{"id":12805,"date":"2025-10-28T14:18:34","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T21:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/petersontravels.com\/?p=12805"},"modified":"2026-03-11T10:31:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T17:31:00","slug":"driving-to-apalachicola-fl-panama-city-beach-st-joseph-bay-state-buffer-preserve-the-gibson-inn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/petersontravels.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/28\/driving-to-apalachicola-fl-panama-city-beach-st-joseph-bay-state-buffer-preserve-the-gibson-inn\/","title":{"rendered":"Driving to Apalachicola, FL; Panama City Beach, St. Joseph Bay State Buffer Preserve, The Gibson Inn"},"content":{"rendered":"

We made our way further east along the Florida panhandle to it’s southernmost point, the little port town of Apalachicola.\u00a0 Along the way we stopped to have lunch in Panama City Beach at “Pineapple Willly’s”, as it has a very good rating on Google Maps.\u00a0 Let me make it clear, this place is a tourist trap, so skip it.\u00a0 At least the beach looks nice!\u00a0 You can see the effects of distant Hurricane Melissa, with the very threatening clouds.\u00a0 It didn’t stop people from hanging out on the beach.<\/p>\n

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As we were driving through downtown Panama City we saw these two buildings on either side of the street.\u00a0 First this ridiculous “ship”, which appears to be a Ripley’s Believe it or Not.<\/p>\n

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Then this upside down building (note the upside down palm trees and light poles) which is an arcade arena called Wonderworks.\u00a0 Panama City is basically Vegas, so unless you like that sort of thing I would avoid this place.\u00a0 I think we counted at least 5 miniature golf courses in about a mile.\u00a0 I don’t mind miniature golf, but do you need to have more courses than Starbucks?\u00a0 So glad we chose not to stay here!<\/p>\n

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We made a slight diversion to visit “St. Joseph Bay State Buffer Preserve Center”<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 This 19,000 mosaic of marshes and wetlands buffer the fragile waters of St. Joseph Bay, one of the gulf coasts healthiest estuaries.<\/p>\n

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It’s a stunning spot with views for miles from their viewing platform.<\/p>\n

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In both directions!<\/p>\n

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There is plenty of signage at the site explaining the local flora and fauna.\u00a0 The visitor center was closed but there was plenty to see regardless.<\/p>\n

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This Broad-Winged Hawk showed up while we were on top of the viewing platform.\u00a0 Nice pose!<\/p>\n

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There were Monarch butterflies all over these flowers next to the visitors center.\u00a0 We saw at least 100 of these while walking around the grounds.<\/p>\n

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Upon arriving in Apalachicola their sign lets you know they are the “Oyster Capital of the World”!!\u00a0 Not sure who gave them that designation, but we can attest there are oyster shells pretty much everywhere!<\/p>\n

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We stayed at the historic Gibson Inn<\/a><\/strong> which dates back to 1907, which bills itself as a part of “Old Florida”.\u00a0 The hotel has beautiful wrap-around porches right outside of your room.<\/p>\n

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The hotel is reportedly haunted, but we didn’t see anything during our 3 night stay.\u00a0 While the room was cozy and we really liked watching a thunderstorm from the 2nd floor balcony, the restaurant is not good and should be avoided.<\/p>\n

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Coming up, we tour the little town of Apalachicola, visit St. George Island, and take a boat ride up the Apalachicola River.\u00a0 I really like saying Apalachicola!!<\/p>\n

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We made our way further east along the Florida panhandle to it’s southernmost point, the little port town of Apalachicola.\u00a0 Along the way we stopped to have lunch in Panama City Beach at “Pineapple Willly’s”, as it has a very good rating on Google Maps.\u00a0 Let me make it clear, this place is a tourist … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Driving to Apalachicola, FL; Panama City Beach, St. Joseph Bay State Buffer Preserve, The Gibson Inn”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t