We woke to cloudy skies and sprinkles. It had rained overnight and I heard a few rumbles of thunder in the early morning hours. We made plans to go north–to visit St. George State Park and the Cape St. George Lighthouse, check out the town of East Point, and have lunch in Appalachicola. We finally left the campground around 11:30 and as we drove west it started to rain harder. As we neared the bridge to St. George Island, the rain ended. We decided to head for the island and check out the lighthouse while it wasn’t raining.
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Once we crossed the bridge, we drove right to the Cape St. George Lighthouse.
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I had planned to take the 93 stairs to the top of the lighthouse, but after I bought my ticket and walked into the base of the lighthouse, I was told that storms with lightning were headed our way, so I had to wait to make the climb in the lighthouse. I could come back later when the thunderstorms passed or even tomorrow. We decided to look around the area and maybe come back later. We walked around the lighthouse grounds and had to head to the truck as the rain started to come down.
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After checking the radar to see what the weather was doing, we decided to go east, back to Carrabelle where it wasn’t raining and do the lighthouse tomorrow. As we found a place to turn the truck around, we also found Paddy’s–a local drinking establishment and raw bar.
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As we pulled into the parking lot, the skies let loose and it poured. I donned my raincoat and dodged the puddles to get inside. It was crowded inside with locals, but we found two spots at the bar.
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We had beers and Bob had oysters, locally harvested from Alligator Point.
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As we enjoyed our beverages, it poured outside and didn’t look to be letting up anytime soon. What better place to spend time on a rainy day?
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After awhile, we headed back to the mainland and east on Hwy. 98 to Carrabelle.
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The sun was peeking through the clouds by now, so we made a quick stop at the Crooked River Lighthouse. The Crooked River Lighthouse is a historic lighthouse that was erected in 1895.
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We continued on to Carrabelle and checked out the marina where we stayed with our boat 8 years ago. Deja vu! Our memories were pretty good.
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From there, we drove into downtown Carrabelle. It was pretty much how we remembered it, however, the City improved the waterfront with a park and the Riverwalk. We saw a couple of familiar landmarks. This small park in the middle of town contains this wonderful old clock.
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Of course, we had to search out the “world’s smallest police station” and has been a landmark since 1963.
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Harry’s Bar was open and still going strong.
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We drove back to the campground and worked on washing all the love bugs off of the front of the truck and trailer. Love bug season should have been over by now, but these guys must have been hanging on for awhile longer. The rain finally passed on by, after it rained hard to the west of us for most of the afternoon. The skies cleared to the east and gave us another beautiful pastel colored sky and some cottonball clouds.
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