January 2, 2011: Happy New Year from Apalachicola, Still Here

We had a beautiful New Year's day. It was finally a warm day. I woke up early and walked out the dock to find some dolphin playing close by. After numerous attempts I finally got a picture of one. I also watched a spectacular sunrise. On the way back to the boat I noticed a kingfisher sitting on the railing. They are very colorful, fast, active and squawk loudly. I continue to be amazed at the variety of birds here.

The seafood restaurants here are informal and superb. We had lunch at one but I had to buy my own oysters and fresh grouper to cook on the boat. I have been carrying my oyster knife for three years waiting to get some oysters to open. (Fortunately Linda did not invoke the "throw it away after a year if you haven't used it! Of course having it hidden in the bottom of the drawer helped. :>) The oysters were absolutely wonderful as was the grouper.

We went to the Dr. John Gorrie museum. He invented air conditioning in attempt to help ease yellow fever. Not knowing what caused yellow fever it was thought that the heat was a major factor. He started using ice and fans to cool his patients and then sought a better way. He had the first patent for an air conditioner and spent his family fortune trying to market it. The sad note is that he never lived to see his invention take hold. The ice industry, people who cut ice from the Great Lakes and other northern areas and sold it across the country, killed the idea. This is a picture of his first machine.

We also went to a unique nautical "junk store". Unbelievable how much stuff the guy had. The monkeys, although not nautical, are an example of the type of stuff you might find there. From there we headed to the maritime museum. It was closed for renovation but the guy working there let us in. Turns out he is travelling from Alabama to Key West by canoe. He is staying in Apalachicola to earn some money for the next leg of his trip. Now that is adventurous! The sign Linda is looking at gives the direction and in some cases the mileage to various places. We have determined there is no way it's correct! We did manage to have our pork and sauerkraut dinner on New Year's Eve. According to the Drouhard tradition that means we will have enough money for the year! That is it for Steve's first blog posting. Happy New Year.