Day 237: - Still in Panama City, FL
Day 237: Monday, December 19th: Today dawned clear (not like yesterday) and cool (like yesterday), but we were all ready to go have fun on the beach. The "girls" wanted a picture of themselves squinting into the Florida sun with the bay in the background and the Panama City Memorial to Flight 77 greenway in the background. We may have the name of the Memorial a little wrong:
Then we sneaked over to the Vernon's, our new friends, to leave a little "thank you" and headed to "Tom's Hot Dogs" for lunch:
This spot offers some of Panama City's finest hot dogs. We found them very good, but not as good as "Pete's Famous Hotdogs" in Birmingham, AL. The interior of Tom's is more, uh, colorful with it's "Tiffany-style" lights:
The walls are also decorated in a unique fashion. We found a tag from Cobb County, GA:
Next we headed to Panama City Beach and the St. Andrews State Recreation Area at the beach. First stop was the trail to Gator Lake and environs. Ann was excited; so was Bill:
The warning sign made it even more exciting:
Part way down the trail past Gator Lake Ann found a delightful Sand Live Oak tree to climb (that's what the sign called it):
Ann invited Mom to join her, so she did:
We all enjoyed this sign and prayer. Hope all who see it do also:
After the trail hike Ann still had enough energy to do some vigorous swinging in the park swing, and Lisa joined her:
With all that energy left we all went to the beach itself. The warnings made you want to go home and watch "Storm Stories."
On the beach we noticed how docile the Gulf of Mexico was with hardly any wind or waves. The research vessel heading into the harbor pass wasn't rocking at all.
One of the first things we noticed on the beach was this Florida version of a snowman. Melting, of course!
Ann went wading (the water temperature was around 59 degrees) and really enjoyed it!
Ann has never met a stranger. She spotted two other girls down the beach and they soon were making sand things:
It was getting late so we headed back to the marina. Ruth had to get this last Christmas picture of Ann in front of the City's Santa Claus. Rather large fellow:
Back on the boat we ate a turkey dinner and exchanged Christmas presents. Ann dictated that although it wasn't Christmas just yet, it was OK to open the presents. We did and it was great fun. It was so much fun that we forgot to take pictures. However, it was a nice Christmas time together.
We were sad as we bedded down because tomorrow Lisa and Ann had to return to Atlanta. But we had a great visit!
Position tonight: N30 09.045 W085 39.873
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