Monday February 16, 2009

We had a lovely dinner at Olive Garden last night and of course had plenty of leftovers. Dave had seafood alfredo and I had shrimp and asparagus risotto - yum! We woke up to a chilly but sunny day with a promise of a beautiful day so after breakfast we went to the Tallahassee Museum (which serves as their zoo of sorts). The animal part consists of many native creatures that are being rehabbed. They had birds of prey, deer, wolves, a bobcat, Florida panthers, a black bear, foxes, and our favorite - river otters. We spent quite a bit of time watching them play in the water - they are so personable and cute although you wouldn't want to get your hand too close if you value your fingers! The elevated wooden walkway meandered through and over a cypress swamp (pictured above) where the Spanish moss hung down almost to the water in places - it really was picturesque. The rest of the "museum" consisted of a collection of buildings which were moved here from a variety of places. These included a schoolhouse, an African American Baptist church, a small plantation house and a slave house. There also was a section which was set up like a 19th century farm with a mill, farmhouse, and a commissary for a turpentine camp. It was very interesting and it was a great day to be outside. We then drove to Woodville to the Natural Bridge Battlefield Site. This was the place where the Confederate soldiers prevented the Union soldiers from reaching Tallahassee (the only southern capital east of the Mississippi not captured during the Civil War. It was located on the banks of the St. Marks river and the natural bridge comes from the fact that the river disappears into a cavern at this point and doesn't reappear for 150 feet. We got in the car again and decided to go down to the shore. We drove down to Panacea and stopped at a marine lab. It was quite small, but they did have a couple of very cool octopuses among some of the more normal native fish, sponges, starfish, and turtles. We continued on and followed the shore to Apalachicola where we stopped at a seafood house for linner (lunch and dinner). Dave had grilled shrimp and I had some awesome blue crab cakes. We walked around the town a bit, but it was a typical seashore town with tourist shops filled with gee-gaws so on the road again. We continued along the shore until we turned north at Port Saint Joe and then back to Tallahassee. We left here at 9 this morning and got back at 7 tonight - it was a fun day! Back to the lab tomorrow so we will stay in this evening. By the way, there are a lot of small fundamentalist churches in this part of the world. Most of them have lighted message boards in front of them. Some of the sayings are quite clever. Our favorite today was, "The best vitamin for a Christian is B1."