Well OK “wonder drug” assertion may be a bit too strong, then again….
I don’t expect that a lot of folks reading this, excepting my siblings and possibly my pharmacist friend CJ, will even know what Campho-Phenique Pain Relieving Antiseptic Liquid is. As a kid growing up my Grannie used it for mosquito bites as well as a host of other childhood maladies. As I recall there was practically nothing wrong with us that couldn’t be doctored either by applications of her Campho Phenique or my Dad’s Merthiolate (which, along with mercurochrome, appears to have been taken off of the market due to concerns about mercury). When my sisters and I were together last month we were talking about this wonder drug and the fact that Grannie even used it for the “sick headache” which plagued her (and which we now recognize as migraines). When she had the “sick headache” she would moisten a handkerchief with Campho Phenique and hold it to her nose.
This week a yellow-green pollen has been floating around and gathering on every available surface, even the water. Two days ago I woke up with a horrible headache and sore throat; just as I was about to call my baby sister and rag her out for giving me her cold over the phone (just kidding) I realized that I don’t have a cold it’s allergies. The next day, when I thought my head would explode from the pressure and the Claritin wasn’t even making a dent, I went to the internet to see how long I could expect to suffer before dying of a sinus infection. Can you believe that they aren’t considered fatal; learning that I searched for remedies. One easy thing to do was a steam tent, reading further I learned that some homeopathic practices recommend adding spirits of camphor or lavender oil to the steaming water. Now I am currently located in a very small town where the department store is Dollar General and yes they do have a CVS however I didn’t hold out much hope that I would find lavender oil there. BUT I come from resourceful stock and (you had to know this was coming) I do carry Campho Phenique aboard so I put some in the boiling water, Voila! The headache eased and I got a decent night’s sleep.
Now if my taste buds would just reactivate I would be happy.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
What’s In A Name?
I am a sucker for a catchy name, I will admit to, sometimes, going into a shop just because of the name or even trying a product or menu item because I like the way the name sounds. So last week when we drove through the little town of Wewahitchka I was smitten. Heretofore I had considered Waxahachie the most memorable town name; we first drove through there over 40 years ago and I’ve never forgotten it. Now I must confess that I know nothing about Waxahachie (I am a bit lazy there was no internet back then to make research easy), but I have the scoop on Wewahitchka. It is pronounced phonetically (We- wah- hitch’- ka) however it did take two tries on road signs to figure that out; my excuse for this is that I’m getting old and have bad eyes. Feeling sure it was an Indian word I went to the internet to find out the meaning of the name, which, by the way, is “water eyes”. http://www.floridavisiting.com/towns/Wewahitchka.html
It was there that I discovered the most interesting bit of information about Wewahitchka; it is the site of Florida’s largest beekeeping operations. I read that it was the setting for the 1996 movie Ulee’s Gold but, not being much of a movie buff, the significance was lost on me. Turns out that the “Gold” in the title refers to the wonderful Tupelo Honey that is produced in Wewahitchka, in fact it is the only area of the country where Tupelo honey is commercially produced. Larry really enjoys honey; I didn’t think I cared for it much until we started sampling locally produced honey as we traveled; now I love it too. Like many products the difference between the commercially packaged nondescript honey available at the grocery and the product that is produced by local apiaries is incredible. When you buy honey from the beekeeper who has a booth at a local farmer’s market or fair it is generally labeled as to what kind of blooms the bees fed on to produce that particular honey. The flavor and color of the honey varies considerably with the nectar source.
