A short visit to the Gulf of Mexico

Tuesday April 9, 2013
Site 9, Ochlockonee River State Park
Sopchoppy, Florida

 

A day at the beach is a fitting close to Carrie’s visit with us.

This past Friday we had driven down down to the Gulf to visit our friends Gin and Syl who were camped right on the shore.  But the weather didn’t permit us to enjoy the area or the water, just their friendship. And that was grand! They have had to move on but we wanted to spent some time at the gulf before Carrie leaves to return home.   Since that happens tomorrow, today is the day.

We decide to drive over to where we will be moving after Carrie leaves, St. George Island State Park right on the Gulf of Mexico.  The park is 41 miles from Ochlockonee, a drive mostly all long St. George Sound, Apalachicola Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.  We pack our lunch as usual and off we go.

It is an easy trip, only two turns.  No chance getting lost.  The park is on the far southern end of the Island.  The beach resort homes and businesses are on the other end.

 

We check out the campground and our site for 5 days next week and then park the car and head for the beach.  There are very few people on the white sand.  The waves are white capped, the skies blue and the clouds puffy white. Even the wind is just right.  Simply a PERFECT day!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

of course everyone else on the beach is enjoying it too.

Each his own way, napping, splashing.  A novice kite flyer struggles to get his kite air born but finally learns that he really must give the kite enough rope to fly itself.

 

 

 

 

The willets, killdeer, royal terns and laughing gulls are all here.

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We really don’t do a thing other than sit and enjoy these natural wonders. 

Then, after lunch, while David naps, Carrie and I take a long walk down the beach to enjoy it from other vantage points.  What amazing clouds!

 

 

 

What’s going on here we wonder?

 

As we are walking along, an ATV comes by and we think it must be some sort of park shore patrol.  I take a picture to see.  It stops up ahead of us quite a ways and the driver gets out and walks up to and into the dunes.  These are pristine sand dunes like none you ever see on a gulf shore anywhere else that I’ve been.  We wouldn’t dare walk on them or through them or even near them other than on a boardwalk.  We are really wondering now.  When he comes back out, Carrie tries to take a zoomed up picture to see what he’s doing since I neglected to bring the binoculars with us.   She can’t tell.  By the time we reach him, he’s driven further on but when she takes her pictures off the camera, we think he must have seen her taking his picture even from that distance and is having fun with us.   Or??????????   What do you think??

 

 

Our interest in this human activity wanes as quickly as it came.

 

We slip back into that reverie that is a walk on the beach between two people who know and love each other well.  The clouds are spectacular. The shells are beautiful.  The temperature is perfect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is our place, Carrie’s and mine.  We are at home like two shells in the sand.

 

There are few places we are happier.

 

So glad we came and spent this wonderful day at St.George Island beach.