A Perfect Beach Day on a Perfect Beach, St. Joseph Peninsula State Park FL (April 11, 2014)

The Place 

 As you travel East and South along the Gulf Coast from Panama City, Florida, you enter an area the locals call the Forgotten Coast.  Gone are the high-rise hotels and condos, the franchise eateries, and beach souvenir shops.  What is left are small towns, sugar white sand beaches, and emerald green waters.  Nestled along the Forgotten Coast are 3 Florida State Parks (St. Andrews, St. Joseph Peninsula, and St. George Island) that are anything but forgotten.  They book up 11 months in advance – the earliest that people can make a reservation. 

 

Year after year adventuresome campers flock here for the serenity, the natural beauty, and the sense of timelessness.  We were able to get 2 consecutive nights at St. Joseph Peninsula, but spent the first night in one campsite and moved to another campsite for the next night.  Saturday morning we put our name on a waiting list to see if a spot that was reserved will be vacated early and thus be available for us.

The Adventure

The morning dawned clear and warm with a very gentle breeze.  We took the kayaks down to the beach and (at long last) put our kayaks into the actual Gulf of Mexico.  It was glorious.  We paddled along the shoreline, looking at pristine white beaches.  The water was green and just a little cloudy.  At one point, we found ourselves in the middle of a pod of 6 bottlenose dolphins.  One was a baby.  They gently fed around us, passing by us so closely we could hear them breathe and we could identify one with a scarred dorsal fin.

After lunch we returned to the beach.  Russ swam and Dana waded.  We sat watching the quiet waves lap the shore and nodded off to sleep in the sun.  A Perfect Beach Day!

 The Other Adventure

Early in the morning, Dana bicycled down to the Ranger Station.  On the way back she passed a small grassy area with 7 deer and 6 cattle egrets.  It was the first time she had seen a cattle egret.  The deer would nudge them out of the way with their noses.  The egrets would walk one or two steps away.  The deer would graze over to them again and would nudge them again.  None of the 13 animals were concerned that Dana was 20 feet away madly taking pictures with her phone.  It is that kind of place.