Cape San Blas off of Port St. Joe
So, just to start, here's a look at my tree as the two, mine and the ones my parents planted, are now fighting for control:
Sorry for the close proximity...I tend to find that my 35mm fixed lens tends to work better in the car for movement pics, so I was kind of locked as to position. But they are both growing back well, although not as tall as I would like.
My town at 2am...Southerner's aren't much for staying out late:
I am NOT a fan of driving in Alabama, which is odd because most people around here would say they hate and are scared of Mississippi. I actually like driving in Mississippi and feel safer there. I took the straight Alabama way so I could get there quicker instead of my usual Mississippi to coast road. But with Alabama, at least on the interstate, this is usually all I ever see:
And, if the fog does actually clear, more of the same of this:
I did see this sign...so I did get a "Twilight" moment during the trip...my favorite Cullen/Hale/Whitlock!
Another interesting side fact...I tend to pronounce Birmingham like the Brits do (because that's where Duran Duran is from, so that's how I learned to say it). Drives my Sister insane! She corrects me every single time, but I still say it the Brit way instead of the Southern way.
Alabama does not make for an exciting road trip because there is just nothing to see. Then you have to worry about when the interstate ends and you end up in the scary little towns. I'm from Northeast Arkansas, and trust me, I've seen some pretty scary places, but Alabama just isn't my cup of tea apparently. Repressed memories as kid maybe? I think my issues tend to stem with the fact that there are just less interstates in Alabama and more highways which means more small towns. I prefer the interstates. Mississippi has plenty. But anyway, I finally arrived at 1pm:
And here is what the other side looked like toward the Florida coast:
Normally, I'd walk on the beach for maybe and hour and come home. But it was so beautiful there, I ended up walking over three hours (almost 5 3/4 miles round trip) and still barely made it halfway down the cape. That's a goal for another trip. But here are a few shots of what it looked like there (oh, and some where taken with my camera, some with phone, so forgive some of the quality differences):
I got a little "wave" happy and took a lot of shots of them:
The shells there were smaller than St. George, but I still picked up WAY more than I could carry:
And after walking miles in the water with my flip flops, I actually took them off because my feet were hurting. I NEVER walk barefoot in the water because I ALWAYS get stung by jellyfish (although I always have my flip flops on when I do, so I'm not sure why I think flip flops are going to save me, but there's also glass and needles and god knows what in the sand, so maybe that's why, but still). So here is the first EVER picture of me BAREFOOT in the ocean!
A little know fact about me is, as much as I love the ocean, I HATE walking in sand. Sand at the water level is fine to walk in, but getting through that dry stuff makes my skin crawl. My Sister thinks this is hilarious, I don't. Because I'm a "bigger" girl, I tend to sink and it's just hard to walk through it (plus, I just hate the feeling of it). The wet sand, however, is different (yes, I already know I'm weird). Once I get to the water, I rarely stray from the wet sand until it's time to leave and I walk super-fast through the dry stuff. But here is me flying through the dry stuff:
When I was a kid (and a budding artist), I used to draw bubbles all the time, so I also found myself taking a lot of pictures of bubbles:
There were also several tide pools...the first I think I've ever seen:
And, it's hard to tell, but there were fish in them! I was going to walk in one until I saw the fish and then I didn't.
I also thought the sand patterns at the edge of the pools was neat, but that might just be that repressed artist in me seeing beauty in something weird:
When I realized I was never going to make it to the end of the cape and I turned around, but stupid me forgot to actually take a picture of what cape was left...you can sort of tell from this pic, but not by much...those tiny little black specs are people:
I literally followed this bird all the way back to the parking lot:
The only jellyfish I saw and I didn't step anywhere near it:
I was never so happy to see a walkway back to a parking lot in my entire life! I was sore, sunburnt, and knew I was going to get home VERY late, but it was so totally worth it! What a beautiful place!
I also love lighthouses, but their's was pretty pitiful:
And then I made the biggest mistake of all...I started home via Hwy 98, a road I know like the back of my hand since it's a coast road because I didn't want to navigate Alabama in the dark. Yeah, coast road, end of summer, Saturday night. Stupid. I went as far as I could until I got to the first I10 exit. The thing about I10 is that it is ALWAYS got red sections because of deadly wrecks and it's backed up for miles. For some reason, the gods much have been smiling on me because it stayed green all the way to Biloxi. I managed to make it to Wentzels for my Eggplant La Rossa to go (my favorite dish) before the closed and headed home my usual Gulfport way through Hattiesburg, Jackson and back through Memphis.
All in all, I left at 2am-ish on Saturday morning, got to St. Joe at 1pm (but there was a time change, so that affected things), left there at 4pm, and pulled into my drive at 5:08am on Sunday morning. 1378 miles, so not bad! I will definitely be going back there again...when I figure out how I'm going to manage this whole school thing that is! I'd actually like to go up there and stay a couple of days so I can actually walk that entire cape. That's my goal! Oh, and here's the link to the entire album of pictures.
Oh yeah, and the shell haul this time:
Have NO CLUE what I'm going to do with them...they won't fit in my shell jar unless I remove the gulf sand that I made a special trip just to get. So, for now at least, on my kitchen counter they live (or stay dead...you say potato...).
