Posts

traveling from Marianna, FL to Las Cruces, NM. Part I: The Gulf Islands National Seashore

Image
Traveling from Marianna, FL to Las Cruces, NM  Part I. Gulf Islands National Seashore  Our first stop was at the Gulf Islands National Seashore in Pensacola, FL. I was starting to fret as we approached and then drove through Pensacola to get to the national seashore.  It was very built-up, very crowded and very commercial. I mean, there were some attractive condos and apartments along the waterfront with bike paths and beaches galore, but that's just not my favorite sort of place. As we kept driving the buildings stopped and then it was miles and miles of beaches, dunes, waterways, sand and shrubs with a few historical batteries and an old fort, Fort Pickens, thrown in for some contrast and history. There were also bike paths, hiking trails and birds (😁!) including nesting osprey and bald eagles!  Now doesn't that just sound like my sort of place? The weather,  however was not quite as cooperative and was a bit on the sketchy side while we were ther...
Post a Comment
Read more

a weekend retreat - St. George Island

Image
St. George Island  A weekend retreat. We headed down to the coast and out onto St. George Island, a small barrier island along the panhandle, for the weekend between our two work weeks at Marianna. Last year we discovered that this section of Florida was not overly developed.  It felt more like an authentic experience than many areas of Florida that feel like they are solely based on tourism, although there were still a lot of second homes and vacation properties at one end of the island, but on a much smaller scale than most of Florida.   One of the apparent staples of the local economy was harvesting the abundant wildlife in the gulf; fish, shrimp and oysters galore!  They had white shrimp and pink shrimp (I'm still a little fuzzy about the difference) snapper and grouper, skate and shark and everything in between at these small no frill fish markets. A few things I learned while there:  I should buy cleaned shrimp because     1. I don't re...
Post a Comment
Read more