Swamp House

What’s more fun than lunch with a friend? Lunch with a friend, a couple babies, and some alligators at the Swamp House! Just kidding, we didn’t see any alligators…this time. “Come back in a month, when the water gets warmer, and they come out of the Escambia River and up in here,” said a friendly employee. Also, there was one alligator on Isaac’s “See you later” onesie. Anyway, the menu is pretty basic, but the sweet tea was good, Isaac licked the floor and didn’t get sick, the surprisingly orange waitress brought the babies sliced watermelon, and the diners closest to our table had zero swamp accents and casually used the word “apropos” in context. So we were impressed with that. The Swamp House is open for lunch and dinner Thursday thru Sunday. It’s the first right after you cross the Escambia River from Pace toward Pensacola. It’s also a boat launch, and maybe an RV park. 

I almost ran over a six-foot alligator on my bike one time, on one of my family’s many biking jaunts to Texas’s Brazos Bend State Park. I’d followed my mom (“your dad?” No, no—this time, it was my fearless mom leading the charge toward the unknown) down an embankment because a bunch of people were blocking the bridge. Turns out they were blocking the bridge because they were staring at the six-foot alligator. And no one shouted down any apropos advice like, “Watch out, ladies; you are riding rather close to that six-foot, hungry-looking alligator, and he looks less like he’s about to see you later and more like he’s about to chomp you.” So my mom stopped suddenly, warned me as I cruised by, and we made hast in the general direction from which we’d come. Then we crossed the bridge, and still no one said anything. Rude. Stay tuned for more Florida alligator hunting!