Panama City

Our first stop on the trip was Panama City. Panama City is the largest city between Tallahassee (Florida’s State capital) and Pensacola.  It is located within Florida panhandle along the Emerald coast. It was a 7 hour drive from my Grandpa’s house and from Cape Coral it was 10 hours. Tyndall air force base is located in Panama City. While on the beach it was not uncommon to see and hear planes flying above us. A navy dive museum is located here as well with submarines and dive equipment.



                We stayed at St. Andrews State park our campsite had an ocean view.  Our fire pit area was surrounded by palm trees and Panama hat plants.  It seemed like we were on a deserted island. We saw dolphins jumping outside our window! The park had a beach with a jetty. A jetty helps the beach sand from eroding and provides a safe swimming area.

 

 

 There was an alligator swamp and many hiking, biking trails. The information center had many cool hands on experiences. I really liked a cute puffer fish that seemed to follow us as we walked around the aquarium. The center had many shells, butterflies, eggs, and stuffed animals native to the park. There was even a display showing how turtles hatch. The beach is 1.5 miles long with white powdered sand.  Grace and I found many pieces of sand dollars and shells on the beach.  We also saw a dozen dolphins jumping in the waves.  The coolest thing we saw was a black tip reef shark that had been caught by a fisherman on the beach. We got to see its teeth they were very white and looked very sharp.

                I bought this cool wave runner ball that when you throw it side arm on an angle it bounces on the water.  It is very awesome! We played monkey in the middle.