4 days at St Andrews park, near Panama City FL

Typically windy at the Gulf shore, sometimes calmer than this

 We spent some time the first day touring Panama City and learning our way around. We found that our GPS doesn't like Panama City at all, which contributed to our navigation problems yesterday. However we did have some good stops in town, lunch at a Chick Filet, good groceries at a Publix store.

On the way back in to the park we found a seafood market, and picked up a piece of grouper, a BIG piece of salmon, and a piece of key lime pie, all very good. 

While Cathie had some quiet time at the site, I biked around the campground. We had an optimistically large supper with the whole piece of salmon (steamed) along with potato and salad. Boy were we full! Then we sat around enjoying the soft evening air.

The next day we stayed around the campground. We had our breakfast outside, then a good bike ride around the park. We toured the turpentine and saw mill exhibits, then walked some of the long white sand beach.

After lunch we drove to the beach, after donning our swim togs. No swimming today though, it became very windy, and red flags were flying indicating dangerous surf conditions. The para-boarders and surfers were out in force though:

 

Back at the site we took our chairs over to an empty waterfront site across from us. The beach was stony here, but on a more protected bay. Then we rode our bikes over to a nearby pier to see some fishermen, birds and passing dolphins.

The next day, Sunday, it was very windy. There were tornado warnings for north of here. It's only supposed to get up to 12C today but actually only made it to 8C (46F). We're really glad we're not camped at one of those lovely sandspits we saw on the way here the other day, and that our site here is nestled in a protected area.

Since it wasn't a nice beach day, we drove into Panama City for breakfast and some more shopping, then back to the trailer for reading, naps, then a good long walk. 

The next day, Monday, was cool again. We walked around the park and out to a fishing pier:

The birds kept trying to eat little bait fish from the fisherman's jugs

Later we drove into the City again, it's kind of nice after ll to have a city nearby. On our way out of the park we saw smoke, and drove through some of it, a "prescribed burn" day.

The burns keep the vegetation at bay.

Lunch was Jimmy Dean sausage and eggs today:

We'll be leaving St Andrews tomorrow morning, starting to head home. This was an unexpectedly nice park to visit.