Grand Canyon of Florida

We left Niceville, FL and travelled to Panama City, FL which covered another 53.7 miles.  We travelled through Choctawhatchee Bay for about 3 hours and then entered a narrow area known as The Grand Canyon and you can see why. The water is crystal clear and deep.

We arrived at Panama City Marina where we were met by Rick on the dock as we came in.  He helped us tie up and offered information about the marina and his favorite restaurants that are within walking distance.  He invited us for coffee in the morning at the marina store where men have been meeting for over 40 years.  There is a picture on the wall of the coffee club members!

We've now traveled over 700 miles and feel that we've come a long way (literally and figuratively). But, this boat wins the prize for the greatest distance travelled - North Pole, Alaska. He must have wanted warmer weather even more than we did.

This is our view from the upper deck on Second Wave looking aft this evening. Again, it looks warmer than it is. Notice my jacket sleeve.

Side-tied again at the marina. It actually isn't all that bad. Makes it easy to get in and to get out when we're ready to leave.

This is a view of the stern of Second Wave. You can see the upper deck seating. Also available up there is a Jenn Air grill, a wet bar and ice maker. But we don't really use any of it with the weather being as bad as its been since we left Galveston.

OK, we've seen a lot of marina bathrooms over the years. Most are so-so. Some are exceptional (like the facilities we just left at The Wharf in Orange Beach, AL) and some are what Brent describes as being one notch above a fish cleaning station (the added notch only because it might have hot water).

However, this shower head was something we've not seen before in a marina. Definitely above average!

We've had our first crisis on board recently. We've not been able to find Shiner Bock since we left Alabama. Not sure what Yuengling is but its everywhere.

We ventured into town where we saw many restaurants, antique stores, music stores, and loads of law firms.  We couldn't pass up Mexican food so we stopped at Maddie's La Casita which was packed, so it must be good.  And it was and cheap, too!! (Not as good as the Tex-Mex at our favorite places in San Antonio, but good enough for Florida.)

In looking at our Visitor's Map we thought we could walk to another part of town called St. Andrews but we soon found out the Visitor's Map distributed at the local stores was very deceiving!   It implied that the walk was about 5 or 6 blocks. But the map only marked the major cross roads. We journeyed over 3 miles to get to our destination.

Brent was uncomfortable with the walk. Not because of the distance but because he felt some of the areas we had to walk through were a bit sketchy (maybe a little) and he hadn't brought a weapon along (other than the 12 MM box end wrench he had just bought at a local store to replace the one he couldn't find when he installed the new alternator last week). I'm not sure what he was going to do with that. I guess if we had a problem he could slide the box end over the crook's little finger and twist real hard until the bad guy said UNCLE? Instead, we just walked quickly.

Another cute, little historical area and a park. (Oaks by the Bay Park in St. Andrews)

This girl pulled up and perched herself on the roof of her car and pulled out her ukulele and began singing to the water and anyone else who would listen; turned out only the seagulls were interested. Never have seen that before.

This will have to do for the pelican pic today. A carved tree on the shore right next to the marina at St. Andrews.