The Big Bend

[jbh]

Avenue Sea in Apalachicola was definitely superb, on my absolutely-must-return list. That a restaurant of this caliber is in Apalach complete begoggles me!

Be sure and visit the bar first and give Shellie the bartender some business; things have been slow in Apalachicola lately. She introduced us to her friend Ann, who has a screw loose in her head...literally. You can feel it wiggle.

As for other places...

We had dinner and breakfast at the Wakulla Springs Lodge. I'd best describe it as competent and workmanlike, not spectacular but better than the run-of-the-mill fish house and since Wakulla Springs is out in the boonies it's a worthy choice if you're staying at the Lodge. On that subject, the Lodge is _very_ nice, "Old Florida," no in-room TV even, and the Disney version of Florida is a bazillion miles away.

On down to St. Marks; we stopped at a fish house directly at the end of the main road, can't remember the name for the life of me but if you pass Bo Lynn's and go straight you'd drive straight into it. Good smoked mullet. Go back out on 98 and head east to the turnoff south to the lighthouse and enjoy the drive through the salt marshes down to St. Marks Light. Listen very carefully; you'll hear nothing more than the waves sloshing and lots of birds.

On to Apalachicola. We took a side trip to Alligator Point just to have a look; many houses are gone into the sea. Painted on broken concrete was "You can't fix stupid."

Heading westward, past Lanark and Carrabelle, _every_ house and lot has a "for sale" sign in front of it. Vacation homes, weekend rentals, full-timers, they all want to sell before the next hurricane comes in. A sucker's bet.

The first night in Apalach we went over to Boss Oyster; it was OK, a good _real_ grouper sandwich with a proper huge hunk of fish, fried lightly. Strikes me as a nice lunch place. The menu was chock full of various oyster concoctions, things that IMHO you probably shouldn't do to oysters, but whatever floats your boat.

The next day was off to Cape San Blas and St. Joseph Spit (the state park). Last time I was over thataway there wasn't one single structure past the Eglin AFB radar station; now there's beaucoup beach houses etc. We tried, back in the day, but now it'll take a good hurricane. Anyway, the only place open was Conehead's, where we had a decent cheeseburger and fried-fish basket. OK typical beach-joint fare.

We went over beachside to enjoy the first gale of the season; we used it call it Sand Blast for a good reason.

On the way back to Apalach, we stopped at Indian Pass Raw Bar, where us turistas disturbed the locals butt-sitting out front but we chatted and of course found common ground. Indoors, fresh oysters, saltines, Tabasco and Coronas; _perfect_.

The next day on the way home we stopped at That Place on 98, where I had crab cakes and my wife had oyster stew for the very first time. The crab cakes were more crabby than cakey with a little zip of cayenne and the oyster stew was the simple oyster, a litle juice, heavy cream and butter. Very good and absolutely correct for the location.

If you're thinking about Florida and the Redneck Riviera, the Big Bend is a worthwhile trip. You can't go wrong unless you order something weird like steak or chicken...

[annecros]

Thanks for posting this. A fishing cabin in Carrabelle was our vacation destination when I was a kid. We made four or five trips every year.

Sorry to hear about the real estate situation. Some of the best seafood around can be found in the Big Bend. We literally would have never eaten seafood in our family growing up as Mom wouldn't cook it in the house. It "smelled the house" up too much! She certainly had no problem reheating a pot of collards though. Funny.