St George Island - Almost Paradise...
November 2006
Last month a few friends (Puri, Shreedhevi and Ram) and I went for a weekend break to St George Island and Wakulla. The holiday began on a Thursday with an uneventful journey to Tallahassee, Florida via Atlanta. Yes we went to Tallahassee a small town which happens to be the capital of Florida.
We met Shreedhevi who works there and after a late dinner we headed for a Walmart to stock up on provisions and food for the trip. So here we were at 3 in the morning buying stuff from a walmart. And there were other people also shopping at that unearthly hour.
The next day we had a late start after some shopping towards our destination - St george Island. The Island is about a 70 miles from Tallahassee and is a small strip of land a few miles long and maybe just a mile or two broad.
The journey was a pleasant trip down US-319 south all the way to the Gulf. We passed some quaint sounding towns like Crawfordville, Medart, Carabelle and my favorite Panacea. The last 20 odd miles of the trip was on a beautiful road almost on the beach. We had our first view of the emerald blue ocean we had come for.
We reached the island connected by a lone bridge and checked into our vacation rental home. The place we stayed was a two bedroom house with a full kitchen. After settling down we went to the local grocery store. It was around 5:45 p.m. and we were lucky because the store closes at 6 in this sleepy town. We bought some fresh fish and chicken before heading back home.
We had quite a meal (thanks to Ram, who cooked for us) of chicken and rasam and rice. We sat up talking till late before calling it a day.
The next morning we woke up early to watch the sunrise. We were not disappointed as it was a clear day and the sunrise was beautiful. We went back to sleep for a few more hours and around noon got into the water finally. The water was a little chilly but was almost clear and very calm. After lunch we headed out to the Eastern part of the island which has been preserved in its natural form as a state park. The beach here is the way it would have been thousands of years ago - unadulterated. Later that night we sat around playing monopoly over a few drinks.
The next morning we woke up early because we had to check out and head back. On the way out we stopped at a souvenir shop and bought some stuff to take back as reminders of the good time we had. The man in the shop was quite surprised that we had heard about the Island.
We headed out to east point (the town on the mainland) to a restaurant that the locals had recommended. However they were closed - because it was a Sunday!!
On the way back we stopped over at Wakulla Springs, the world's largest fresh water spring. We were planning for a glass bottomed boat ride. But it had been cancelled for that day because as the ranger said the water was murrhky (murky). Gosh I love their accents. By murky they meant that the visibility was only around 25 feet deep. Any way we went on a boat ride with a entertaining ranger. We spotted some herons, egrets and ducks. We also came close to some gators and turltes. The spring was really beatiful and had us oohing and aahng at each turn. After we got back from the ride I was determined to take a dive in the cool spring water. I swam around for some time but chickened out of the dive from the far wnd where the water is from 35 to 125 ft deep.
We had a quite a uneventful trip to Talahassee and then on to DC by air. We reached DC late in the night dreading the fact that we had to go to work next day
Last month a few friends (Puri, Shreedhevi and Ram) and I went for a weekend break to St George Island and Wakulla. The holiday began on a Thursday with an uneventful journey to Tallahassee, Florida via Atlanta. Yes we went to Tallahassee a small town which happens to be the capital of Florida.
We met Shreedhevi who works there and after a late dinner we headed for a Walmart to stock up on provisions and food for the trip. So here we were at 3 in the morning buying stuff from a walmart. And there were other people also shopping at that unearthly hour.
The next day we had a late start after some shopping towards our destination - St george Island. The Island is about a 70 miles from Tallahassee and is a small strip of land a few miles long and maybe just a mile or two broad.
The journey was a pleasant trip down US-319 south all the way to the Gulf. We passed some quaint sounding towns like Crawfordville, Medart, Carabelle and my favorite Panacea. The last 20 odd miles of the trip was on a beautiful road almost on the beach. We had our first view of the emerald blue ocean we had come for.
We reached the island connected by a lone bridge and checked into our vacation rental home. The place we stayed was a two bedroom house with a full kitchen. After settling down we went to the local grocery store. It was around 5:45 p.m. and we were lucky because the store closes at 6 in this sleepy town. We bought some fresh fish and chicken before heading back home.
We had quite a meal (thanks to Ram, who cooked for us) of chicken and rasam and rice. We sat up talking till late before calling it a day.
The next morning we woke up early to watch the sunrise. We were not disappointed as it was a clear day and the sunrise was beautiful. We went back to sleep for a few more hours and around noon got into the water finally. The water was a little chilly but was almost clear and very calm. After lunch we headed out to the Eastern part of the island which has been preserved in its natural form as a state park. The beach here is the way it would have been thousands of years ago - unadulterated. Later that night we sat around playing monopoly over a few drinks.
The next morning we woke up early because we had to check out and head back. On the way out we stopped at a souvenir shop and bought some stuff to take back as reminders of the good time we had. The man in the shop was quite surprised that we had heard about the Island.
We headed out to east point (the town on the mainland) to a restaurant that the locals had recommended. However they were closed - because it was a Sunday!!
On the way back we stopped over at Wakulla Springs, the world's largest fresh water spring. We were planning for a glass bottomed boat ride. But it had been cancelled for that day because as the ranger said the water was murrhky (murky). Gosh I love their accents. By murky they meant that the visibility was only around 25 feet deep. Any way we went on a boat ride with a entertaining ranger. We spotted some herons, egrets and ducks. We also came close to some gators and turltes. The spring was really beatiful and had us oohing and aahng at each turn. After we got back from the ride I was determined to take a dive in the cool spring water. I swam around for some time but chickened out of the dive from the far wnd where the water is from 35 to 125 ft deep.
We had a quite a uneventful trip to Talahassee and then on to DC by air. We reached DC late in the night dreading the fact that we had to go to work next day
posted by Prathap @ 8:46 PM
4 Comments:
Great! You know I read only pictures ... Where? Where? Get them up, quick!
Mitali
I am trying to send you a comment.
why have you not written more of these interesting mails.
love
Amma
I have succeeded Send your pictures of your apartment.
Love
Amma
I agree with Mitali.. No fun in reading without the pictures...
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