On the Golf Coast – Panama City and Pensacola

We said good-bye to Jaime, Ron, and the kids and headed north.  Well, not actually north, more like north west because, unlike the other members of my family, I had never been to New Orleans and Bob was getting pretty tired of hearing me complain about that.  


Our first stop was Saint Andrew's State Park, near Panama City and this was just across from our campsite! It's The Grand Lagoon, and trust me, it was GRAND!  The water was clear blue and so beautiful, and it was just steps away from our home away from home.


Doesn’t this look inviting?


Bob enjoyed fishing from this jetty and, if you look closely, you can see that the sand has a small cliff.  I saw some people digging in the cliff and asked what they were looking for.  There were tiny shells in the sandy cliff, the size shells we used to find at Cape May when we were kids.  We both enjoyed this area!


After leaving Panama City we were driving towards Pensacola and saw this!  Wow!  A Blue Angels Jet at the rest stop.


Big Lagoon State Park was nice too, but we liked Saint Andrew’s better.


The park had boardwalks over the swampy areas.


And a tower to see the beach and water.


Our campsite here was nice, and the road were flat, but we didn’t have that view of the Lagoon. 


They still have to warn those crazy Floridians:  DON’T SWIM WITH ALLIGATORS!  



The trails were mostly boardwalks here.


The park had a huge pavilion with a grand fireplace.


Oh yes.  Bob went fishing and talked to someone who told him were to go to buy fresh seafood.  (Now I’m not saying he didn’t catch anything, just read between the lines here.)  Anyway, we bought five pounds of warm, spicy crawfish and they tasted as good as they look. 


Don’t you wish you had some of these now?  I sure do, but we had to move on.  Our next stop is New Orleans, but our next blog features a lot of jets.  Navy and Marine jets!