ulf. We met at We Be at 5 to talk strategy, but mostly met as an excuse to get off our boats for a while. The rain has held us all captive quite a bit the last few weeks. The owners of We Be are very friendly and served us Swedish meatballs as appetizers while we sat in their restaurant. Didn't really need to eat dinner after all of those.
nted us to do. No answer. We had heard that many of the tow captains and such down here don't answer when you hail them. This guy was one of them. Maybe because he was shrimping in the channel and they are not suppose to be?? He had quite a few birds following along, but I like the two pelicans that are perched on his stern getting a free ride back to shore.
Bulkhead Shoals. There were probably a couple of dozen of these flat boats in a fairly small area. They were harvesting oysters. This isn't a very clear photo as I took it from so far away, but you can kind of make out the poles in the fisherman's hands. They are like large tongs with what looks like rakes on the ends and he scissors them back and forth on the bottom. Then he scoops it up and dumps what ever is caught within the rakes in the front of his boat. Another guy sorts what it is brought up. The oyster has to be at least a certain size or it gets tossed back.
From the looks of things, it must be a hopping place in the summer months when tourist and charter fishermen are here. Many marinas, slips and waterside restaurants. But this time of year, it is pretty much deserted. From Carrabelle, we will cross the Gulf. The weather is such that it won't be for at least a few days.
This photo is from the historic cemetery in town. It's very scenic with live oak trees stretching out every which way and spanish moss draped on the branches. I wanted to look around, but I'd already seen one snake on the sidewalk and just didn't want to press my luck.
as most of the West Point cadets. Snore!!! The big excitement of the evening was Ross had a phone call from his niece, Claire. She just turned 5 and lost her first tooth yesterday.
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.
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.
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.
oah Agenda and headed up town on our bikes to have a breakfast at a place recommended to us the night before. It was the Port Inn. It was in a small hotel and we weren't certain it was open, as it looked a little quiet. Tom went in and shortly returned. He said they were open, but it was a bit spendy. We all looked worried. Then he told us it was $5. We laughed and went it. For 5 bucks we had our choice of grits (0f course), eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy, omelets and Belgian waffles. Definitely our bargain of the day.
ikings game on TV up at the bar at the end of the dock. So we headed up there for hot wings, fried shrimp and brewskis 
while watching Farv and the boys tromp the Bears. Go Vikes!!! Oh, and how could I forget, hush puppies!!! Those delicious little rounds of fried cornmeal flavored with onion and green pepper. Yummy.
get a bit of exercise after all the sitting yesterday. It was a cool morning, and the salt air smells so incredible! There's nothing like it. The weather was forecast to be a pleasant day, so we opted to go out in the Gulf for our 25+ mile trip to Port St. Joe. It was the first time for the Oddysea to be in the Gulf. Ross commented that this was the clearest water Oddysea had been in since we left Lake Michigan with her 7 years ago. There was a light chop on the water, sun shining and pods of dophins to watch.
"dork factor" we found they were a lot of fun. We felt like kids riding around on Big Wheels! The store was only about 2 blocks away. By the time we got to the check out, we had a full grocery cart load. No way would all this fit in those bike baskets. Wrong!! We could have bought more stuff. We road them right down the dock and out to the boat.