Three years ago when we were in the town of Apalachicola for a few days we bought a jar of Tupelo honey and oh my goodness was it wonderful, we have asked for it often in the past few years but never been able to find it and now I know why. The best Tupelo Honey comes from the nectar of the white tupelo, Nyssa Ogeche, which grows in abundance on the shores of the Chipola and Apalachicola rivers here. The flavor is unique, sweet and mild but not cloying. Some people put jelly on their toast but we prefer a bit of honey, and honey on pancakes makes the pancake almost worth eating; on buckwheat pancakes it is sublime. Perhaps the best thing about pure Tupelo Honey is that it will not granulate, even if you have it in the cabinet for some time. This is because of a high fructose to glucose ratio (more fructose than glucose). You can follow these links to find out more about Florida Tupelo Honey
http://www.lltupelohoney.com/ourproduct.htm
http://www.floridatupelohoney.com/tupelofacts.cfm
Next week we are going to drive back up to Wewa (as the locals call it) to stock up on some Tupelo Honey. On the way I plan to pause and check out the details of another sign I saw, it read “Certified Beach Sand”. I just have to find out who “certifies” it and, more curiously, why?
It was there that I discovered the most interesting bit of information about Wewahitchka; it is the site of Florida’s largest beekeeping operations. I read that it was the setting for the 1996 movie Ulee’s Gold but, not being much of a movie buff, the significance was lost on me. Turns out that the “Gold” in the title refers to the wonderful Tupelo Honey that is produced in Wewahitchka, in fact it is the only area of the country where Tupelo honey is commercially produced. Larry really enjoys honey; I didn’t think I cared for it much until we started sampling locally produced honey as we traveled; now I love it too. Like many products the difference between the commercially packaged nondescript honey available at the grocery and the product that is produced by local apiaries is incredible. When you buy honey from the beekeeper who has a booth at a local farmer’s market or fair it is generally labeled as to what kind of blooms the bees fed on to produce that particular honey. The flavor and color of the honey varies considerably with the nectar source.
Three years ago when we were in the town of Apalachicola for a few days we bought a jar of Tupelo honey and oh my goodness was it wonderful, we have asked for it often in the past few years but never been able to find it and now I know why. The best Tupelo Honey comes from the nectar of the white tupelo, Nyssa Ogeche, which grows in abundance on the shores of the Chipola and Apalachicola rivers here. The flavor is unique, sweet and mild but not cloying. Some people put jelly on their toast but we prefer a bit of honey, and honey on pancakes makes the pancake almost worth eating; on buckwheat pancakes it is sublime. Perhaps the best thing about pure Tupelo Honey is that it will not granulate, even if you have it in the cabinet for some time. This is because of a high fructose to glucose ratio (more fructose than glucose). You can follow these links to find out more about Florida Tupelo Honey
http://www.lltupelohoney.com/ourproduct.htm
http://www.floridatupelohoney.com/tupelofacts.cfm
Next week we are going to drive back up to Wewa (as the locals call it) to stock up on some Tupelo Honey. On the way I plan to pause and check out the details of another sign I saw, it read “Certified Beach Sand”. I just have to find out who “certifies” it and, more curiously, why?
Friday, February 5, 2010
“You Went Where"???!!!
To Kansas City, in the middle of winter, what were you thinking? Well, perhaps I wasn’t really thinking, instead I just followed my heart. Many of you know that I have three sisters (and four brothers, but we aren’t talking about them here). The youngest sister, Christina, lives in Kansas City and is nearly 19 years younger than I. The others are Roni, in St. Louis, and Lisa, in Raleigh, NC,
I think part of the reason it was so much fun is because it was really spontaneous, Roni put it together at the last minute and we just did it. Roni had a credit on Southwest for a flight that she was unable to take last year, it was a “use it by ___ or loose it” type thing and since she wasn’t in a position to use it and didn’t want to let it go to waste Roni decided to give it to Lisa so that she could visit Christina on her Birthday. Then an idea began to germinate and she called me in mid-January and asked “can you get to an airport to fly to KC on the weekend of the 30th”? “If you can I’ll drive up and we can all celebrate together.” Thus was born the Sisters’ Weekend and we had a ball.
