Mexico Beach, Florida

On New Year’s Day, we packed up the trailer and headed to a new spot where we plan to stay until the 23rd.  We pulled in to our site, hooked up electricity, moved slides out and headed to a local bar, Mango Marley’s, to watch the Vikings and Packers.  The game was such a disappointment that we left at half time.

The word “Resort in the campground is a bit misleading but we can make this home for 23 days.

When we arrived, our package from Fantasy Tours had already arrived. Dave had a little fun with his hat and my visor.

On one of the first days, we packed up chairs and went to the beach. It was chilly with a strong breeze coming off the water, so we did not stay long. However, as advertised, the beach is lovely.

We decided to test out Dave’s Christmas gift. The wood we had purchased was a bit too wet but he thinks he will enjoy this.

Our flowers took a hit in the cold weather in Mississippi. Dave cut them back and it looks like they are going to come back!

We went to Apalachicola on Thursday, the 5th. We had visited there 5 years ago and it is not far from Mexico Beach so we wanted to go back. We did some shopping/browsing then returned to a brewery and a beach bar that we had gone to before.

We also returned to 13 Mile Seafood Market where we bought a Grouper filet. It made a delicious supper the next day.

Meanwhile, Boo continues her strenuous life…

The temps have not been warm enough for beach time or even sitting outside for very long. We have occupied ourselves playing corn hole, Yahtzee and Cribbage.

Deciding to step out for an afternoon, we drove to Port St Joe on the 7th to visit a local brewery. There was nothing at the address!!! We figured it must have been destroyed by Hurricane Michael, in 2018. Instead, we stopped for a beverage at the Krazyfish Grille and later at the Brickwall Sports Bar & Grill.

We returned to Brickwall on Sunday the 8th to watch the Vikings play the Lions. We won! The Vikings are having an awesome year. I sure hope they can break their playoff habits.

Dave and I have always kept a full refrigerator and freezer. When we buy meat, we repackage it to suit our individual meals. Because we are leaving on a long trip later this month, we have worked hard for the last three months to get the freezer empty. I even wrote out a three week lunch and supper menuat the beginning of the month, to ensure we used everything without ending up eating burgers every day for the last week. It is working well and the freezer should be empty except for ice cubes and a pound of butter.

With that in mind, Monday was hot dish night. We had a delicious stroganoff and added our Christmas gift from Angie, a “Minnesota Nice” red wine. It was a delicious meal. Thank you, Angie, for the great gift!

We love going to the beach but have only been out a few times since we have been in Florida. It has been too chilly and if the temps are okay, the wind off the water has been too strong and cold. However, we tried again on Wednesday, the 11th. We moved down the beach from our previous spot. Again, it was cold enough that we did not stay long but we enjoyed this entrance here. We also enjoy the views on the beach, even when we stay a short while.

On the 12th, we drove to Cape San Blas which we had heard a lot about and ate lunch at Cone Heads. Cone Heads is owned by the same people who own Brick wall in Port St Joe. We even talked with the BW bartender we recognized, who was helping out in the kitchen at CH. The food was fantastic. We were sorry it was not warm enough to eat outside.

The weather was getting colder and more ominous looking as we left so we had to take some more pictures. The beaches here are not protected and it looks more like Maine.

On Tuesday, the 17th, we decided to check out Panama City. Although the “local” WalMart and a few other locations were listed as PC, they really weren’t. We found it to be highly commercialized and spendy looking but wanted one more “beach bar” day. We ended up at Sharky’s where we sat on the water side of the tiki hut for a while. We got some neat beach photos but then moved to the inside portion and happened to sit under a heater.

I ordered a couple of Mango Overboards, one of the bar’s specialty drinks. These were so yummy! The first one was pretty expensive, served in a souvenir cup. (That is the only way they served them.) The refill was a little cheaper but definitely not a cheap bar day. I made it worse by forgetting to take the cup along when we left!

We made friends with a couple from Cheboygan, Michigan, Carla and Steve. We hoped to meet up again before they left to return to MI. That did not happen but we hope to see them in Michigan sometime.

Dave got some awesome photos of the setting sun, before we left Sharky’s.

We returned to the beach a couple of times and got an updated photo of The Chair. It is crazy that our campground is right outside the time zone change.

We tried a different beach but it was full of little bugs, the “no see ums” so we only stayed a few minutes. However, for kicks, we looked at a model home in the area. No thank you!

Before heading back, we went to a local bar we had visited before, the Krazyfish in Port St Joe. The same bar tender was on duty and we enjoyed chatting with him. Troy is from Jamaica. He spent 11 years working for the cruise line we used a few years ago, Royal Caribbean.

We also found the Lock Ness Monster!

We also had a couple more campfires before the cold, rainy weather comes back.

Here we are using the Tiki blue tooth speaker that Teresa gave us for Christmas.

Although we had reservations for all of January, we left on the 23rd, returning to Jane’s house. We had a few errands, laundry and packing to do. Thursday the 26th is the start of our BIG TRIP.