a weekend retreat - St. George Island

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 really know how to clean them,   2. it takes me forever to try and clean   them and 3. I totally mangle the shrimp   while trying to do it.

I still don't like swordfish. 

And fresh, really fresh food is always delicious.

 There were also lots of birds there. Both on the island, of which one entire end, about one third of it, is a state park, and on the mainland. When we arrived they had a warning out for Portuguese-Man-of-War jelly fish on the beach and in the water. I was really hoping to see one, but we didn't.  The winds had changed by the next day and the warnings were down.

It was a great weekend.  Sun, water, breeze, rest, birds, shells and sea polished stones.  Just what we (or at least I)  needed after our first full week of building. We left refreshed and ready to tackle whatever the second week would bring us.

sunset on our arrival 

water, sand, shells and a bird

This heron had been hanging around this fisherman for quite awhile. After the fisherman caught a fish, he dropped it on the beach for the heron.

heron reaching for the fish

proudly prancing with the prize

showing off to the seagulls 

halfway down the gullet

and gone … mmm mmm mmm soooo good

Pelicans: swimming,  

taking off

doing the “bunny hop”

searching and reflecting 

You look that way and I'll look this way we'll cover twice as much ground that way

sometimes you have to look deep, below the surface

to find the treasure 

and sometimes 

despite your best effort 

you've just been searching in the wrong place and should move on


meanwhile, leaving the beach, there was still much to be discovered 

a heron pair nesting 

mom on the nest

if you look really closely,  two little hatchlings are in the nest

dad watching from a few trees off, making sure all are safe ❤️

pied-billed grebe

sand dunes and trees reflect in one of the many ponds


What's next? After we finish our second week of the build at Marianna,  we will take our time, 3 weeks, to travel from Florida to Las Cruces, NM where we will do two, 2 week builds (total of four weeks).  Hoping by the end of that to either have my DNA completely dusted off or at least to have learned the proper  vocabulary to use when building a house šŸ˜‚

Next blog(s): traveling from Marianna to Las Cruces. 

Mississippi River,  Natchez, MS



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