Monday, August 12
Yes, we already blogged about this day but a couple of interesting things happened afterwards. When we returned to the hotel after dinner we found that there was no water. When we enquired at 6:00 pm we were told that it would be back by 6:30 pm. At 7:00 pm, when there was no water, we were told that it would be back in five minutes. It wasn’t. Thirty minutes later someone knocked on our door and said it was now back. It wasn’t. At 8:00 pm someone came to our door with a new room key. It seems that the water was back on in some rooms but ours was not one of them. Since we’re always in traveling mode it took us just a couple of minutes pack up and move. Our new room was a suite, complete with a full kitchen. It’s a shame they didn’t have water problems the day we arrived.
We intended to stay a few more days in Sarasota but since we’d accomplished everything we wanted to we decided to leave tomorrow. This meant rearranging a few of our hotel reservations. We found an even cheaper place in Panama City so we cancelled the original reservation and booked another place. We also extended our reservation in New Orleans from one to three days. The rest of the trip could stay as planned.
By this time it was rather late so Deborah didn’t get a chance to wash her hair. We should have time tomorrow.
Tuesday, August 13
This morning, as Deborah was getting ready, I intended to do some route planning. I found the email with the new hotel’s address and clicked on it expecting the map to come up with the hotel highlighted. The map came up but there was no hotel, “Address Unknown”. I hunted and pecked for a few minutes before I realized that we’d reserved a hotel in Panama City, Panama instead of Panama City, Florida. Oops! What was worse is that it was past time when we could cancel without paying for the room. I sent the hotel a message telling them of my mistake and they graciously cancelled the room at no charge. I’ll bet that’s not the first time that’s happened.
Along the way from Sarasota we stopped at a Steak and Shake. We’d never been to one before and were anxious to complete our survey of hamburger joints purporting to have the best shakes. Our survey includes Five Guys, Freddie’s, Culver’s and Steak and Shake.
I ordered a garlic burger and Deborah ordered a Cajun burger. Both were made from fresh beef and had been smashed and cooked on a flat top. Each cost $3.99 and came with a large portion of skinny fries. The burgers were excellent and the fries were very tasty. Our main complaint would be that both were incredibly salty. We also shared a chocolate malted. It was overwhelmingly sweet. For our money Five Guys and Culvers have, by far, the best shakes / ice cream products.
(Steak and Shake Burger and Fries)
After checking into our hotel we drove across the bridge into the town of Panama City Beach. It’s a long, narrow piece of land that parallels the mainland for many miles. It’s a typical tourist area with large condos right on the beach and many seafood and fishing themed stores and restaurants. The beach itself, is rather wide and clean and composed of fine white sand. We went into one of the larger condo complexes and took a flyer showing units for sale. A 1,000 square foot 2 bedroom / 2 bath unit (that’s pretty small) was selling for about $300,000 – and that didn’t include a garage. There was no mention of taxes or HOA either. Ouch! It’s clear that most of these apartments are rented out in the season. Still, if you ever wanted to live on the beach, this would be a place to consider.
We drove along the water and went from town to town. Eventually, we decided to find something for dinner. Happily we were just blocks from a place called Buddy’s Seafood Market. It’s fish market with raw and freshly prepared local seafood. We picked some large gulf shrimp. They were steamed before our eyes and finished with hot sauce, shrimp boil (think Old Bay) and lemon. They were also served with scallions and red onion. The shrimp were fresh and delicious. We might go back again for breakfast 😜. We also got a couple of pieces of homemade key lime pie for dessert. The pie was just average. Total cost: $30.13.
(Boiled Shrimp from Buddy’s)