Melongena corona is commonly know as the Florida crown conch. Our Labor Day paddling adventures took us to Cape San Blas – on the forgotten coast of Florida – where we found many, many of these cute snails. You will frequently find hermit crabs in these shells, but the hermit crab didn’t make the shell, he just stole it.
For the record, no conchs were harmed in the making of this blog post, but we were very entertained by these little fellows! We like to paddle board along the edges of the Port St. Joe Bay, looking for sting rays, whelks and other creatures. On this day we found a load of crown conchs. We stopped counting at 25 – but it was fun to watch them crawl around on the board for a minute.
Side note – for those that are interested in getting started in paddle boarding, or just looking for a new board, you should consider the inflatable Body Glove Performer from Costco. It’s a great board – easy to inflate and comes with a nice lightweight paddle – and all fits into a backpack when you are not using it. The design changes a little each season, and the price runs about $399. I highly recommend this board, and the newer one even comes with an electric pump to save your back. Better yet – get two – so you can take a friend!
Anyway, so back to our fun weekend. We stayed at the Cape San Blas Inn for the first time, and it was really cute. Our room had its own screened porch, and much to our surprise and delight, the Inn is also a bed and breakfast. The food was amazing – one morning was a quiche with muffins and fruit, and the next was lemon ricotta stuffed French toast. It was a great way to fuel up for paddle boarding.
We headed to St. Joseph Peninsula State Park after breakfast, and since it was a football weekend in Tallahassee, the park was not crowded at all. On the way into the park, we saw a bald eagle in one of the many pine trees. There are a ton of dead pine trees after hurricane Michael took its toll on this area in 2018, and the majority of the park has not been open since that time. Among other damage, the storm bisected the park and created a “cut” where there were once dunes.
It was an amazing site – and even more amazing is that mother nature has since healed this wound -and the cut closed up in less than one year. Now, you would never know it happened (except for chunks of asphalt in the bay from the road that was destroyed during the storm). Park renovations are underway, and we can’t wait for the work to be complete. I am grateful that Port St. Joe and Cape San Blas have made such a tremendous recovery after Hurricane Michael four years ago.
Our paddle board adventures also brought us up close and personal with some southern sting rays, horseshoe crabs, starfish, dolphin and a few sharks as well. We even saw deer as we were leaving the park one day.
On our last day we needed to grab lunch before heading back home, and found a great little food truck not too far from the state park entrance called Bad Mamma Jamma. The grilled grouper po’ boys and banana pudding were delicious – and just what we needed to top off a great weekend.
I hope you get a chance to explore the forgotten coast on your next adventure!
Adventures Near and Far 