The Cape Escape – Cape San Blas

I am getting lots of questions about Thanksgiving on Cape San Blas. There is nothing like a beach Thanksgiving! It’s not too late to get your vacation rental (see below).

The 1st question I get is “what is the average temperature on the Cape in November”. The average high is 75 degrees in November & 66 in December so likely somewhere in between. The pool by the tennis courts in Barrier Dunes is heated if we hit the warmer end of this spectrum!

Another question I get is what will we eat? There are a number of great choices! You can cook in any of our rentals, there are full kitchens with all you need to make a masterpiece (as long as you come knowing how to cook, lol! You can bring all of your supplies or the Piggly Wiggly in Port St. Joe will have what you need. If you forget anything both the Cape Trading Post or Scallop Cove, right on Cape San Blas will have just about anything your forgot. Why not try making some oyster stuffing for a little coastal flare?

You can also have your groceries delivered to your rental in advance of your arrival. Just contact Coastal Concierge LLC at 850-227-5148.

Finally, and one of my favorites is to either eat out or pick up your meal.

The Sand Bucket Smokehouse & Grill, right on the Cape, is doing a complete Thanksgiving dinner you can pick up & enjoy at your rental. Be sure to order in advance: 850-229-4227. Sand Dollar Cafe in Port St. Joe is also doing a homemade sit-down lunch. Be sure to call for details and reservations: 850-227-4865.

Thanksgiving is when our family always captured our family picture for our Christmas card. So many great backdrops on the Cape for the picture it makes it easy! Nice to get that Christmas card picture out of the way! This is one of our earliest Christmas pictures taken at the Cape!

We do currently have some Thanksgiving openings, all with specials if you want to get some family time at the beach:
Cape Escape I – Barrier Dunes 67 and Sea Breeze – Barrier Dunes 52 are both open weekly and nightly.

Turtle Tracks – Barrier Dunes 188  is open from November 26 – December 1 and Waters Edge – Barrier Dunes 177 is open November 27 – December 1.

Where ever you and your family are I hope you make WONDERFUL MEMORIES!

Sea Turtle nesting season on St. Joseph Peninsula – Cape San Blas is MAY 1- END OF OCTOBER.

Seeing a sea turtle lay her eggs or seeing one of the nests come to life with hatchlings can be one of the most memorable experiences you can have on Cape San Blas!

During the early part of the season, you may be lucky enough to see one of the huge, beautiful turtles come in and lay her eggs.  You can walk the beach with the Turtle Patrol to learn about these ancient creatures and their struggle for survival.

In 2017 St. Joseph Peninsula had a total of 206 nests and 2011 were Loggerhead nests.  Loggerhead Turtles are an endangered species!  These nest produced 14,071 eggs and 8,982 hatchlings.

During nesting season the Turtle Patrol is out every day looking for tracks or a “crawl” of the adult turtle coming from the water.  The Turtle Patrol will take a variety of measurements, then cover the nest with a metal screen to deter predators.   Then they mark all nests with wood stakes and yellow tape, so you will likely see many of these on your long walks on Cape San Blas.  Never touch a sea turtle nest…only PERMITTED TURTLE PATROL volunteers are permitted to do this.

Sea Turtles and their hatchlings are very vulnerable when they are on the beach.

How can YOU help the turtles survive?

Remove all your items from the beach each night so these mom’s get to their spot to nest!

After a day of making sand castles and digging holes on the beach, fill them in and knock down the sand sculptures before going in!  You don’t want one of the large turtles to get stuck in your hole and the moms or hatchlings to have more obstacles than they already face to get to the water when they hatch.

Use turtle safe flashlights on the beach at night!  It is especially important to leave your cell phone flashlights and other flashlights OFF especially if you see a mom laying her eggs or turtle hatching!

Sheild interior lighting and turn off exterior lights at night.  Sea turtles go toward the light by instinct and light on land can be very disorienting for them.

Don’t touch turtles of their hatchlings…ever and don’t let your pet near a nest or a turtle.

Email the St. Joseph Peninsula Turtle Patrol at sjpturtlepatrol@gmail.com if you have any questions at all!

Hatching Season

During hatching season, the nests are checked daily for signs of hatching.   Three days after a nest has hatched, the volunteers evacuate the nests to collect data on the contents and determine if the hatch was successful.

Cape Escape Vacation Rentals can help get you to Cape San Blas!

To learn more about the sea turtles by following the Forgotten Coast Sea Turtle Center on Facebook!

While it’s rare to have a full day of rain on Cape San Blas, it does occasionally rain.  Don’t let that spoil your day or your fun family time!  Even if it’s not raining, sometimes you need some down time from the beach.

Here are some ideas of things to do on those days!

 

The Artery Studio:  Downtown Port St. Joe  850-227-5741
Drop by during their “open hours” & paint a beach-theme photo frame, a basket, flower pots or decorate a photo frame with shells you collected on the beach.  You can also paint a canvas or take a silk painting class and take home a beautiful, wearable piece of art to remember your vacation.

 

No Name Cafe:  Downtown Port St. Joe