St. George Island, FL Dec. 28, 2012

It’s December 28^th, 2012 and we’ve had a wonderful Christmas, albeit very busy! Dave and I are sneaking away today for a 10 day RV trip through the panhandle and coastal gulf states. The stops will be quick, but we will stop in St. George Island, FL on the way out and in Destin on the way home. In between we will stay near the coast in AL, MS and LA.

We are on the road again (insert Willie Nelson song here, lol) and it is cold and getting colder! The beach in the winter? We’ve never done this before but hey, Snowbirds do it, so I guess we can too! We will be scoping out cool places we want to come back to when it’s warm (not hot, but warm).

Oh, as a side-note, for Christmas, I surprised Dave and did a little redecorating in the RV (cabin style-his favorite!) Here are a few pics:

It took about 5.5 hours but we arrived at  St George Island State Park (near Apalachicola) and got checked in. The park is already near the end of the island, then once you check in the camp sites are 4 or so miles further. It’s all big, rolling sand dunes and glimpses of the water. We got to our site (#33) and set up. It’s a cozy spot. We are going to go exploring now.

We just got home from being out all afternoon. We went to the St. George Island Lighthouse and walked up the 100 steps to the top. Here are a few pics. We went to Harry A’s restaurant for a ‘snack’, just a drink and a couple crab cakes—oh so good! Fresh!!

Back at home base and it is pretty darn cold and windy!! Glad we have a good heater in Winnie plus the new electric fireplace (also part of Dave’s Christmas present). We’re going to watch ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ since we haven’t gotten to yet this Christmas Season. Night Night.

Day two, we are up and heading out to the eastern tip of the island. FYI, you have to purchase a day pass and get a combo code for the gate lock if you want to drive your car out there. It’s free if you walk or ride your bike but it is about 10 miles round trip and is too cold and windy today for anything other than a car ride. Wow, the sand dunes just keep going and going!

The green arrow is the eastern tip of St. George Island. We drove to the beach from our campsite, then walked to the tip. It was freezing!

Whew!! We are back in the car now….that was invigorating!! It is freezing, lol!! Above are a few pics of the unspoiled beach here. Now time to warm up!

We are heading into Apalachicola…..oh, it’s so cute! Adorable downtown looks very promising for some good food and maybe a bit of shopping!

This town did not disappoint! We ate at the Owl Cafe and it was so good! We had BBQ beef sandwiches with homemade dill pickles and homemade coleslaw—yum!! While eating, we watched a little of the Rice/Air Force game…enough to know that we are not fairing well with this year’s football pool! After lunch, we explored some cute and artsy shops and picked up some souvenirs.

While we still have daylight we are blasting over to Port St. Joe and St. Joseph Peninsula State Park. Port St. Joe has a cute little historic downtown, Just one street really, but nice. The State Park is a little remote but once you are in the park it’s quite nice. Several sites have a lot of privacy with mature trees and brush and you are very close to the beach. There are some wonderful rental cabins there as well right on the water.

We headed back to St. George Island and planned to eat at the Blue Parrot but they only had outdoor seating available (are you kidding me??). We decided not to wait 40 minutes on the cold patio with the hopes of getting an indoor table so we went to The Beach Pit instead. Good choice! It was just a homey locals place with BBQ, chicken and steaks, plus comfort food. I had a BLT and Brunswick stew (yummy!!) and Dave had smoked turkey with green beans, baked beans and of course, key lime pie.

We are tucked away cozy and warm back at home base. Going to play a new game we got for Christmas—Word Thief and maybe do some reading.

We are packing up and moving on today (30^th). We will be heading towards Fairhope, AL…about a 4 hour trip.

Until tomorrow or later tonight at least…..

Blessings~

Misi and Dave