Before the Oil

In late April we visited the Gulf coast along the panhandle of Florida. We hit a number of the beautiful white sand beaches there. We saw tons of wildlife. The water was clear and beautiful.

No more.

So I thought I'd post a link to an online album of photographs that I took while we were there. It may very well have been the last chance to have seen the Gulf with its ecosystem more or less intact.

Very sad.

The photos are HERE.

April 22, 2010.

I've read that this beach, which we enjoyed so much a bit more than a month ago, is now fouled with oil. That sugar-white sand is gummed with toxic muck.

Vacation Residence

Probably a last look at the Gulf before mass extinctions:

We had a very nice condo on our vacation to Panama City Beach. Because Carole has a friend who is immigrating from the USA to Australia, she had a week of time-share that she couldn't use. So she let us have that week for a cleaning fee. Otherwise we could never have afforded such a spot.

It was nice to have the full two bedrooms and the kitchen, balcony, two baths, etc. This was not the kind of thing we could normally afford, so it was extra nice.

As for Carole's pal, she had immigrated from South Africa to the USA some time back. But after staying here for a number of years she decided that the USA is not, actually, "number one". So they went to Australia, looked around at the society there as opposed to here, decided that it's superior. Then they bought a house there, sold their house here, and now they're off to live in a better country. So it goes. Carole is very sad to see her friend leaving us, but all things considered I have to agree with them for leaving. The USA just isn't all that the propaganda claims that it is.

Carole and her mom just before we vacated the room. From our 13th floor balcony.

I took this one the evening before. The dark shape below the sun is a cool kite a guy was flying on the beach with his little boy.

A short video tour of the premises.

A view looking down the beach from the condo tower. I will assume that very soon these white sand beaches will be fouled with oil and that much of the marine life will be washing up, dead, from the toxins. It's time to start killing the men who make billions raping our world.

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.

Great Blue Scott

On our first day in Panama City Beach I went for a two-mile hike on the beach inside Saint Andrews State Park. As I was walking along the surf I saw this guy sitting in a chair fishing. Standing about five feet from him was a really big great blue heron. The bird was just standing there, unmoving.

As I drew closer to the bird it just stood its ground. It wouldn't move. I started taking photos of it. Finally, even though I could see that it was made of feathers that were blowing in the wind, I decided that it was a mounted bird that was cleverly rigged to stand in place--just a fake or the art of a very skilled taxidermist. Then another guy walked up to it and it turned to look at him, so I saw that it was as alive as it appeared to be.

I should have talked to the guy fishing, but I didn't. What I think was going on was that he must have been tossing the odd fish or two to the heron and it was waiting patiently for a handout. At any rate, I've never been able to get so close to one of these birds. It was pretty amazing.

Click to enlarge the photo. I've never been able to get so close to a great blue heron. I think I could have stood next to it and it wouldn't have flown away. Unless I ever encounter either a cassowary bird or a secretary bird, I guess this is as close to seeing something like a Titanis walleri as I'll ever get.

Trip: Day One

We spent all of yesterday driving. We stopped at the FDRoosevelt State Park in Georgia. I hadn't been there since I was a kid. I need to post an essay about the strange little mountain range that exists there--I'm pretty sure it's the southernmost extension of the Appalachian Mountains and presents a bit of rugged terrain where one certainly should not expect to see such. In that way it's like the salt water creatures in Salt Springs, many miles from the ocean.

I'll try to post a few photos of the park later. We still haven't settled in to our condo.