Pensacola Day Trip Feb 10

Pensacola Day trip from Topsail Hill Preserve Sate Park

Friday  February 10 we took a day trip to Pensacola. Ben hadn’t been there since  his daughter Shaunte was little and mostly remembers the naval base. I don’t remember ever visiting. Pensacola is 58 miles from Topsail but with traffic takes about 1 ½ hours to get there. It was a very nice drive onUS 98 the entire way. We drove through Destin, Fort Walton Beach, Navarre Beach. We got to see more communities along the water and more of Eglin Air force base.  We decided since time was limited we would visit only historic Pensacola and take in a tour.  

Pensacola is truly the first settlement in the U.S. as the Spanish had a short-lived settlement here in 1559. It is the city of five flags as it has been ruled by Spain, Great Britain, France, confederate US and USA.

We had an excellent young guide who gave us a thorough history of Pensacola. We toured the pioneer kitchen and Weaver’s cottage 

Pioneer Kitchen with live demonstrations inside

early kitchen - Weaver's cottage

 Old Christ Church

Lavalle House

Dorr House

 

woven human hair - framed

 

and the Lear/Rocheblave House

Early recliner

This gave us a good overview of homes and lifestyle of the different periods between 1600 – early 1900s.

Afterward we toured the Museum of Industry

and TT Wentworth Museum. TT Wentworth had a large portion of the second floor dedicated to Trader Jon, a former bar/restaurant that was visited by many famous people over the years and also many of the Blue Angels. The Naval Air Station at Pensacola is home to the Blue Angels.

Afterward we went a few blocks over to the wharf and took in a great view.

Gulf Coast Trip - Grayton Beach State Park - Grayton Beach and Seaside

 

 During the two weeks we were at Grayton Beach State Park, we rode our bikes a few times into Grayton Beach to check out this small community. It is a cute, laid-back beach community – unlike the more upscale surroundings of Seaside, Watercolor.  A few more three story buildings- which may be small inns- are currently under construction in Grayton.  But there really is limited space to build here. There are two restaurants close to the beach – one being Red Dogs, which is the local go-to place.  But it consists mostly of beach houses, shops, and restaurant/bars near and on the beach.

They do allow driving on the beach here but permits are issued for this which does limit the number of vehicles.

Fun fact - Grayton is near the center of 20 miles of scattered coastal dune lakes. These are very rare and only found in Walton County and portions of Africa.

 

 

Beach-Grayton - one of the few local spots that allow driving (by permit)

sand dunes at Grayton Beach

Another view of Grayton Beach

homes along Grayton Beach

More homes

dune lake at Grayton

 

We also rode our bikes into Seaside.  Really the roads here are fairly flat which makes for easy biking.  Still, we were pleased that we could still ride bikes for 7-8 mile distances and not get winded! Seaside has a food market, shops, and restaurants including food trucks. We love the BBQ and the pizza!

 

Gulf Coast Trip - Eden Gardens State Park

Saturday February 4-

We decided to check out another nearby state park – Eden Gardens State Park.  This turned out to be an excellent day trip! We took a tour of the house and had a great tour guide. The park was within 10 minutes  (by car) of our campground.  It consists of a two-story 1895 mansion called the Wesley house and surrounding gardens. The Wesley House was built by William Wesley, who was directly related to Charles Wesley - one of the founders of the Methodist church. Willliam was a pretty prominent lumberman and operated sawmills on the property. He and his wife had several children but none of them wanted to live in the home after their parents passed away. Their children sold the property to a prominent businessman and his wife, but the wife passed away before they could more into it. It was never occupied and fell into disrepair for 10 years. It became a local hangout for kids and vagrants during that time, and many things were stolen from the house. After 10 years it was finally put up for sale again and a publishing magnate from New York named Lois Maxon purchased it for 12,000 dollars (!). She did spend a great deal of money repairing the house and putting in lush gardens. She filled the entire house with antiques as well. She had no children and left the house and property to the state of Florida on the condition that it be kept as is and the public be allowed to tour.