What did we do? Nothing so special, just talked & laughed, the laughter was the best. We shared pictures of our Grands (Roni’s & mine), remembered our Auntie and Grannie who were very special women in our lives, and played with Christina’s kids. As I mentioned Christina is quite a bit younger than I am and she had children far later in life than I did, so her kids are now 4, 7 & 9 (almost). Like most kids that age they love hearing about when their Mommy was a little kid and boy did we have stories for them.
The kids introduced me to Wii and were a little put off by my limited skills at Wii Sports. Apparently if you normally bowl gutter balls and are unable to connect with a tennis ball in real life you don’t improve any with an electronic wand in your hand! I had heard that the three of them wanted to challenge the three Aunties to a game but I think after playing with me they decided it wouldn’t be much of a challenge to beat any team I was on.
So, despite the freezing temperatures in Kansas City and the big snowstorm forecast for Raleigh that caused a last minute change in Lisa’s travel plans, we had a great celebration. Christina made everyone’s favorite cookies for us; mine are brownies! I must tell you though, we did agree to handle future celebrations a bit differently; we will either gather on my birthday (which is the only one in a warm weather month), or we will gather in Cancun and not KC!
Here’s to sisters!
I think part of the reason it was so much fun is because it was really spontaneous, Roni put it together at the last minute and we just did it. Roni had a credit on Southwest for a flight that she was unable to take last year, it was a “use it by ___ or loose it” type thing and since she wasn’t in a position to use it and didn’t want to let it go to waste Roni decided to give it to Lisa so that she could visit Christina on her Birthday. Then an idea began to germinate and she called me in mid-January and asked “can you get to an airport to fly to KC on the weekend of the 30th”? “If you can I’ll drive up and we can all celebrate together.” Thus was born the Sisters’ Weekend and we had a ball.
What did we do? Nothing so special, just talked & laughed, the laughter was the best. We shared pictures of our Grands (Roni’s & mine), remembered our Auntie and Grannie who were very special women in our lives, and played with Christina’s kids. As I mentioned Christina is quite a bit younger than I am and she had children far later in life than I did, so her kids are now 4, 7 & 9 (almost). Like most kids that age they love hearing about when their Mommy was a little kid and boy did we have stories for them.
The kids introduced me to Wii and were a little put off by my limited skills at Wii Sports. Apparently if you normally bowl gutter balls and are unable to connect with a tennis ball in real life you don’t improve any with an electronic wand in your hand! I had heard that the three of them wanted to challenge the three Aunties to a game but I think after playing with me they decided it wouldn’t be much of a challenge to beat any team I was on.
So, despite the freezing temperatures in Kansas City and the big snowstorm forecast for Raleigh that caused a last minute change in Lisa’s travel plans, we had a great celebration. Christina made everyone’s favorite cookies for us; mine are brownies! I must tell you though, we did agree to handle future celebrations a bit differently; we will either gather on my birthday (which is the only one in a warm weather month), or we will gather in Cancun and not KC!
Here’s to sisters!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Winter in Port St. Joe
We are loving it here in Port St. Joe where we can ride our bikes everywhere and not worry about the traffic. We can walk to the grocery, well, Piggley Wiggley which is the only choice. Larry has found a rifle/pistol range within biking distance and the fresh shrimp are fabulous. Most days are in the 60's but nights are chilly (40's) and every few days brings another front.
OK I promised some history and I must start by apologizing for including incorrect information in the January 21, 2010 entry. The FL Constitution was not signed here in 1838. Rather the convention convened in St. Joseph (now Port St. Joe) in December of that year and the Constitution for the Territory of Florida was signed in 1839; however Florida did not become a State until 1845, by which time St. Joseph had virtually disappeared.
The community owes its rapid growth, as well as its untimely demise, to the fact that it is a natural deep-water port. By the time that Spain sold Florida to the United States in 1821 the area known at St. Joseph Bay was already recognized for the deep bay that provided for a natural port. By 1832 people had already began settling in the area and in 1836 the town of St. Joseph was established.
