This was the fifth year of BSP, herding as many folks as we could wrangle down to Port St. Joe to sit on the beach, grill seafood, sip drinks, play games, hike, bike, nap, tell tall tales late into the night and so on. The party starts around Thursday and goes through Monday, though we’ve had people go earlier, stay later, or just stop by. The weather in October is perfect in Florida’s panhandle – not too hot during the day, but still warm enough for a swim at night. We didn’t get the bioluminescent light show in the water we’ve had other years. Instead, we had to dodge a few jellyfish. But the company, food, drinks, sunsets, weather, and generally slacking were all fantastic. Here’s a random collection of pictures to get you the idea.
The beach is a short walk from camp. Though there are 22 miles of beach in the park, this section gets the most traffic.
But take a walk up the beach, or up the nature trail, and you can get away from even those few folks.
We trekked out to the beach every evening to watch the sun set. Some nights it was glorious, others merely pretty.
There is plenty of wildlife in the park. I’ve had to stop my car multiple times for herds of deer. Aside from the usual sea birds, you can spot eagles, vultures and owls. Armadillos will walk right through your camp if you let them. One of the rangers had rescued an orphaned baby raccoon, which he was showing off at the station.
If you’re motivated, get a fishing license and try to catch dinner. One of our gang managed to do so one day, serving up some tasty fish later that night.
Games, knitting, chasing pokemon – nerds on vacation!
Late night tall tales give way to early morning bacon to indicate shift change. Another day of adventure, another fantastic sunset, another round of drinks…
Eleven months until Bioluminescent Sparkle Party 2017!
