St George Island 4: A Journey to Port St Joe & More Sunsets!

September 13, 2016 - With our family and various beach paraphernalia both loaded in the truck, we headed to Port St. Joe.

(We didn't take the route marked by the red line.)

On the way, we needed to run an errand in East Point and pick up a couple of things at the local Dollar General. 

We did a "divide and conquer" but I accomplished my mission well ahead of time and took a seat out front near the Redbox while I waited for the truck to return and pick me up.

And in that short period of time, for some reason unknown to me, 3 strangers asked me for help with the Redbox kiosk.  One person wasn't even renting or returning a DVD - they just asked me to walk them through the process for when they did!

 Obliging guy that I am, I was glad to be of help, but it's all pretty self explanatory.  Basically you just use the screen and this clearly marked slot (below) to pick up and return DVDs.

If YOU experience any difficulty, you can contact Redbox directly at: (866) 733-2693

We were greeted at Port St. Joe State Park by fruit flies that seemed to be refitted with the ability to bite like a vicious and experienced mosquito.  Yet, despite their predatory appetites, they lacked the reflexes of a mosquito and many of them lost their lives on this beach.

Nigel the pelican returns

Its wasn't too long before a storm that, though little, was fierce and broke in upon us:

But the storm blew over as quickly as it'd come...

...and not before it'd left its mark in the sky.

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky. 

Are also on the faces of people passing by. 

Noah and the rainbow

When the lights go down in the city. 

And the sun shines on the bay. 

 - "Lights" by Journey

After we'd had enough of "adventure" and of the flies at Port St. Joe we drove back home to St George Island and back across the bay.

Shots from the beach - during my "sunset walk":

You can easily look across the entire island to where the sun is setting on the bay.

Shall I speak of the sea, which itself is so grand a spectacle, when it arrays itself as it were in vestures of various colors, now running through every shade of green, and again becoming purple or blue? 

- Augustine, City of God XXII 

 #greaterlighttoruletheday 

#lessertorulethenight 

#whatabeautifulsuccesion

The "Harvest Moon"

Our little beach community at night.

I'm scratching non-existent bug bites remembering what I went through while taking these photos - despite all of my clothing.

 This blog obviously doesn't have a very strict editorial policy concerning what photos are or are not posted. :)

Moon shining on the palm trees

This pool looks inviting - or so I thought when I finished one of my runs.

So I had a celebratory plunge (and a shake) after I posted my best 5k time.

Shine on, shine on harvest moon - up in the sky! 🎶

Hike

Wow, it’s been such a long time since I’ve posted! It’s hard to believe this is the first post of 2012!

  The cold this winter has been so mild that there have been only a few days this year where it actually felt like it was January.  I think we’ve only gotten snow once and it was only an inch or two.

It was because of this weather that we decided to go on a hike this afternoon with some friends.  The trail approx. 3 miles long and goes through the glades in the state park. 

   Again, the weather was so perfect…mid 60s with a light breeze.

Oh, and of course Lydia came along too! She rode in the backpack most of the way, but near the end we let her do some hiking on her own.

Comparing muscles with the tree

We’ve had some great times together!

New Year’s Eve Hike

You’ve heard of people hugging trees, but have you ever seen a tree hug a person?

Mexico Beach & St. Andrew’s

We heard from a neighbor that she 3 years ago she found some large shells at an isolated beach nearby. She gave us directions on where to go, so we packed up a picnic and headed for Mexico Beach (it’s still in Florida-not Mexico!) It was about an hour’s drive away.

On the way to the beach we drove through through Tyndall Air Force Base. We heard that the military flies their most advanced planes from Tyndall’s runways.

We found the road that our neighbor told us about, but it ended up that Air Force Base was using the land now and the road wasn’t open to the public anymore. We found a beach access a few miles down and setup our stuff on the beach.

We couldn’t find any large shells, but there were PILES of medium shells all along the beach.

After packing up some of the more unusual shells we drove back to Panama City Beach and went to St. Andrew’s state park and ate our picnic lunch.

There is a levee at the park that forms a bay-it’s a popular place for both SCUBA divers and fishermen. So, Benjamin tried both at the same time. He grabbed his goggles, snorkel and fishing rod and swam out all of the way out to the middle of the bay. Then he snorkeled and fished at the same time (that way he could “decide” which fish he wanted to catch .) He did catch one fish before we left the park.

The area was very scenic and I had a fun time getting photos. A US Coast Guard ship came into the bay from the ocean before we left.