Today looked more promising–weatherwise–and we decided to get an earlier start in case the rain moved in. In the last couple of days, the rain seemed to hang over Apalachicola with clear skies where we are in Carrabelle Beach. The forecast today is for no rain until later in the afternoon in the Apalachicola area, so we wanted to take advantage of that. Traffic on Hwy. 98 was light for a Saturday.
We drove through Eastpoint and crossed the long bridge to St. George Island.
Our first stop was back to the St. George Island Lighthouse to make the climb to the top. Conditions were perfect.
It was an easy climb to the top and the view was great in all directions.
I met some people at the top from Augusta, GA who offered to take my picture, so here it is.
Bob didn’t make the climb with me, but he took my picture from below. Can you see me at the top?
The view of the bridge to the mainland from above was awesome!
After I made the trek down, we took the 4 mile drive to St. George Island State Park.
The park encompasses the majority of this barrier island with 9 miles of beautiful white sand beach. The road to the park was lined with piles of debris which was just another reminder of Hurricane Hermine’s visit.
The 4 mile drive through the park was flanked by large sand dunes on one side and the Gulf of Mexico on the other.
We took a drive through the campground here in the park to check it out for a future visit. It had nice large sites for RVs our size and bigger. We drove all the way to the end of the road and took a walk to the beach on the boardwalk. One of the boardwalks was closed due to damage done by the storm. In looking on the other side of the road, we saw this part of the boardwalk that was ripped off and deposited in the sand dunes across the road.
Once we got to the beach, we could see the red warning flag up signaling rip currents and no one was swimming in the water.
The beach was pretty empty for a Saturday.
Our next stop was the town of Apalachicola. We took the short drive into town and parked the truck. We walked down the main street and the historic district. There’s lots of history here.
I spotted the Old Time Soda Fountain store, a place I had read about and would have to visit later.
Our mission today was to search for a great local place to get oysters. We checked out the Owl Cafe and the Oyster City Brewing Company.
This cool poster in the Oyster City Brewing Company, a brew pub, depicts how the oysters are harvested with large “tongs”.
We kept walking and came upon a place called the Hole in the Wall. It looked really promising–our kind of place–but it was lunchtime and totally jammed with people. There was not a seat to be found in this small establishment, but it was obviously the spot to be. We decided to maybe come back a little later and let the crowd of people thin out a bit.
By now it had started to rain lightly, so we hopped in the truck to try and find the marina that we stayed at with our boat in 2008. With a little bit of memory and some luck we found it. It was Papa Joe’s Marina, Bar and Grill. We were happy to see it was still there.
The couple in the lighthouse that I had talked to earlier had recommended a place called “Up the River” for oysters. It happened to be just around the corner from Papa Joe’s, so we parked the truck and went inside.
The restaurant was on the 2nd floor along the Apalachicola River with a marina below it at the waterside.
We chose a spot on the outside deck overlooking the river.
We could open the windows, catch a breeze, and watch the boat traffic. Bob ordered…..you guessed it……a dozen raw oysters($10.99)! I ordered a crab cake. The oysters came fresh from Apalachicola and the Gulf.
The inside of the restaurant was an awesome space with all kinds of interesting paraphernalia hanging on the walls and ceiling.
While we sat there finishing our adult beverages, the rain came. It poured very hard while we enjoyed ourselves in the comfort of the upper deck. We waited for the rain to let up before we headed back to Carabelle Beach. We stopped at the Old Time Soda Fountain for a treat for the ride home. The heavy rain continued as we crossed the bridge to the mainland. It let up a little as we made our way back to the campground, with a stop for gas and some milk. Auggie was glad to see us and we hung out before having dinner. After dinner, the 3 of us took a walk on the beach. Auggie got to run free and enjoyed every minute of it. He ran so fast, it was hard to get a picture of him.
The skies finally cleared of the rain clouds to expose a beautiful blue sky as the sun set and darkness fell.
