The Not Deserted Island

Firstly, since today is Memorial Day, here is a coda to the pervious post on war memorials: Strange Maps recently posted a map of the world made from cut-out images of various types of soldiers. The map was made by Amnesty International as part of an add campaign, but isn’t terribly interesting in and of itself. More interesting is the collection of famous and not-so-famous quotes about war the blogger posted with the map. If such things interest you, please check it out.

In one last attempt at fun before we leave Tallahassee we went last week to St. George Island. This is right next to Dog Island but it much, much larger and considerably more developed. There is a bridge out to the island; they have banks there, restaurants and hotels. The welcome center of the island is also a lighthouse museum. Although the museum part is really understated (one cabinet of artifacts) and the lighthouse itself in still being built, the whole project has an interesting story. St. George Island is 45 miles long. This long island and the mainland coast form the edges of Apalachicola Bay. The only way into the bay from the sea is around the east or west end of the island. On the western end of the island there has been a succession of three lighthouses. The most recent one was damaged by hurricanes and eventually topped by waves in 2005 despite a large-scale effort to save it. It produced an impressive pile of rubble when it fell. The overhead shot is scanned from a newspaper we picked up. The “museum” has a large wall-mounted photo of the same shot. Since the Coast Guard had decommissioned the light in 1994 official powers were not really concerned when it fell over. The local St. George Lighthouse Association, however, literally picked us the pieces and has arranged for the tower to be rebuilt in the main developed area of St. George Island as a tourist attraction. Some of the original bricks are being reused for the interior-most layer. When it is open again, one will see the original 150-year old bricks while climbing.

The eastern end of the island is a state park and we had intended to rent kayaks and paddle around in the ocean. The kayak rentals were by cash or check only so we were unable to rent one when we first arrived at the park. We did not bring out check book and didn’t have enough cash on hand. We were hungry right then so we decided to eat first and then worry about the kayaks. We ate our Subway on the beach then took a walk. It looks the same as Dog Island, except there are lots of other people walking, sitting, reading, swimming, crisping, sandcastleing, and kite flying. After a walk on the beach we decided to head for an ATM to get the cash we needed for the kayaks. Unfortunately, there was some rainy weather moving in by then. We did get some cash and then moseyed about in the shops on the island hoping the rain and dark clouds would go away. They never did. Eventually we just gave it up and went home. We drove a ridiculously long way just to take a walk on the beach! It was a very anti-climactic end to our travels here in the Sunshine State.

Now, we focus on packing up the 14 boxes of stuff we have for the next move…