The Wright's on Vacation: Gulf of Mexico - St Josephs Peninsula State Park

We were ready for a taste of the beach again and had booked ourselves in at a state park called St Joseph’s that was out on a peninsula in the Mexican Gulf. It was a long drive and it took us off the Florida peninsula and had us starting on our journey West across the USA. We suddenly found ourselves with two hungry kids around lunch time and not many places to stop so we ended up at a little town called Panacea in a tiny seafood restaurant which was very American and actually a bit religious. The piano stopped playing as Leo raced in with his Doc racing car with Spencer close on his heels. The food was great but it was slightly uncomfortable when Leo announced it was someone`s birthday very loudly straight after a neighbouring table had (quite harmoniously I might add) offered thanks to the Lord in song.

Wrights at play

St Josephs (just south of Panama City) was mindblowing…beautiful white sand, gorgeous beach that went on for miles and sunsets that just don’t seem real. You know the ones where each colour is separated out into distinct lines from blue/purple/orange/yellow. We haven’t seen them like that for ages. There was lots of wildlife, turtle nests on the beach, scallop beds and crabs everywhere. We got in the hapbit of taking the kids for a walk at about 8pm to cool down before bed. There are great boardwalks that take you through the dunes which are perfect for pushchairs. Both Spencer and Leo love fishing with Daddy but alas there have still been no fish caught. Justin got a couple of evenings out at dusk again. He loves the anticipation of the catch….our neighbours were a bit luckier than he was and offered us their catch. There is nothing much to do on this peninsula except enjoy it which we did with gusto. The kids loved it, we had a blast and it was quite sad to leave this spot. I think Spencer came away with half the Gulf sand in her ears she got dumped so many times in the waves but she absolutely loves it. In a perfect world we would have more money and more time to do this trip.

Leo at dusk

8pm stroll on boardwalk

Daddy Leo time

Daddy Spencer time

They must get a few hurricanes/storms or flooding here because virtually every house is on stilts. The entire first floor is nothing but vertical beams and the actual house starts on the second floor.

Louie has now done 2700 miles (4,000 ks) with us and is doing well (touch wood). That makes a total of 179,000 on his clock (250,000 kilometres!). Now you know why he is Last Legs Louie. The camper is also doing well although we haven’t had running water in her for a few days now, we are looking for a special valve and the brake lights and blinker on one side is not working so we’ll have to get that sorted before some state trooper pulls us over.

Another noteworthy event is that Justin has cut his beard off. He has been cultivating this “work of art” for at least two months but I think it’s been annoying him for a while now. Not that he’ll ever admit it, it’s just too hot and the kids have been having him on about it. Leo calls it Daddy’s prickles and Spencer just pulls it has started to refuse kisses with it.