Sunday June 3: Back to Jacksonville - One More Time

Palatka has done quite a bit with their waterfront area. The Blue Crab Festival from last weekend is history (actually they had to close a day early on Sunday due to tropical storm Beryl hitting the area) and all is back to normal. The gardens are really well done. At breakfast there was a cute little lizard sitting on the window sill outside where we were sitting. He/she couldn't see us so it was easy to get a picture. The third picture is Palatka from the water.

Our destination for yesterday was 6 mile creek and the Outback Crab Shack. It was "must go to" according to ActiveCaptain reviews. And the docking was free for the price of dinner - how could we go wrong? After making it over the 4 1/2 foot area at the entrance to 6 mile creek we made it to the 1500 foot dock! Talk about providing for the boaters! We tied up about 2/3 of the way down the dock from the restaurant as we really wanted to catch whatever breeze we could - no power or water on the dock but what would one want for free overnight docking? The menu showed how many boat were docked and rafted together at some point in time.

We couldn't help but notice the "Hard Core Confederate" boat as it left the dock space. Normal for Alabama or Tennessee but somewhat unusual for Florida!

So the price of the dock was really dinner, right? I try not to put too many food pictures on this blog but this one just had to be here! This is a 1/2 country boil. Snow crab, shrimp, clams, potatoes, mushrooms, corn on the cob, brocoli and crayfish! Very tasty :-) The menu said it was enough for 2 hungry people or a small family of 4. Guess we were pretty hungry :-)

We were back for breakfast of course. Many alligator heads on the counter just waiting for a willing arm! We had a chance to speak with the former owner (her son had taken it over). She was originally from Edisto Island, SC and was the only one of 9 siblings that left the area. Seems her husband always wanted to own a fish camp and over the years this is what they ended up with. Strangely enough, the location is actually St. Augustine. Manatee were around (as were several alligators). With the manatee, you're lucky if you can catch them with a nose in the air taking a breath. Another wonderful sunset - and almost no bugs :-) But VERY loud frogs. I tried to take a video to record the sounds but something went wrong. Oh well.

The trip to Jacksonville (only about 35 miles) was very nice - hardly any wind. At times the water was crazy calm. We leave here tomorrow morning at 6 am to catch the current down the St. Johns River to the ICW. It can be as high as 3 mph so it's worth trying to time it. Destination: Fernandina Beach.