St. George Island State Park

We moved from O'Leno State Park to St. George Island State Park on April 3rd. Paul has wanted to stay at this park since we discovered it four years ago on our first return trip home.

St. George is a barrier island off the Florida Panhandle near Apalachicola and is connected to the mainland by a four mile long bridge.

The state park occupies nine miles on the east end of the island, providing miles of undeveloped beaches.

We had a great camping spot for our five night stay.

Our goals for our stay here included spending time on the beach

while doing a little shore fishing

and enjoying the solitude

while watching the birds, both small

and large.

The Apalachicola area is known for its shrimp boats and oyster boats. We promised ourselves we would eat seafood every day. And, we did!

Nothing fancy involved, just a little olive oil and a little seasoning and onto the grill it went.

This is grouper.

Sometimes we sautéed our shrimp,

and sometimes we grilled them.

I even convinced Paul to try sautéed oysters and he really liked them!

We did have to try red snapper and one more piece of grouper before we left.

It was all so good. We found two fish markets we really liked, one in Eastpoint and one in Apalachicola. We'll be back again, trust me!

This past week was exactly what we would talk about doing together as we planned our retirement: travel in our camper, see the country and shop locally to enjoy the foods of the region.

I'll talk to you soon.