Farsighted Fly Girl

It's no secret that I harbor a life long attraction to islands. I have never visited one that I didn't like although I do especially love the small, sparsely populated islands. St. Vincent, in northwestern Florida, fits that bill nicely. (Although St. Vincent & The Grenadines would also fall into that category.)  Floating smack dab in the Gulf of Mexico, St. Vincent is completely uninhabited. I explored the wild, unspoiled terrain one afternoon with a boat ride from nearby St. George.  The trees were windswept and sun burnt and the pearly sand was studded with hundreds of shells. St. Vincent is also home to a national wildlife refuge and even if you didn't know that, you get that feeling from the striking terrain.  I spotted Alligators, bald eagles and ospreys but wolves and snakes also lurk. I collected two pounds of seashells and lots of relaxing memories from St. Vincent.

Along the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Florida, St. George Island unfurls with long stretches of pearly sand and serene landscapes. I visited this hidden, 22-mile barrier island expecting the unspoiled beauty but I also discovered a very distinctive, old school lifestyle that includes oyster harvesting.  Oysters can only be harvested manually in St. George so the surrounding Apalachicola Bay is dotted with small boats like the one above. These oyster boats haven't changed much since they were developed 100 years ago.  The wooden structure measures 20-23 feet and are equipped with  a small cubicle to protect against the sun, a culling board to separate the oysters and long, 12-feet tongs used to rake the shellfish from the oyster beds onto the boats. Oyster harvesting is often a family business, I spotted many husband and wife teams out on the water, patiently culling oysters, piling them into 60 pound sacks that go for approximately $25 each...

I've seen a lot of strange sights during my travels and the phone booth/police station that I visited on my recent trip to St. George Island, Florida, counts as one of them. Clearly, the little town of Carrabelle right outside of St. George, which consists of a few streets and this police station, does not experience much crime. Before the phone booth, the police phone was a simple call box bolted to a building. That call box served as the police headquarters until they were plagued by tourists making unauthorized long distance calls. So in 1963, they erected a phone booth under a chinaberry tree. This booth and bench currently provides the local police with all they need to regulate crime. I am not making this up. The phone booth has been featured in Ripley's Believe It Or Not and the Today Show. I squeezed into the booth and it is a tight fit. I don't think Carabelle police eat many doughnuts or other stereotypically fatty foods popular with the police. S...