16.6.2012 – 16.6.2012  32 °C

We had a bit of a sleep in this morning and left Tallahassee just after 9.30am. Our drive today was along the foreshore of the forgotten coast and the Floridian panhandle to Pensacola Fl. The drive down to the forgotten coast was thru a lot of the older parts of Florida. We passed many little towns that had some grand old homes and lots of big trees covered in the Spanish moss and of course we continued to drive thru much of the Floridian swamp lands (more a mangrovey style though, not so much of the Everglades grass style).

Our first stop for today was at St George Island. It is just off the mainland from a little town called Eastpoint. Eastpoint typified the “forgotten” title for me.. the whole main street seemed to be one big “closed down due to hard times” advertisement. We weren’t feeling confident that we would be able to find a decent cup of coffee anywhere around here after seeing the gateway to St George! Anyway, we took the causeway over to the island to discover a much happier scene on the Gulf. The town still wasn’t full to capacity (plenty of “for rent” signs out the front of homes) but at least the houses had been painted at some point in the last 10 yrs and the shops (that we could find) were open for business. I swear, that there is a really good business opportunity in many of these small communities here in the States opening a decent coffee shop with yummy pastries…. Its one thing the Yanks don’t seem to do well (which really surprises me for the land of coffee!!). So we found ourselves a cup of coffee and wandered over to the sea shore to check out the Gulf of Mexico in all of its splendour!! We were pretty lucky today, the weather is gorgeous, sunny, hot, strong sea breeze, gulls are flying in the air, and a couple of small waves were lapping at the shore!!!! People were actually sort of bobbing out in the waves!! Not decent bobbing but something other than just standing chatting in the ocean!!!

After our interlude (we also did a bit of souvenir shopping) we headed back up the coast for Apalachicola (pronounced Apple-aachi-cola). Apalachicola is one of the find’s of Florida.. (Key West being the other). It is one of the oldest towns in Florida and during the pre-civil war years it was also one of the richest! Richest pre-civil war town means plenty of really cool buildings and of course some interesting history! LP had advised us to grab a walking tour map of the town and just wander around enjoying the historic buildings (which we did). Not long after starting our wander we ended up at this Antebellum mansion just off main street. What a find! The house is now owned and operated by the local historical society and we were fortunate enough to come on a day when one of the locals was leading tours thru this majestic house. Our guide’s family have lived in Apalachicola since pre-civil war times so here is a true-blue southerner!! The mansion has to be seen to be believed! The entire house was built in the mid 1830s and has remained largely in the same condition since! The house is still furnished with many of the original furnishings (even some pre- French revolution French stools… can you imagine the value of these chairs??) and there is even civil war money and civil war stamps on display in the hallway (The antiques in the house are priceless.. I can’t even imagine how much they must be worth). The only reason this house is still standing today is that it was commandeered by the Union army as  HQ, the other similar houses that were nearby were all burnt down during the civil war!

After our interesting look thru the mansion we headed back downtown to find something to eat for lunch. The LP had recommended one particular venue but when we looked at the menu it didn’t really fit what we were looking for; yummy seafood, particularly Oysters for D. Ok so we decided to just keep walking down the street and found the best restaurant I’ve eaten at probably the whole time I’ve been here in the US. We ate lunch at the Hole in the Wall in Apalachicola. D had the biggest oysters I’ve ever seen.. a dozen for $8!! I had the crab and prawn casserole and OMG!! The casserole was absolutely divine! So good, that I bailed up the owner for the recipe (which she gladly gave to me!!) That casserole is certainly going to be made when I get home; dinner at my place anyone???? If you ever get to Apalachicola I absolutely recommend you eat at this restaurant, you will not regret it!!

The rest of our day was a continuing drive along the Gulf Coast thru Florida. Much of the drive was actually long and really annoying as the traffic was just incredible (once you leave the “forgotten” coast and hit the “panhandle” you get the Gold Coast but about 3 times larger!) In fact, the traffic was so bad that we didn’t get into Pensacola til after 7pm!! After an amazingly, tasty pizza we all fell into bed totally stuffed (both physically and mentally)!!

Song of the Day- Glenn Fry, Heat is on