If you are blessed by nature with a great sea port the next thing you will need is transportation to move goods to and from. Thus it was that in 1839 one of the first steam railroads in the Country, the St. Joseph & Iola, was completed. The primary cargo was cotton that was shipped by rail from Georgia and Alabama to St. Joseph and then loaded on ships bound for Europe.
The town was thriving and movers and shakers of the time were attracted by the mild climate and beautiful beaches. Politicians (especially those from Jacksonville and St. Augustine), not trusting the upstart outpost in Tallahassee, decided on the more neutral location of St. Joseph in which to gather and write Territorial Constitution in late 1838.
The little town continued to prosper. Then in July 1841 a ship entered the Port bearing, along with its cargo, the dreaded Yellow Fever. By August of that year somewhere between 62% and 75% of the population of the town had died; most of the rest had fled. The town dried up overnight, even some of the buildings were taken down and moved elsewhere. We were surprised to see that even the cemetery has no marked graves remaining, although there is a stone that mentions notable people that are believed to be buried there. It is thought that so many were dying that it was impossible to keep up with the burials and it is known that many were buried in mass graves as there were few people to dig the required number of graves.
A few years later in 1844 a hurricane arrived that, in the words of one local historian, “buried beneath the sands of the sea, or swept to the four winds of heaven, all that remained of the proud young city of St. Joseph”. The area however continued to be a favorite of sportsmen and eventually their families leading to the rebirth of the town renamed Port St. Joe which was incorporated in 1913.
Again, thanks to the port, there was rapid growth which gave birth to a lucrative lumber industry. In the 1920’s Alfred DuPont began accumulating property which ultimately led to the creation of the St. Joe Paper Company. In 1936 the St. Joe Paper Company began construction of a paper mill that remained in production until it was forced to close 1999. Today the town of Port St. Joe is small and sleepy, tourists are not too common during the winter and development has been slow to take hold despite the beautiful beaches and mild winters. St. Joseph Bay has been rehabilitated in the years since the paper mill closed and is now some of the cleanest water along the coast, you may want to follow this link for more information http://www.floridadep.org/coastal/sites/stjoseph/description/history.htm
OK I promised some history and I must start by apologizing for including incorrect information in the January 21, 2010 entry. The FL Constitution was not signed here in 1838. Rather the convention convened in St. Joseph (now Port St. Joe) in December of that year and the Constitution for the Territory of Florida was signed in 1839; however Florida did not become a State until 1845, by which time St. Joseph had virtually disappeared.
The community owes its rapid growth, as well as its untimely demise, to the fact that it is a natural deep-water port. By the time that Spain sold Florida to the United States in 1821 the area known at St. Joseph Bay was already recognized for the deep bay that provided for a natural port. By 1832 people had already began settling in the area and in 1836 the town of St. Joseph was established.
If you are blessed by nature with a great sea port the next thing you will need is transportation to move goods to and from. Thus it was that in 1839 one of the first steam railroads in the Country, the St. Joseph & Iola, was completed. The primary cargo was cotton that was shipped by rail from Georgia and Alabama to St. Joseph and then loaded on ships bound for Europe.
The town was thriving and movers and shakers of the time were attracted by the mild climate and beautiful beaches. Politicians (especially those from Jacksonville and St. Augustine), not trusting the upstart outpost in Tallahassee, decided on the more neutral location of St. Joseph in which to gather and write Territorial Constitution in late 1838.
The little town continued to prosper. Then in July 1841 a ship entered the Port bearing, along with its cargo, the dreaded Yellow Fever. By August of that year somewhere between 62% and 75% of the population of the town had died; most of the rest had fled. The town dried up overnight, even some of the buildings were taken down and moved elsewhere. We were surprised to see that even the cemetery has no marked graves remaining, although there is a stone that mentions notable people that are believed to be buried there. It is thought that so many were dying that it was impossible to keep up with the burials and it is known that many were buried in mass graves as there were few people to dig the required number of graves.
