Bear Paw

It's always fun having new adventures!
One of my hopes for this next year in Florida is that we would be able to build our relationships with people in Tallahassee. We struggled to find a church when we first moved here (it took us 15 months), and then when we did find one and found community, we really still didn't have a ton of friends. Of course that's fine. We don't need a huge friend group, but it's nice to feel like you belong somewhere and that you're part of something. So we really hope that this next year in Tally will be one where we can build our existing relationships and grow new ones as well. 

So it was fitting that Josh hit the three decade mark and Christina organized an outing on the river. We knew the Kings, of course (they're also the friends we met up with in Rome!) and they'd invited two other couples from church whom we'd yet to meet. 

We met up at their apartment in Tallahassee (it's so close that we walked there!!!) and then drove about an hour and a half to Bear Paw in Marianna, Florida. When we got there, we signed waivers, rented tubes, and piled in an odd smelling van that took us to the put-in place. 

The weather this time of year can be iffy, and it had originally said there was a 20% chance of thunderstorm, which later jumped to 50%. Thankfully, we risked it and there was not even one little drop of rain! At a couple points on the river, we heard the rumble of thunder, but it never materialized.

It took us almost exactly three hours to get down the river. The current wasn't very strong, although it might have been to our benefit to tie our tubes together, since we sort of ended up being very far apart most of the time. It was a great, relaxing afternoon, getting to know each other better, and planning small group for the fall, and making plans for future adventures!

We'd passed this restaurant on our way to the put-in place, and the name made us laugh, so we decided to wrap up our day in Marianna by having dinner at PoFolks.


The menu and signage were hilarious.

Please please zoom in on these menu pictures and read the descriptions. It was definitely exactly what we expected!

Unfortunately, I cut off this picture and didn't get the description of their "salad" - it had fried shrimp, fried chicken, AND chicken fried steak on lettuce. Probably the exact kind of salad someone would order at a down-home style place such as this.

We just sort of went for it. Carson picked out my sides - green beans and mac and cheese. He had fried okra and mashed potatoes. And of course sweet tea, which probably had about six cups of sugar in it. It was puckeringly sweet.

I really enjoyed our time out with these old(ish) and new friends! It really is a blessing to know that we will be near people we can hang out with for the next year! I'm looking forward to growing with them in small group (we think we may be the only young couples in the church who don't have kids yet!) and I'm excited for the adventures we'll have in the coming months. This was a great start, and now I have my eyes out for more new experiences like this!