Reading Week, March Break, aka Florida’s Tacky Side

 

Heading in to Panama City, are two main roads, one runs along the beachside but both are lined with hotels, restaurants, shops and attractions of all sorts.  A few of the older motels favour the pastel colours most associate with seaside resorts, the pale turquoise, dusty yellow, butter-mint green and baby pinks.   Many of the contemporary hotels reach skyward cutting interesting silhouettes.  There are a few vintage gems among them.  The trend appears to be to use saturated colours or primary red, yellow and blue or bright candy and electric fluorescent tones.  The theme screams “Look at me!” “Come here not there!” “We are far more fun than anyone!” “We guarantee a good time!” “Our prices and merchandise are the best!”

                                                                 I loved this cool beach ball sculpture.

                           one of a number of German post-war style condos blotting out the beach

                                                                                a taste of the old

Competition is evidently fierce.  With eight mini golf venues, thirty beachwear shops, countless bars, forty fishing excursion boats, two bungee jumping opportunities, three go cart tracks, twenty shell and souvenir stores, umpteen seafood restaurants, rental shops with beach bikes and beach buggies; ten gaming arcades and a few specialty museums and attractions like Ripley’s Titanic Experience, the need to stand out is obvious.  During the off season that we are in now, many of the venues are painting, renovating and stocking the shelves for the barrage of consumers arriving in March.  All the beachwear shops have sales, 75% off including bathing suits, half off, he he.  Of course, when we ere young and came to Florida, we would not let our parents rest until they had taken us to at least one or two of the enticing activities.

                       camels and oysters? huh?

     what kid would not want to go through that entrance?

                                      ...or this one, or the black whale storefront just down the road?

                                                            Yikes, flourescent orange rocks, how authentic!

                                                                           Gotta love those Sphinx eyes!

 The branding of the businesses are amusing as each one has attempted to invent an original name related to sun, sea, fun, heat, beach, fun, ocean creatures, pirates, beverages, fun, iconic seafarers and did I mention fun?

                                       love the “No Gimmicks!”

We biked over and explored a couple of marinas.  They are all but abandoned at this time of year.  A couple of chaps had just arrived back from a fishing trip and we watched the unloading of their catch.   We also checked out a few of the new beautiful boats for sale.  Overall, we prefer our daily doses of wave therapy.