Sorry for the close proximity...I tend to find that my 35mm fixed lens tends to work better in the car for movement pics, so I was kind of locked as to position. But they are both growing back well, although not as tall as I would like.
My town at 2am...Southerner's aren't much for staying out late:
I am NOT a fan of driving in Alabama, which is odd because most people around here would say they hate and are scared of Mississippi. I actually like driving in Mississippi and feel safer there. I took the straight Alabama way so I could get there quicker instead of my usual Mississippi to coast road. But with Alabama, at least on the interstate, this is usually all I ever see:
And, if the fog does actually clear, more of the same of this:
I did see this sign...so I did get a "Twilight" moment during the trip...my favorite Cullen/Hale/Whitlock!
Another interesting side fact...I tend to pronounce Birmingham like the Brits do (because that's where Duran Duran is from, so that's how I learned to say it). Drives my Sister insane! She corrects me every single time, but I still say it the Brit way instead of the Southern way.
Alabama does not make for an exciting road trip because there is just nothing to see. Then you have to worry about when the interstate ends and you end up in the scary little towns. I'm from Northeast Arkansas, and trust me, I've seen some pretty scary places, but Alabama just isn't my cup of tea apparently. Repressed memories as kid maybe? I think my issues tend to stem with the fact that there are just less interstates in Alabama and more highways which means more small towns. I prefer the interstates. Mississippi has plenty. But anyway, I finally arrived at 1pm:
And here is what the other side looked like toward the Florida coast:
Normally, I'd walk on the beach for maybe and hour and come home. But it was so beautiful there, I ended up walking over three hours (almost 5 3/4 miles round trip) and still barely made it halfway down the cape. That's a goal for another trip. But here are a few shots of what it looked like there (oh, and some where taken with my camera, some with phone, so forgive some of the quality differences):
I got a little "wave" happy and took a lot of shots of them:
The shells there were smaller than St. George, but I still picked up WAY more than I could carry:
And after walking miles in the water with my flip flops, I actually took them off because my feet were hurting. I NEVER walk barefoot in the water because I ALWAYS get stung by jellyfish (although I always have my flip flops on when I do, so I'm not sure why I think flip flops are going to save me, but there's also glass and needles and god knows what in the sand, so maybe that's why, but still). So here is the first EVER picture of me BAREFOOT in the ocean!
A little know fact about me is, as much as I love the ocean, I HATE walking in sand. Sand at the water level is fine to walk in, but getting through that dry stuff makes my skin crawl. My Sister thinks this is hilarious, I don't. Because I'm a "bigger" girl, I tend to sink and it's just hard to walk through it (plus, I just hate the feeling of it). The wet sand, however, is different (yes, I already know I'm weird). Once I get to the water, I rarely stray from the wet sand until it's time to leave and I walk super-fast through the dry stuff. But here is me flying through the dry stuff:
When I was a kid (and a budding artist), I used to draw bubbles all the time, so I also found myself taking a lot of pictures of bubbles:
There were also several tide pools...the first I think I've ever seen:
And, it's hard to tell, but there were fish in them! I was going to walk in one until I saw the fish and then I didn't.
I also thought the sand patterns at the edge of the pools was neat, but that might just be that repressed artist in me seeing beauty in something weird:
When I realized I was never going to make it to the end of the cape and I turned around, but stupid me forgot to actually take a picture of what cape was left...you can sort of tell from this pic, but not by much...those tiny little black specs are people:
I literally followed this bird all the way back to the parking lot:
The only jellyfish I saw and I didn't step anywhere near it:
I was never so happy to see a walkway back to a parking lot in my entire life! I was sore, sunburnt, and knew I was going to get home VERY late, but it was so totally worth it! What a beautiful place!
I also love lighthouses, but their's was pretty pitiful:
And then I made the biggest mistake of all...I started home via Hwy 98, a road I know like the back of my hand since it's a coast road because I didn't want to navigate Alabama in the dark. Yeah, coast road, end of summer, Saturday night. Stupid. I went as far as I could until I got to the first I10 exit. The thing about I10 is that it is ALWAYS got red sections because of deadly wrecks and it's backed up for miles. For some reason, the gods much have been smiling on me because it stayed green all the way to Biloxi. I managed to make it to Wentzels for my Eggplant La Rossa to go (my favorite dish) before the closed and headed home my usual Gulfport way through Hattiesburg, Jackson and back through Memphis.
All in all, I left at 2am-ish on Saturday morning, got to St. Joe at 1pm (but there was a time change, so that affected things), left there at 4pm, and pulled into my drive at 5:08am on Sunday morning. 1378 miles, so not bad! I will definitely be going back there again...when I figure out how I'm going to manage this whole school thing that is! I'd actually like to go up there and stay a couple of days so I can actually walk that entire cape. That's my goal! Oh, and here's the link to the entire album of pictures.
Oh yeah, and the shell haul this time:
Have NO CLUE what I'm going to do with them...they won't fit in my shell jar unless I remove the gulf sand that I made a special trip just to get. So, for now at least, on my kitchen counter they live (or stay dead...you say potato...).
Comments
Linda
By they way, I don't like walking through dry sand either...for one, it's really exhausting, and then after you spent time in the wet sand, your feet will get caked with the dry sand and it just takes weeks to get all the sand out of everywhere!
I was going to read and run but I just have to ask - how do Southern people say Birmingham?