How we survived Spring Break 2008 in Panama City, Florida

We had not really planned to spend so much time in Panama City but as it turned out, it has been very nice place to spend time. After having arrived yesterday in the rain, we decided to spend today just relaxing and seeing the city. The marina is very conveniently located to the historic downtown area which has several very nice restaurants and lovely walkways throughout the area.

A cool thing about this marina is that it has a webcam and our boat is front and center if you would like to see us. The website is: http://www.panamacity-fl.gov/pcmcam.htm The date on the camcorder is incorrect but the feed is live, so if you would like Captain Mark or I to perform for you, just give us a call when you have the site up and we will go out onto the bow of the boat and wave to you. We will be here until at least Friday, March 21st.

I have also found that I absolutely love Muffulettas. I was introduced to these sandwiches by Lolligag Crew Member and Reunion Queen Terry last year as part of a “muff” phase that seemed to have overtaken some Golden Knights. I found them to be like no other sandwich that I have ever had. Never having been to New Orleans, I have made it my objective to have one of these sandwiches whenever possible while in the South. The Cheese Barn, a wonderfully charming and smallish restaurant in downtown Panama City, serves one of the best that I have had to date. I highly recommend this eatery but you must be aware that the restaurant is only open between 11a until 2p during the week. Even with these limited hours, the place is packed.

With our new satellite TV, we watched with interest as yet another large storm front was predicted to come our way. The weather for the Panama City area and the Panhandle is predicted to be rather rainy and windy so we thought it would was best to take the pick-em-up truck back to Indiana at this time – it is currently at Dog River Marina in Mobile. This seemed to be the best thing to do after all of the options were considered. We had discussed and considered every possible scenario and it seemed best to take the truck back home ourselves. Now the silliest thing about this whole process is that if we rented a car in Florida, kept it for a week with unlimited miles, drove it home to Indiana and back, the cost would be less than half the cost if we drove the truck home and then rented a car to drive one way back to Florida from Indiana – we put twice as many miles on the rental car for half the price.

While the sun was still shinning we decided to live on the edge and head over to Panama City Beach to see the Spring Break 2008 critters. We had never seen a four story beer bong before so we set out to see what we could see. Need I say that we saw more than we cared to see while safely secure in our seats on the mass transit trolley. We would never have the courage nor would we dare to leave the trolley as it passed through the mass of college students. I must say that both boys and girls were all very cute, very scantily dressed, and were able to carry more cases of beer than most pack animals. As Captain Mark and I gawked from the windows of our trolley, we wished the kids fun and safety as they participated in this annual rite of passage.