Along the Forgotten Coast

 

Although we spent most of the day in Alabama yesterday, we did reach Florida around the time Night Prayer started. We stayed in Marianna, and this morning we got up and drove to St. Andrews, because there is a good coffee place there. We took our iced coffees and walked to the marina, and did we ever see birds! Some of them are birds we have in Wisconsin during the warmer months, so this must be one of the places they go for the winter. Wouldn't it be crazy if they were actual birds we have seen in Wisconsin? Maybe they would recognize me: "There's the short human with the weird thing on her head. What's she doing here?" Here are some photos. First, these black-headed gulls that might be Bonaparte gulls. They make a laughing call.

And there were these tiny, adorable sandpiper things.

Isn't this a female bufflehead just like we have off our dock in the spring?

And we saw lots of loons with their winter coloring.

I think this is a mourning dove, like we have back home.

These are some boats in the marina.

Then we continued to drive down the so-called Forgotten Coast to Mexico Beach, which had been devastated by a hurricane the last time we passed through but is recovering nicely now. Here we are at the beautiful beach.

The bird party looks like a parade! There were several types of gulls, terns, and sandpipers.

This tern kept pestering another tern, maybe its mother?

Here you can see two types of terns, a larger one with an orange beak and black feet and a black crest (I think those might be Caspian terns), and a smaller one with orange feet and a black beak and a black mask around its eyes.

I think this is a herring gull, with some of the smaller type of tern behind it.

You can see the difference in size between the sandpiper and the immature herring gull!

Here you can see terns and those black-headed gulls, with herring gulls closer to the water.

A closer shot of one of the black-headed gulls.

Here you can see a black-headed gull, the larger terns, and a sandpiper.

I love how the little sandpipers like to stand on one leg. They will even hop on it away from you, unless you get too close - and then they will run very fast on both legs!

In Apalachicola, we stopped at a boardwalk and saw this brown pelican.

We also saw an egret, but that photo didn't turn out as well. Then we drove over the causeway to St. George Island, and brown pelicans kept flying right over our car. On the island we ate at a sports bar with a flooded parking lot because we didn't see the restaurant right on the beach. Then we went to the historic lighthouse. This is an old light in the museum.

Here are some different views of the lighthouse.

This one is looking at it from the beach.

And here is the beach. So gorgeous!

At the sports bar, Mango Mike's, we sat in this oversized chair:

It almost doesn't look too big for Travalon, right?

Since we ate a late lunch and lost an hour of time from crossing time zones, we didn't want to eat dinner until after nine. We went to a place called Hip Hop Chicken and Fish, where we both got catfish, and Travalon got wings while I got fried green tomatoes. They are good and don't taste anything like tomatoes. I can't really describe them, maybe a little like okra? But sweeter. They told us the dining room was closed, so we sat at a table outside, and then some guy was revving his motorcycle right behind us. Still, we were excited just to eat outside. 

Even on vacation, I must do DuoLingo, and I completed the February Challenge.

When I texted this sticker to Travalon, he texted back a photo of Ka-Ching Bear all excited for me.

Speaking of stuffies, as we drove to St. Andrews we lost signal and couldn't play music in the car, so we entertained ourselves with asking the Earl of Wafford questions. We asked where his earldom was, and he said Brunchlandia, and Travalon said I had to blog about that. We can't remember any of the rest of the conversation offhand, like his friend from Lunchlandia and the song about syrup on his face. Maybe tomorrow, if I remember, I can tell you more about this.

Famous Hat