The Grand Lagoon

The Grand Lagoon is located in St. Andrew's Bay.  Before it was the Grand Lagoon is was a deserted, shallow area of the bay until Captain Walter Anderson decided to move his fleet of sport fishing boats to the area and developed a deep canal to get the boats in and out of the lagoon.  It is near the St. Andrew's Pass making the Gulf of Mexico just minutes away.  St Andrews Bay got its name from the Spanish explorers who named most of the waterways, local areas and cities of Florida several hundred years ago.  St Andrews Bay was discovered on St. Andrews Day, noted from the Catholic calendar, and the bay was named after St. Andrew.  The Grand Lagoon has its own history with Native Americans and Pirates enjoying the area before it became a tourism area.  The Native Americans lived here for years before the settlers can in the 1800s.  Shell Island became an area  that the Native Americans, Spanish, pirates and slaves used for many things.  The Native Americans and slaves used the island to live on while the Spanish used it for storage and the pirates used it to bury it's treasures.  The pirates loved St. Andrew's bay because of the many coves they could hide in while waiting for the merchant ships that ran to Mexico from Spain.  In 1819 the area was purchased by the U.S from Spain and President Andrew Jackson made it a personal mission to get the area cleaned up and rid of the Native Americans and slaves that were living on what was considered 'no man's land' Shell Island.  He sent troops and spent a lot of time in the St Andrew's Bay area.  Captain Anderson worked hard in creating the Grand Lagoon which brought a business and tourism boom to the area.  Another boom came to the Grand Lagoon in the 1950s and 60 with St Andrews State Park that opened in 1951 and  Captain Anderson's restaurant established in 1967.  Since then the Grand Lagoon has several restaurants, marinas, charter fishing boats and water sports.  The Grand Lagoon just got a major face lift with the building of a new 4 land bridge over the lagoon opening the upper Grand Lagoon to more boat traffic and making it easier to get to the beach using Thomas Drive for motor vehicles.
We took a ferry boat around the Grand Lagoon yesterday and it was an enjoyable ride where we learned a lot about the Grand Lagoon.  The price was very reasonable too; $5.00 a person for a 40 minute boat ride.  We went to a Farmers market at Pirate Cove and enjoyed the dessert menu at Tacky Jacks, a restaurant located at the Pirates Cove marina. We also decided to have dinner at the Boatyard, located at the Lighthouse Marina next to Captain Anderson's, where they serve the best bacon cheese burgers in the area.  I had a cheeseburger that was very good too.  It was a nice day yesterday spent with great friends and enjoying the Grand Lagoon area in Panama City Beach.