While waiting on a weather window to travel, we walked the little town of Carrabelle, Florida.  Carrabelle (considered the gateway to the gulf) is the best jumping off spot in the Florida Panhandle before crossing the gulf to more southern ports.  Carrabelle is a naturalist’s paradise and a walkable community.  It felt like a walk back in time.

    

Carrabelle also boasts having the world’s smallest police station situated on Highway 98.  On March 10, 1963, Carrabelle’s police phone rang in the outside highway booth so that Chief Albin Westberg could answer calls and watch for speeders.  It has also been featured on a variety of television shows.

   

We stopped by the visitor’s center and visited the history museum as well.  Carrabelle, a once bustling port, was incorporated in 1893 but technology and a more modern culture has left Carrabelle in it’s wake.

    

And FINALLY, Karen was able to capture a photo of dolphins “out” of the water. (Yes, this is a joke)….and we also saw sea turtles!!!

    

So far on our trip we have seen lots of pelicans – that fly as soon as we think about getting close enough to photograph them.  We found “Jack the Attack Pelican”.  Instead of flying – he was aggressive toward us and even snapped at Karen a time or two as she got too close taking pictures.

        

We had been told not to miss the bottle house and light house!  A local artist, a retired Professor of Art at the University of Tennessee, built the bottle house in 2012.  It is made up of over 6,000 glass bottles.

    

The refraction of the light coming through the colored bottles made for an interesting array of lighting.  The floor is a realistic mural of a koi pond.

    

We found the Loch Ness monster in a pond at a little city park and Ron was adopted by a stray puppy for the remainder of our walk.

    

Back at C-Quarter Marina, we spent a few hours with fellow loopers studying maps, charts and weather apps in preparation for the 170 mile gulf crossing to warmer climates…….

The “crossing” is one of the few unprotected (open water) voyages loopers have to make to complete the journey.

After dinner we joined other loopers on the porch to exchange more looping stories and everyone’s plans to move forward…..