A few years later in 1844 a hurricane arrived that, in the words of one local historian, “buried beneath the sands of the sea, or swept to the four winds of heaven, all that remained of the proud young city of St. Joseph”. The area however continued to be a favorite of sportsmen and eventually their families leading to the rebirth of the town renamed Port St. Joe which was incorporated in 1913.
Again, thanks to the port, there was rapid growth which gave birth to a lucrative lumber industry. In the 1920’s Alfred DuPont began accumulating property which ultimately led to the creation of the St. Joe Paper Company. In 1936 the St. Joe Paper Company began construction of a paper mill that remained in production until it was forced to close 1999. Today the town of Port St. Joe is small and sleepy, tourists are not too common during the winter and development has been slow to take hold despite the beautiful beaches and mild winters. St. Joseph Bay has been rehabilitated in the years since the paper mill closed and is now some of the cleanest water along the coast, you may want to follow this link for more information http://www.floridadep.org/coastal/sites/stjoseph/description/history.htm
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Here We Are
We spent the last 3 days traveling in order to reach our destination for the next month, Port St. Joe, FL. We have heard that it is a sleepy little piece of “old Florida” and are excited to explore and play here for a while. Luckily we managed to get into port and secured a few hours before the rain arrived yesterday evening. Today it is windy and rainy and we are doing little exploring at all, instead we are catching up with e-mails, re-setting our clocks to Eastern Time and being lazy.
I understand there is a lot of history here, including the fact that the Florida Constitution was signed here in 1838. Count on more historical tidbits as I learn them.
I understand there is a lot of history here, including the fact that the Florida Constitution was signed here in 1838. Count on more historical tidbits as I learn them.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
On the Water Again
Miss Lauren Grace and her crew started the new sailing year off right with a delightful crossing of Choctawhatchee Bay (between Ft. Walton and Panama City) in flat calm conditions! Considering we have certainly navigated much larger bodies of water you may be wondering why this is noteworthy; the short answer is that we took the worst spanking of our boating experience on Choctawhatchee and we will never forget it.
Four years ago when we bought the Lauren Grace in Florida we brought her North to Kentucky Lake in order to facilitate moving aboard. We left Panama City on a bright sunny morning about 11:00 a.m. heading west; did I mention that we were somewhat inexperienced. The weather was beautiful, from a landlubber’s point of view, and we blissfully enjoyed a short passage through a land cut between Panama City and Choctawhatchee. When we came out into the bay it was WINDY, probably about 20 mph and right out of the West. This meant, for you non-boaters reading this, the waves were right on our bow; and they were BIG waves. Choctawhatchee Bay is 30 miles long, oriented East-West and fairly shallow. It was also noon or later when we arrived so there had been time to work up quite a good fetch over that 30 miles and the waves were probably about 3-4 ft and very close together. At the time I was certain they were at least 10 ft! Spray from our bow hitting the waves was going over the top of the flying bridge as the bow slammed into the trough before burying in the cresting wave. In addition the navigation marks were few and far between and it was difficult to focus the binoculars in order to find them (we didn’t have a chart plotter yet and we were too inexperienced to think to turn on the radar on a clear sunny day). We used our sailing skills and tried to minimize the pounding by “tacking” across the waves and then “tacking” back, this provided only a small improvement in the ride but it did manage to significantly lengthen our trip across, thus prolonging the misery.
We have since had quite enjoyable rides across C Bay but we always treat it with a great deal of respect and always try to have anything that can move lashed down as we approach it, just in case. This time we knew it would be a good day when the porpoises starting playing around us nearly as soon as we got underway.
As we arrived in Panama City friends we cruised with up on the Tennessee this past summer were standing by to catch our lines. It has been a good day.
We have enjoyed being on the move again. When we returned from Boise in early January it was freezing in the Western Panhandle, as it was in most of the country. Too cold to enjoy traveling so we remained in our marina on Perdido Key, Fl (just East of Orange Beach, AL) with the heaters running on high.
