MONDAY NOVEMBER 30

Happy birthday to Ross' mom!!!! Once again we are underway and traveling along the ICW. The first part is a man made ditch and the landscape is filled with pine trees. Not what one thinks of when they think of Florida. This part of the ICW is fairly remote and we saw many different types of birds, including a bald eagle. When I opened the door on the boat to get a clear photo shot, he got nervous and flew away. Fortunately for me, he landed close by. It is a clear, chilly morning so we have the boat closed up. The trip to Apalachicola was very scenic with a variety of landscapes. As you can see, it started with pine trees and fairly high banks. Then we left the pines and the trees changed to cypress. Later in the trip as we entered the Jackson River and the Apalachicola River the landscape became flat with grassland and the occasional palm tree.

















Apalachicola is a quaint fishing village in Florida. We are docked at Water Street Inn Marina about 7 blocks from town. Floating docks, yay!!! It warmed up nicely as the day progressed and we decided to ride out bikes in to the town. We were riding along Water Street (which runs parallel to the water, surprise surprise) which is where all the seafood processing places are. We noticed this guy unloading burlap bags and weighing them. Always thinking of our readers, we stopped to find out what he was doing. The burlap bags where full of oysters. A couple of his buddies sauntered out to harass him once they found out we were taking his photo for an internet blog and asking him questions.




We rode around the town and ended up stopping at a seafood market down by the waterfront. Bought a couple pounds of shrimp for $6 bucks a pound.






We were recommended a place for oysters called Papa Joe's. Since Apalachicola is the "oyster capital of the world" we figured we better go try some. They served oysters at least a dozen different ways, so in the interest of science, we started ordering. Our friends Diann and Tom from Noah Agenda joined us in our mission. Diann and I decided we should have a photo of "the shucker". The oysters were in a tank of ice along the bar. You can't tell from the photo, but this guy had a ponytail that would make most women envious. He schucked two HUGE oysters and told us to take them back to our men. Ross slurped his up, but you can tell from the photo that Tom was a bit sceptical. He was a trooper though, and tried it. He decided to stick with his calamari. Ross, Diann and I tried them several different ways before we left.












I bought a package mix earlier in town to make shrimp and grits. After Ross' rave reviews after eating shrimp with grits way back when in Columbus, Mississippi I thought we'd try it. Oh boy, big thumbs up!!!



Cleaning shrimp in the galley.