May 29, 2020 Carrabelle Beach, FL (Day 2)

It was a warm, muggy morning, but I took a walk on the beach, where there was a light breeze. The beach was empty, except for a fisherman and a sunbather.

The warm water was a brown color. They call it a “coffee beach” and the brown color comes from the runoff from all the recent rain. Afterwards, I jumped into the pool for a morning swim to cool off and had the pool all to myself. Around 11:00, we took a drive into Carrabelle to look at the marina where we spent that memorable week 12 years ago when we brought our boat down the waterways from Wisconsin to Florida. It brought back lots of good memories.

We left there and took Highway 98 along the coast to Appalachicola. Along the drive, there were reminders of Hurricane Michael’s visit 2 years ago. The remnants of some of the homes still remained. The causeway took us on the bridge over Appalachicola Bay to the town of Appalachicola.

The town was busy with tourists as we searched out a favorite place for oysters–Up the Creek Raw Bar.

We sat outside on the deck overlooking the Appalachicola River.

Bob ordered 12 oysters and I had a crab cake. Bob commented that those were the best oysters he’s ever had–good and salty.

We washed them down with two ice cold beers.

One surprising thing that we saw at this restaurant that we haven’t encountered before was a notice informing the patrons that a “COVID-19 surcharge would be added to the bill because they couldn’t seat as many people. They never gave a specific amount or percentage that would be added. We figured out that it was about $5 on our bill. Pretty ridiculous! Driving back out through town, the advertising on the side of this truck caught our eyes.

As we headed back to the campground, we made a final stop at the Crooked River Lighthouse.

We had visited here before, so we just made a quick stop for a picture. Back at the campground, we relaxed outside with Auggie. It would have been really hot, except for the cooling afternoon breeze off the water as we sat there under the awning. Many campers arrived for the weekend and the place started to fill up. We move on tomorrow for 3 nights in Pensacola Beach.