).

June took us sightseeing in Panama City, including the school named in honor of her husband Bill, then to her house on Blue Pond.  What a wonderful afternoon!

The weather continues to be very windy, so no boats are leaving.  Our boat is really rockin' and rollin', the most since we started the trip.

Danny caught a fish!  Not big enough to keep, but we are getting some use out of those Florida fishing licenses!  AND, a sunset picture.  They are impossible to resist!

Monday, November 28 - Visiting with an Old Friend

In spite of drizzly weather, we went in search of breakfast!  The restaurant everyone recommended was still closed for Thanksgiving, but we found a San Francisco deli with quiche and croissants!  We walked down main street exploring, and looking for a bank so we could get quarters for laundry.  Danny even went into some "cute" shops with me looking for a lighted Christmas decoration for the boat.  We walked past a sporting goods store on the way back to the boat, and it was calling Danny's name!  The guy who waited on us told us it was the oldest sporting goods store in the state.  Four lures later, we resumed our walk!

My fave was the huge Santa Claus in the park beside the marina.  I would LOVE to have one just like it for my yard.

I had called June Lloyd, and she came to the boat after a doctor's appointment.  It was wonderful to see her, and to catch up with her news.  Her husband, Bill, was a brand new professor at UGA when Danny, Robert, Jim, Alice, Glenn, etc. were in the MBA program, 1973-1975.  Yes, we are that old!

While we were visiting with June, we were "treated" to a show by jets from Tyndall AFB.  Pensacola Naval Air Base and Elgin AFB have been on our route, but Tyndall was by far the loudest!  The cloudy skies held the sound close to the ground and it was booming!

No sunset pictures today, I'm sure everyone is disappointed.

Sunday, November 27 - Destin to Panama City

We pulled out from our Destin "home" and headed out of the harbor, accompanied by a dolphin again!

The screen shot shows Destin.  Our dock is on the left side of the picture, just about in the middle, to the right of the bridge.  The sand and water are gorgeous!

 Choctawhatchee Bay was pretty rough due to high wind, but we made it across and into "The Grand Canyon" of the GICWW, which is really sand cliffs on each side of a canal.  On the 20 mile stretch, we saw three birds, one jet ski, two boats and one shack.  That is ALL.  In 20 miles!

We had planned to anchor out one night before Panama City, but we came out into West Bay early and decided to keep going.

There was no pumpout at the dock in Destin, since it was mostly fishing boats, so we were looking for a dock with pumpout facilities.  We found one in our guidebook at the beginning of the bay, called to make sure they had a pump out, and proceeded to head in.  Danny looked down to see 1foot depth on the chart plotter, I looked up to see a guy waving us off.  He showed us with a pole how shallow the water was, and they did NOT have a pumpout.  I don't know where the lady was that I talked to on the phone, maybe still waiting for us on another dock.

Crossing the bay, we kept hearing a flapping noise.  I finally got up to make sure a panel or buoy hadn't come loose, and found a dolphin instead, RIGHT BY our boat.  HE was making the flapping noise.  We had company for about half the crossing, sometimes as many as three at a time.  It was so cool to watch them roll in our wake.  I got some good pictures, and a great video.  They are such beautiful, graceful creatures.

West Bay calmed down about half way across and became glass-like.  It's amazing how fast weather situations can change.  That's why we will always play safe and respect the weather!

There were many marina options in Panama City, but we chose the City Marina since it was within walking distance of old downtown Panama City.

The gentleman at the gas dock as we pulled in started up a conversation.  Really, it wasn't me!  He was retired and working two days a week for "social therapy."  He said he had lived in Panama City all his life, so I asked him if he knew Bill and June Lloyd, our friends from graduate school at Georgia.  Bill passed away a couple of years ago, and I had tried to contact June to see if we could get together.  Well, Howard, our new friend, knew them and called his wife to get June's phone number for me.  I love small towns!

We pulled into our slip and found four looper boats right around us, several folks on the dock ready to help us tie up.

Beautiful sunset, with my favorite captain silhouetted against it.