Last Days at St Andrews and a review

Friday April 26, 2013
Site 8, St. Andrews State Park
Panama City Beach, Florida

 

 

At dawn the channel is largely a mud flat - low tide.The pelicans have not yet arrived.

 

 

Here comes the sun

 

 

Window view of condos, channel sans boats
at the moment and canal 

We had planned to kayak to shell island and spend the day today but after researching it we find that what once had been a pristine barrier island renown for its shells is now an over run island with no shells and boats of tourists being dropped off and picked up every hour from 8 to 4 every day of the week.

 

 

 

 

This is a big disappointment as was talking to our neighbors who have been out kayaking and tell us that they found there were power boats everywhere and there just wasn’t any place in or near the park to go that wasn’t accessible to power boats.  No quiet little water areas or wetlands.  We’ve noticed that this is a power boat, jet ski area.  We’ve seen some lovely sail boats too but almost no single person crafts other than one paddle boarder trying to get out to the dolphins yesterday.  I feared for his safety watching the bigger boats drive straight toward and through the dolphins.  Our neighbors got here on Thursday afternoon and left Saturday morning.  Wish I’d asked them where they were going.

 

So instead of kayaking, it’s over to the beach we go.  The weather is perfect for a beach day, warm sunshine, cool breezes, no bugs.

 

 

 

The Gulf is very placid.  Gentle lapping waves.  You can walk about half way to Texas and the water isn’t over your head.

   

We have more trouble today finding a spot on the beach.  The tide is in so it is more narrow and today as everyday we’ve been here there seem to be more people coming out.

But the water is wonderful and we have a very relaxing 4 hours.

On our way out we see this little trio parked side by side.  Aren’t they cute even though the picture had to be taken into the sun to get them?  Anyone old enough to have gone camping in one of these??

 

 

 

We return to Winnona for a dinner of red beans and rice.  The sun sets at 7:15 in Central Daylight time so it’s a quick dinner and then we bike over to the pier to watch.  The pier is right next to the high rise hotel section but I have not included them in my pictures.  They aren’t what I want to remember. 

 

 

While we are watching the sun set, there is a budding young gymnast entertaining her parents with back bends, cart wheels, one and two handed, and back flips.  She is too fast for my camera.  She’s very good and having a great time.  Ah to be that young, that agile and that fearless again.

 

 

 

 

As the sun slips into the gulf the sky has detailed brush strokes of color.  It looks unreal.  Like a gigantic painting.

 

 

 

It has been wonderful seeing the sunrise from our picnic table, having our meals with our pelican pals just across the small canal and being able to bike to the sunsets. 

St. Andrews’ Gator Lake is an excellent birding spot in the early morning or early evening this time of year.

The Gulf beach sand is beautiful sugar white and the water crystal clear. 

Despite the closeness of the sites, the campground has been very quiet.  There is every service you could want within 5 miles of the park and the internet and phone coverage is 4G 5 bar.  

 

 

 

I’ve had some very fine experiences here as my past two posts will attest.  That said, it is unlikely I will return to St. Andrews in the near future.  Life is easy here with the internet/phone/services but 5 days is enough to do everything that I find interesting.   Unlike other parks where we weren’t able to experience everything we wanted, I see no reason to return here.  Perhaps it is just too urban for me. 

 

I didn’t take a lot of pictures of the beach other than in the late afternoon when the crowds had left.  I don’t know how there will be room for an increase in people on summer week-ends if the beach is this full in April during the week.  I didn’t take pictures of the high rises across the lagoon or the condos or the ton of boats.  I was careful to only take the parts I want to remember so in that sense perhaps my posts are not totally accurate. 

 

 

So it’s time to give the complete picture of St. Andrews.
The photos from here on, excepting The End, were taken within a 10 minute or less stretch of time this afternoon. 

 

The Condos behind the pelicans in my pictures are much closer than my camera shows, as are the high rise hotels on the beach.  Military helicopters fly over head many times daily sometimes circling over the beach as though they are looking for something or at us. Well not me but the babes in the bikinis possibly.  Prop planes with banners rumble back and forth over the beach repeatedly every afternoon.  The boats and jet skis chasing the dolphins and racing around the lagoon, the lack of any sweet kayaking spots or biking possibilities all make it not the sort of wonderful natural experience that I know I can have at other state parks in Florida. 

 

 

 

I guess I am a tourist but I’m a tourist of a very different sort apparently.  I love the beach but I also love to kayak, to bike and to hike in natural surroundings with as many wild things and as little manmade noise as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

Other than out of the park entertainments, the beach is pretty much all there is here after you have walked the Gator Lake trail and ridden around the 2 mile campground road unless you have a power boat or like to fish.  There is definitely a message in the park’s full name,  St. Andrews Recreation Area State Park.  Recreational power boaters and fishermen, these are the people I believe will most enjoy this park.  While it is a beautiful beach which has made several “top beach” lists, the gulf portion of it is very short and then you are in the high rise hotel district.  Great people watching I imagine but no long deserted gulf beach walking.

 

 

 

Others with different wishes for a park will have a totally different feeling about St. Andrews which is admittedly a  fabulous urban park.  It’s just not set off enough from the maddening crowd for me.

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow a local policeman will kindly come by to certify Winnona’s odometer and VIN number so we don’t actually have to take her to the DMV. After he leaves (and we have no idea when he’ll be coming-it’s a favor he’s doing us), we’ll  do some grocery shopping, take  Ruby to a car wash, stay away from the week-end park crowds and get a few things straightened up for our move on Sunday to Grayton Beach State Park.  The forecast at this moment says 40%+ chance of rain for all 5 days we are there.  Here’s hoping they are wrong. 

 

 

THE END
from St. Andrews Recreation Area State Park.