Four years ago when we bought the Lauren Grace in Florida we brought her North to Kentucky Lake in order to facilitate moving aboard. We left Panama City on a bright sunny morning about 11:00 a.m. heading west; did I mention that we were somewhat inexperienced. The weather was beautiful, from a landlubber’s point of view, and we blissfully enjoyed a short passage through a land cut between Panama City and Choctawhatchee. When we came out into the bay it was WINDY, probably about 20 mph and right out of the West. This meant, for you non-boaters reading this, the waves were right on our bow; and they were BIG waves. Choctawhatchee Bay is 30 miles long, oriented East-West and fairly shallow. It was also noon or later when we arrived so there had been time to work up quite a good fetch over that 30 miles and the waves were probably about 3-4 ft and very close together. At the time I was certain they were at least 10 ft! Spray from our bow hitting the waves was going over the top of the flying bridge as the bow slammed into the trough before burying in the cresting wave. In addition the navigation marks were few and far between and it was difficult to focus the binoculars in order to find them (we didn’t have a chart plotter yet and we were too inexperienced to think to turn on the radar on a clear sunny day). We used our sailing skills and tried to minimize the pounding by “tacking” across the waves and then “tacking” back, this provided only a small improvement in the ride but it did manage to significantly lengthen our trip across, thus prolonging the misery.
We have since had quite enjoyable rides across C Bay but we always treat it with a great deal of respect and always try to have anything that can move lashed down as we approach it, just in case. This time we knew it would be a good day when the porpoises starting playing around us nearly as soon as we got underway.
As we arrived in Panama City friends we cruised with up on the Tennessee this past summer were standing by to catch our lines. It has been a good day.
We have enjoyed being on the move again. When we returned from Boise in early January it was freezing in the Western Panhandle, as it was in most of the country. Too cold to enjoy traveling so we remained in our marina on Perdido Key, Fl (just East of Orange Beach, AL) with the heaters running on high.
I have made one New Year's ressolution and that is to better learn how to manage pictures in Blogger; if any of you reading this can provide advice to help speed the learning curve of a Tech challenged grandma pleas e-mail me, as you can see below I need help.
Christmas break was perfect as we enjoyed the time we spent in the best gig of our lives, being Grammy & Grandpa, which Lauren is increasingly shortening to Grampy. You can tell that we are absolute fools where they are concerned.
Lauren is 5 already and quite grown up. She is phoning us on her own now and bossing us long di
stance.
Anna, our little sunshine, is just 1 and full of the dickens.
stance.
Anna, our little sunshine, is just 1 and full of the dickens.She is already saying a few words so I expect she will follow her sister's lead and be talking non-stop soon.
I thought nothing was finer than a brown-eyed girl…until little Miss blue eyes arrived!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
The Gulf Coast
After finally getting Lauren Grace out of "sick bay" in Dog River we cruised across Mobile Bay to Fly Creek on the Eastern Shore and shared an enjoyable Thanksgiving feast with our friends Pat & Ruth Kelley in Daphne, AL. After the Holiday we were so ready to move on and get to the blue water and sandy beaches, alas it has been too chilly to enjoy the beaches.
We saw our first dolphins of the winter last Saturday (Nov 28) about an hour after we left Mobile Bay astern and entered into the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway (ICW). Actually it was a couple of hours because we stopped for lunch at Lulu's and we didn't see the dolphins until after lunch. Lulu's is kind of a tourist trap, largely due to the celebrity connection, but we like the shrimp and oyster Po' Boys, yum. Regarding the celebrity connection - Lulu's is owned by Lucy Buffett, Jimmy's sister. And yes they do serve a great cheeseburger, and while it might not be paradise it is mighty nice to sit and look out over the ICW while enjoying that burger with a "big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer". After such a feast for lunch we motored on over to a favorite anchorage and spent a chilly night on the hook. Sunday morning was warm and beautiful but the weather forecast was stinky and so we headed a few miles into Florida and checked in at Holiday Harbor Marina where Lauren Grace will reside while we celebrate Christmas in Boise.
