CSB: Using google maps/earth to take a stroll down memory lane

When I was a kid we used to vacation in Panama City Beach at least 2-3 times a year. This was in the 80's and 90's before it became one big condo complex and we always drove our RV down or pulled a 5th wheel pull along, whichever we had at the time, we went through them fairly regularly because we used them a lot, and we stayed at St Andrews State Park in their camp ground. Some of my best memories are from riding my bicycle through that campground as a kid, catching fish off the bay pier and wading out into the lagoon at night with a net catching little shrimp and crabs.

We are going down there in a couple weeks on vacation and I was gonna use google to pull up the place we are staying at to see what it looks like and got the bright idea of checking to see if maybe they had street shots of the park, which I seriously doubted, but lo and behold they sure enough did.

Clicking down the street, rotating the camera view 360 degrees the only thing missing from my thousands of bicycle rides through the park was the warm salty breeze in my face. I felt like I was there and 9 years old again with my fishing rods strapped to my handle bars wearing my OP bathing suit and PCB airbrushed tank top and cheap over sized sunglasses.

If you have never used google for this, do yourself a favor and do. It's amazing. Ive used it plenty of times to look up directions to give my grandmother when she is taking a longer road trip somewhere so I can give her points of reference for making turns and such and for seeing what a building I am going to looks like so I will recognize it, but for some reason this never even crossed my mind as an idea or possibility. I will include some screen shots of some of the more memorable shots. They may not look like much to you, but these were the greatest images of my childhood, and thank God, they have changed VERY little.

Catwalk over looking gator pond





Used to be a payphone here we would use to call home back before cell phones





One of my favorite views of the lagoon while riding my bicycle





Old Turpentine Mill we would take girls we met there to at night to be naughty (naughty at that age pretty much consisted of kissing and "necking")





Place JUST outside the gate that we ate breakfast at almost every morning. We would sometimes cook breakfast at the camp site but usually we just came here.





At this exact spot, 20 years ago (one of my last trips to stay here) when I was 17, my friend and I were rolling our balls off on some extraordinary triple stack white diamonds and saw a deer standing in this small clearing by the road. We got out and it let us walk up and pet it... my friend then snatched the hat off my head and used it to scoop up a crab that was on the ground next to us.. it shite in my hat.





when I was 15, in this exact camp site, was the first time I both copped a feel, and had a titty in my mouth.





Bay pier where I spent MANY days and nights pulling in all manner of ocean life. Even caught a turtle once. haha





View from across the street of our 2 favorite camp sites. One on the right the other on the left with a small beach area in between.





Gulf Pier Store. Nice to see good looking ladies still frequent the place.





Catwalk and store leading out to gulf beach and jetties. Used to watch guys catching lots of mackeral and other bigger fish from the jetties.





Gulf pier where we used to watch guys catching sharks at night. Saw a guy pull in a 4-5 footer once. Don't remember what kind it was.





Park store and bait shop. Pretty sure I bought enough bait from this place to feed the whole bay.





Hope you enjoyed my reminiscing. If not, I don't really give a shite.