Bay Point at Panama City Beach

Time to button her up for January, we will prepare for returning in February for our 6 month voyage. New Year’s Day was cold and rainy and so you didn’t feel bad just watching football and puttering. Georgia was the only team we were for that lost so it was fun watching. Thursday we rented a car and went to get our car in Mobile—3 ½ hours each way. We found that it was pretty simple in the daylight but finding our way home was a true challenge. The GPS took us one way, the phone maps took us another way and following the bread crumbs back the way we came were all options. We chose to come back the way of the GPS because it promised to get us home a full 40 minutes sooner. Liars! The GPS got us off I-10 at Fort Walton Beach, over a toll road and then following the beach all the way home. I guess the time was calculated by being able to go the speed limit the whole way. Not even close. It would have been the scenic way except it was pitch black out with gale force winds tracking the whole way. We got back in time to see Alabama and the Lady Vols lose. Oh well we learned a lot and fell on a glass of wine to sooth.

Glen the gang at Edgewater for sunset--
we could have sold our seat for the Karaoke that followed our Happy Hour

Spent Friday doing laundry, resupplying that stuff we could leave for the month, and going to West Marine. Fitz has some projects around the boat and I have some dirty windows. We went to happy hour and dinner with the Story’s and Debbie and Dale and saw a beautiful sunset. It was cold and blustery but when the sun is shining somehow it is not so cold. We went to happy hour at the Edgewater Resort (home of Debbie and Dale)—really nice --and around 6pm the bar started filling up with retired snowbirds who were gathering for an evening of karaoke. We did not wait around for the performances (which were reputed to star the same usual subjects every Friday) but they were gearing up for quite the party. Then we went to Dee’s Hide-A-Way for dinner and had fabulous Cajun dinner definitely one to put on the A list.

Fort Walton Beach to Panama City

Well, first I have to apologize to Fort Walton Beach—we did find a restaurant—the Magnolia Grill (no “e” so it was open on Monday). It was within walking distance of the dock and had a great dinner. The appetizer of sautéed crab claws and shrimp over toast points was fabulous and it went up hill from there. We got up early and left out by 8am in the cold and overcast—little did we know this was as warm as it got. For the next 7 hours we made our way to Panama City. It was really cold and we bundled under blankets on the flybridge. The jumping dolphins that led the way into Panama City’s West Bay made up for it. We got into Baypoint Marina about 3:30 and we had only passed about 3 other boats all day. The locals don’t need to go out on such yucky days. Our friends from Nashville, Leslie and Glen Story were having a small New Year’s Eve party and invited us over and even came to get us. It was a great, relaxing New Year -- just what we needed. Today, of course, is the best day of the year—football--we are set for the games today and plan to r&r. We are going to have to scare up some black-eyed peas (I forgot) but otherwise we will piddle around the boat and marina. Happy New Year!!!