Getting Ready.

We're getting down close to liftoff. We've spent weeks preparing for our first big camping trip of the year. As anyone who reads my blog knows, Carole and I love hitting the big first and second magnitude springs in Florida. If you've never done it (and few outside of the state of Florida seem to be aware of them), you're really missing out. While all of the rubes are sweating it out in amusement parks and fighting traffic to get sand in the cracks of their asses on some crowded beach, Carole and I will be snorkeling in crystal clear water, or kayaking along a quiet spring run surrounded by wildlife, or maybe exploring a tiny village off the beaten path.

We will probably go into Panama City one night to eat at Angelo's Steak Pit which serves--and I am prepared to fist fight over this--the best rib-eye steaks in the USA.

Other than that, we'll be in the wilderness or merely out in the boonies. We won't, I assure you, be visiting Disney World or wandering around trying to find a spot to put up a beach umbrella on a crappy beach at some over-hyped tourist trap. Two weeks. Two state parks, and one National Seashore.

Huzzah!

Why I Can't Diet in Panama City

We've been to the Panama City area of Florida enough times so that we've decided on favorite restaurants. Fortunately for us (and everyone else) there are two exceptionally good places. Both are for non-vegetarians, so if there's a great vegetarian restaurant there we don't know of it.

One of the first restaurants we discovered there was Angelo's Steak Pit. We decided to stop in there on our very first visit many years ago when we saw the giant bull statue out front. Luckily for us, the steaks were great--the best either of us have ever had. No bull. Every time we go to the area, we make sure to have at least one meal at Angelo's. Beef, of course.

The giant bull statue out front.

Carole and me sitting for a self-portrait.

Our other favorite eaterie in Panama City is Boondocks. It's a seafood place and it serves the best seafood we've sampled down there. The food there is so good that we followed up our first visit there with a second the following night. This place is also on our list of must-do when we're in the panhandle of Florida.

Carole having some fried shrimp. The best around, no doubt!

This is the new section of the restaurant. It wasn't there when we found the place many years ago.

This was the old restaurant we found when we were kids. Now it's just a part of a much larger building. People ate there and the word spread about the quality of the food.

You've got to love a restaurant that has a parking lot loaded with live oaks. Very cool.