Perdido Key, Fl., & East Beach Of Big Lagoon State Park

Friday 2/14/2014

On Valentines Day, we decided to take the bridge over to the Perdido Key Beach.

Once across the bridge we were in the town of Perdido Key, FL.

 On the island we turned east and drove to the Gulf Island National Seashore.

Joe forgot we were staying at a state park, not a national park, so it was going to cost us $8 to get in. We have not bought a National Annual Pass this year because we don't plan on seeing enough National Parks that it would benefit us to buy a $80 annual pass. Joe has one more year and he can buy a life time membership for $10. What a deal to be old!

We turned around and and went the other direction on the island to the Perdido Key State Park. We got in free here, because we are staying at a state park.

Lots of pavilions and parking to the beach when you go west on the island, after you cross over the bridge.

The temperature was around 62, but it was windy this day.

We walked west into the wind for a while, until my ears started to hurt. (My ears are sensitive to cool wind). We walked until we got in front of this condo.

We found this piece of art in front of the condo.

Joe poses next to the alligator to show you how big he is.

All the end units have pretty nice patio's.

I couldn't get the camera to work at this point so I handed it to Joe and started back with the wind at our back. He got it fixed as you can see.

Sand art produce by the wind.

After getting back to the car, we drove west further on the Perdido Key Dr. going past the condo we had seen on the beach. The condo's are the Eden Condominium. As we drove further, things started to look familiar, and soon we came to the Florabama, the Florida Alabama border. I drove to Florabama several times while in Gulf Shores to buy my Powerball tickets. We didn't realize how close we were to the boarder from our campground. Another 30 minutes and I could have been at our daughter and grand kids home. We drove to Big Lagoon State Park from I-10, and through Pensacola so it seemed much farther away.

We headed back and crossed back over the bridge from Perdido Key to Pensacola, FL. It was only 9 miles from FloraBama to Pensacola via the island route.

Once we got back to the state park we drove thru the park to the East Beach area. At the East Beach, we parked and walked the boardwalk that leads to the tower.

View of Perdido Key Island from the tower.

View of Gulf Islands National Seashore.

A close up  shows the road with cars out to almost the end of the barrier reef.

View of the boardwalk we walked on to get to the tower, and the Big Lagoon State Park.

Looking east from the tower. After we got done looking from the tower, we walked the rest of the boardwalk below.

Looking NE from the tower.

Looking north now in the tower.

And finally looking back at the boardwalk that we started at.

So we left the tower and walked to boardwalk until it ended. We had to walk a short distant on a sand trail past the East Beach,

Than we were able to get back on a boardwalk that circles the area.

View of the tower from the boardwalk as we circle the area.

A couple are kayaking the waters that lead from the Grand Lagoon to Big Lagoon / Intracoastal Waterway.

We finish our walk on the boardwalk in the East Beach area and ended the day with some more much needed exercise that got pushed to the side during the holidays.