Pensive yellow-crowned night heron

Fate or destiny, whatever, I was in the right place at the right time. After spending several nights sleeping on the slab (roadside motels) we discovered the Wakulla Springs Lodge and State Park. This area of the state (below Tallahassee) is referred to as the “real” Florida, a cypress bayou draped in epiphytes, misty and mysterious. Some called it a swamp, but swamp does not do this romantic place justice. At first we were just going to stop for the night, a place to stay until we reached the next place to stay, but there was no place we needed to be so we checked in for 4 nights. I took the boat cruise and added eight new birds to my life list. This is also the site where two Tarzan movies were filmed, plus The Creature of the Black Lagoon.

But the real treat was meeting two photographers Lo and Betsy Kellenberger (visit Lou’s gallery in Tallahassee). I was delighted to learn that they are also interested in birds. They told me about the St. Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge festival taking place on Saturday. I attended and had the chance to meet the Operation Migration and International Crane Foundation folks who were great resources for my whooping crane book. I hope to return to St. Mark’s in the near future, for this is also a prime location to view the young whooping cranes as they fly over on their maiden migratory flight to Chassahowitzka NWR.

Being present for a flyover is on my bucket list, and now I know exactly where to go.

The morning we left, we saw 8 manatees cavorting near the boat dock! Not a bad stopover!

Travel Log: Day 246 - Apalachicola, Fl

I had the wonderful opportunity to spend six days in Apalachicola, Florida and could have easily stayed the rest of the winter. I found myself a home at a local coffee shop called Café con Leche. The name jumped out at me as I cruised by the first day. Café con Leche was the first real Spanish phase I leaned when I spent that wild and crazy summer in Spain in 1978. The next phase I learned, which added to the craziness, was cuba libre con ginebra, but that’s another story entirely.

That first day I walked in,Tamara Suarez and Liz Hernandez treated me as if I were a local. After days of convenient-store coffee, their café Americano was elixir from heaven. Straus played quietly in the background; it was a welcome melody and a nice change from a squawking voice in the last place that served something they called coffee. The lyrics went something like, “Relax, you in Bad Ax.”

Their cranberry scones were worth every calorie and the breakfast tacos were gourmet!

I also discovered Downtown Book and Purl, a bookstore and yarn shop.

Great coffee and books in Apalachicola, what more do you need?