Change of Heart in Panama City, 12-12-2014

Friday, December 12, 2014

We woke early, made coffee and tea, and talked a bit about the next part of our journey.

As we talked, it seemed that the tail was wagging the dog, or in this case, that deadlines were making us move, as opposed to common sense, or the things we could experience along the way.  We had a full day planned for today, what with laundry to do, errands to run (somehow Kathy had lost her foul weather jacket, so a trip to West Marine was in order).  Packages were being delivered to the marina on Friday. And, one of the activities that was on our list of things to do was to visit the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, FL.

And the weather window to cross the gulf from Carrabelle, Florida to Clearwater Beach appeared to open on Sunday the 14th.  While in theory, we could have gotten to Carrabelle, some 100 miles away in time to make the crossing, we would have been traveling in the dark, and would have been exhausted, and not in good shape for our 30 some hour sojourn across the gulf.

Our friends in Bradenton told us that we will celebrate the holidays together when we get there and encouraged us to be safe.

The decision was made to keep the rental car through Sunday, visit the Naval Aviation Museum on Saturday, and s-l-o-w down.

So, West Marine was visited purchased, errands run, and we planned for Saturday at the museum.

The folks of the marina told us that every Friday evening in December, downtown Panama City hosts Dickens Evening.  All the shops are open, there are food vendors.  The town is decorated.  It helped get us in the holiday spirit, and downtown was packed!



Kathy in front of the Panama City Christmas Tree



But we think that the most amusing, and popular, feature was the ice slide.  Now understand, the temp high for the day was 78, and the low was 58.

Love the saucer...and the reindeer hat!

And the periodic snow fall around the ice slide. They threw ice into a machine and made ice crystals and shot it over the crowd and replenished the ice slide!

Snow in Panama City, FL

We heard one small child say to her mother that it would be SO FUN if this could happen everyday!  Tim just looked at each other and chuckled.

We had dinner, a glass of wine, and headed back to Sea Fever, looking forward to our trip the National Naval Aviation Museum on Saturday.