What to Do in Apalachicola When It Rains

Eat First, Ask Later

The rain does not care about your plans. It will sit on the river and wait. You should sit too, but indoors.

Owl Café on Ave D carries a 4.3 rating from 1280 reviews. That is a lot of wet afternoons worth of opinion. The Station Raw Bar on Market St is rated 4.6 from 1211 reviews. Hole In The Wall Seafood And Raw Bar on Ave D holds 4.4 from 990. These are the numbers the town trusts. The rain gives you time to compare them.

Tamara's Café on Market St is rated 4.1 from 578 reviews. The Tap Room on Commerce St is 4.3 from 529. The Franklin Café on Ave C is 3.8 from 396. Lower scores are not disqualifications. They are data points. The rain is patient. So are you.

The Museum That Made the Weather

You are in the town where air conditioning was invented. That is not a metaphor. Dr. John Gorrie practised medicine here. In 1841, yellow fever killed his patients. He cooled sickrooms with ice. Then he built a machine to make ice. He received a patent in 1851. The town built a museum to commemorate it.

The John Gorrie Museum State Park on Sixth Street is a one-storey brick building constructed in 1957. The site was donated to the state in 1955. It is not large. It does not need to be. You are standing in the place where the modern idea of indoor relief began. The rain outside is the same rain he heard. He did something about it.

History Without the Sun

Raney House Museum on Market St is rated 4.8 from 126 reviews. It is the kind of place you walk past on a dry day and promise to visit later. Later is now. The house is a fixed point in a town that has carried three names in three decades: Cottonton, then West Point on incorporation in 1828, then Apalachicola from 1831. The town has been through worse than a thunderstorm.

Orman House Historic State Park is also on Market St. Its grounds include the Chapman Botanical Garden and the Three Soldiers Detail South memorial. The rain will make the garden green in a way the postcards never capture. Walk it anyway. Umbrellas are not required for respect.

The Short Walk

The rain tends to come in bands. Between bands, you have maybe twenty minutes. Use them.

The Biscuit Factory on Water St is rated 4.8 from 149 reviews. That is the highest rating on this list. Dolore's Sweet Shoppe on Avenue E is 4.5 from 137. Izzy's Cafe on Avenue E is 4.6 from 124. These are small numbers. They are not small places.

Hong Kong Bistro on US-98 is 4.3 from 284. Up To No Good Tavern on Market St is 3.7 from 134. Subway on Avenue E is 3.7 from 124. Burger King on US-98 is 2.4 from 277. You already know what a Burger King is. The rain does not change that.

The Waterfront, Wet

Battery Park sits at the mouth of the Apalachicola River. It is the town's waterfront green. It is also the ground for the Florida Seafood Festival, billed as Florida's oldest maritime event. The 63rd annual edition is scheduled for 6-7 November. The festival draws tens of thousands. On a rainy Tuesday, it draws almost no one.

That is the point. The park in the rain is empty. The river is full. The town has always been a water town. Sponging was a mainstay from the mid-1870s. In 1879, there were 16 sponge vessels. By 1895, between 80 and 120 men worked the trade. Oysters were sold locally as early as 1836. The Ruge Brothers Canning Company was established in 1885. Timber commerce rose from $2,000,000 in 1898 to $13,324,000 in 1903. The first Apalachicola Northern Railroad engine arrived on 30 April 1907.

The rain is just another cargo.

What the Numbers Say

The town has 2304 people. The median age is 51.8. That means half the town has seen worse weather than you are seeing now. There are 1506 housing units. 323 are vacant. 191 are held for seasonal or recreational use. The median home value is $247,900. The median gross rent is $1,235. The unemployment rate is 5.8 percent. 32.9 percent hold a bachelor's degree or higher.

None of that changes because of rain. The town does not shut down. It just gets quieter. The streets are short. The buildings are close. You can walk from the museum to the raw bar without getting soaked if you time it right. If you do not time it right, you get wet. That is not a problem. It is the town's history.