Apalachicola

We were going to bed on Friday night when we realized that we didn't have a plan for the next day. As a contrast to when we lived in Ohio, I don't work Saturdays here, so we have an entire day to do something together, which has been great for getting to explore the area and just hang out together. 

Carson suggested the beach, so the next morning, we slept in, debated going... and decided finally just to go. We've been to Saint George Island twice now, so Carson wanted to see what else was around beach-wise. He picked Saint Joseph Island, about thirty minutes further down the road. And after experiencing it... we'll be back. It was less crowded and beautiful beautiful blue. 

The island goes out like a finger into the gulf, so there's water on both sides. We chose the gulf side, which had more waves and looked prettier. The other side was also pretty, but the water was more shallow and there were tons of boats motoring around. 

I didn't take my big camera on the beach with us, simply because it was in the bag with our change of clothes and I didn't feel like walking back to the car. So this is us, back at the car. The non-Gulf side is behind us.

The whole way there, Carson kept talking about stopping at some small local place for dinner, so that was our plan all along. Our route took us through Apalachicola. so we decided to stop there to eat and explore. What we saw, we really liked! It was cute and small and we think it could make a fun little overnight getaway some time. 

After browsing the menus of a few places (don't you love places that put the menu outside so you don't have to walk in and then awkwardly walk out when you decide it's not for you?), we decided on the Apalachicola Seafood Grill, a very local-looking place. The waitresses were friendly and fun, interacting with all kinds of sun-burnt tourists. The food wasn't fancy, which was just what we wanted. I loved this sign outside.

Since they claimed to have the world's BEST fried shrimp and fish sandwich, that's just what we had. Carson had the fish sandwich and fries and I had fried shrimp with potato salad. Carson scoffed at the potato salad, saying he's rarely had a great one, but one bite of mine and he regretted that statement. It was GOOD.

When he wore this shirt, Carson told me that he was going to just point to it when it came time to order. He didn't, but I had to get a picture of a Fish and Chips shirt with Fish and Chips.

We meandered around after dinner, trying to walk off that stuffed feeling. Here's the Franklin County Jail. Either there's a really low crime rate or it's been moved.

Most of the places we passed boasted oysters on the menu. We aren't really oyster people, so we passed, but apparently they're a thing here.

It was a gorgeous night.

(all my makeup washed away while we were swimming at the beach)

Going over the bridge

At one point, we needed to stop, so we were driving along and passed some public restrooms along the beach in Carabelle. It seemed as good a place as any, and we've passed it every time we've gone to the beach so I wanted to see if this beach would be worth going to. It was so pretty that evening!

And apparently also a D-Day Training Site... I didn't realize those existed!

All the pictures below are unedited, unless there needed to be a little straightening done. Every picture of the horizon I take is crooked.

The sand stuck to Carson's feet where his sandal straps were.

Look at the moon!

We'll definitely try to have more beach days. We're thinking this might be the last weekend we'll be able to go to the beach before students return and school begins again, so they will probably be more crowded and crazy, but we look forward to more relaxing weekends in the sunshine!