Thursday, November 26, 2009

We had many things to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving – not the least of which was the beautiful day in the making. The skies were clear and sunny and the temperatures were warming up towards 70°F. Last night, we had agreed to relax and enjoy each other’s company all day – no chores beyond the basics and no computers.

About 10 am we took off in our friends’ little red sports car and headed for the barrier lands forming St. Joe Bay. We enjoyed seeing the snowbirds’ winter homes and the lovely scenery along the route. Our first real stop was St. Joseph Peninsula State Park where visitors can swim, sun and play on 9.5 miles of snow-white sand beaches.
We checked out the towering sand dunes, the wild Gulf side of the peninsula and the tamer Bay side. The campgrounds were nice, but very close together. There were also furnished cabins for rent that included kitchens, fireplaces, bathrooms, heat and air. We took some time on the beach and noticed the various signs warning of possible dangers one might encounter; such as, alligators, rip currents and rough waters. There was a sign asking people to stay off the dunes, and one requesting that any monofilament line that was found be deposited in the receptacle.






While at the beach, we made a few phone calls to wish our parents and our children a Happy Thanksgiving. After leaving the park, we continued east towards Apalachicola hunting for turkey -- turkey on a platter, that is. Apalachicola is a very small town, but we stopped at a service station and were given a couple of possibilities for places that might be serving turkey dinner in town. We struck out on the first one, and the second one was a very nice seafood restaurant looking out over the river which was serving its usual fine entrée’s – but no turkey. We put our name on their list, anyway, and were told they could seat us in one hour, at 2:30 pm. Since we had an hour to kill, we got back in the car and continued driving east towards Carrabelle, another small village on the panhandle. It didn’t look like we were going to find much there either and we didn’t want to get any further away from home, so we turned around at 2 pm and decided that we might just as well drive back to Port St. Joe where we knew of a restaurant serving the full traditional menu, and then some.


After stopping at the marina to check on Lucy, we drove to the Sunset Coastal Grille for our holiday dinner – and it was worth waiting for! There was turkey with all the trimmings as well as prime rib, ham, basa stuffed with a clam dressing, pork loin, great appetizers, delicious soups, wonderful sides and several different desserts including pumpkin pie and key lime pie. We shared a nice bottle of wine and reflected on all of the blessings in our lives.

What better way to top off a perfect day?? – A good movie!! We watched Pirates of the Caribbean – The Curse of the Black Pearl.