That was Sunday, by Monday it was raining and windy, Tuesday was worse and a heck of a storm was moving ashore. Even in the marina we were getting waves, especially after the wind shifted to the Northwest. By Wednesday the winds were 40 mph and the waves were creating all kinds of whitecaps even on the ICW. Before leaving the boat to visit with friends ashore we put a couple of extra lines from the windward side to pilings a couple of piers over. Wednesday night we gathered, along with the occupants of several other boats, at the Innerarity Island home of our friends Tom & Patsy to commiserate about the horrible conditions and swap stories about the restless night we had all had. Turns out that our friends got the worst of the storm, about a half an hour before he was scheduled to collect all the boaters with no cars Tom noticed that something appeared "funny" down at his dock and when he went to investigate he discovered a broken piling and a section of dock missing. Luckily it was daylight and he noticed it before his boat had the opportunity to bounce down on a wave and hit the broken piling. He and Larry are planning to spend tomorrow doing dock repairs while Patsy and I go to Fairhope to do a little shopping ('tis the season) and collect our truck which is sitting at the Fairhope Yacht Club.
This week will be spent getting ready to leave the boat and head to see our girls. We are flying out of New Orleans on Friday and I can't wait! In the meantime there is the refrigerator to defrost, packing to attend to, and a little last minute cleaning to finish. Hopefully by the time we return next year the weather will have settled down and we will be able to have smooth sailing as we explore the Gulf Coast.
We saw our first dolphins of the winter last Saturday (Nov 28) about an hour after we left Mobile Bay astern and entered into the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway (ICW). Actually it was a couple of hours because we stopped for lunch at Lulu's and we didn't see the dolphins until after lunch. Lulu's is kind of a tourist trap, largely due to the celebrity connection, but we like the shrimp and oyster Po' Boys, yum. Regarding the celebrity connection - Lulu's is owned by Lucy Buffett, Jimmy's sister. And yes they do serve a great cheeseburger, and while it might not be paradise it is mighty nice to sit and look out over the ICW while enjoying that burger with a "big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer". After such a feast for lunch we motored on over to a favorite anchorage and spent a chilly night on the hook. Sunday morning was warm and beautiful but the weather forecast was stinky and so we headed a few miles into Florida and checked in at Holiday Harbor Marina where Lauren Grace will reside while we celebrate Christmas in Boise.
That was Sunday, by Monday it was raining and windy, Tuesday was worse and a heck of a storm was moving ashore. Even in the marina we were getting waves, especially after the wind shifted to the Northwest. By Wednesday the winds were 40 mph and the waves were creating all kinds of whitecaps even on the ICW. Before leaving the boat to visit with friends ashore we put a couple of extra lines from the windward side to pilings a couple of piers over. Wednesday night we gathered, along with the occupants of several other boats, at the Innerarity Island home of our friends Tom & Patsy to commiserate about the horrible conditions and swap stories about the restless night we had all had. Turns out that our friends got the worst of the storm, about a half an hour before he was scheduled to collect all the boaters with no cars Tom noticed that something appeared "funny" down at his dock and when he went to investigate he discovered a broken piling and a section of dock missing. Luckily it was daylight and he noticed it before his boat had the opportunity to bounce down on a wave and hit the broken piling. He and Larry are planning to spend tomorrow doing dock repairs while Patsy and I go to Fairhope to do a little shopping ('tis the season) and collect our truck which is sitting at the Fairhope Yacht Club.
This week will be spent getting ready to leave the boat and head to see our girls. We are flying out of New Orleans on Friday and I can't wait! In the meantime there is the refrigerator to defrost, packing to attend to, and a little last minute cleaning to finish. Hopefully by the time we return next year the weather will have settled down and we will be able to have smooth sailing as we explore the Gulf Coast.
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