Fun fact- the horror movie "Frogs" was filmed here.

Front entrance to Wesley House



View of fountain from second floor of Wesley House

Azaleas in bloom

Bay seen from Wesley House

House as seen from bay
 

 

Gulf Coast Trip Grayton Beach -Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park

Sunday (Jan 29) we decided to check out Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park. To get there we drove into Destin and then took the Midbay toll bridge on US 293. This was one of the bigger bridges across a bay that we have been on for quite some time at 3.6 miles. The bay area here is huge! The toll bridge was $4. The park itself is fairly close to Eglin Air Force Base. It’s quite a bit smaller than Grayton but has a bigger picnic area. It also has a boat ramp and hiking trails. We had a sunny but somewhat chilly picnic by Choctawhatchee Bay! We saw some of the tallest pine trees we have ever seen. The website for the park says some are more than 300 years old. We drove through the campground and were again impressed with how spacious and pretty the sites were. They have 42 sites with electric and water hookups here.  Going back we took highway 20 so we wouldn’t have to drive into Destin again. It connects to 331 and there is another bay bridge to cross but it isn’t a toll bridge.




Picnic at Fred Gannon

More of picnic area

 









Gulf Coast Trip Jan 25- Feb 8 2017 - on to Grayton Beach State Park

Grayton Beach State Park – January 25 – January 28

Wednesday we left about 10:30 to head down to Grayton Beach. The drive was easy – it was pretty much a straight shot down highway 98 and then on to highway 30A. It took about 45 minutes to get there as this is a busy highway with stop lights. We did notice that there has been a lot of growth at Panama City/Panama City Beach toward Rosemary beach since we were last here about 16 years ago. There is much more in the way of housing and businesses.  When we got to Grayton Beach State Park we were able to check in right away. We are really pleased with our campsite. We got set up and took a bike ride down to the beach and then strolled on the beach. It was another really warm day-highs in the 70s.

 

Thursday was pretty much a “chore” day. The bathhouse is nearby and they have a very nice mini-laundromat so we caught up on laundry.  Down the road near Seaside there is a Publix so we also stocked up on groceries. By the way, Publix seem to be everywhere down here and really dominate the grocery business. We have seen a few Winn-Dixies here and there as well. We love Publix-they have an excellent deli-bakery which is convenient for camping. We also walked the campground. There is a small loop for the full hookup section which is where we are. It’s so nice to have full hookups! And then there is a bigger loop for the electric/water only section, which is also about $8 a day cheaper. All the sites are big. The electric/water only section is more wooded and several sites are closer to the lake. The campground is laid out very well and each site is very spacious and really lovely.

Friday we decided to drive into Destin. We were actually at this campground about five summers ago now and stayed in a cabin for the week with Ben’s family and also granddaughter Haley. One day we drove into Destin to take a dolphin cruise and the traffic was horrific! So we thought we would see what it is like in January. MUCH better! It was actually pretty much normal city traffic and flowed well. We could actually do some sightseeing. We drove across the bridge toward Fort Walton Beach but didn’t go too far down that way. We didn’t bother doing any mall shopping because we don’t really need anything, but we did go Harbor Walk Village, which is where we went last time we were here for our dolphin cruise. But Friday the weather was high 50s and it wasn’t boat cruising weather. The place was practically deserted. We didn’t stay very long. We did cruise the beach road and found that The Crab Trap was a good place to stop for lunch. They had reasonable lunch specials that were really good. The view was fantastic.

Harbor Walk Village

View of bridge from Harbor Walk

Crab Trap restaurant - view from our table

 

Saturday the weather was still pretty cool – highs at almost 60 and lows in the 40s. So we stayed off the beach and wandered into Seaside... There were quite a few people here for this time of year. They had a farmer’s market set up and we strolled through it. We got some delicious rosemary-garlic bread. We strolled through some of the shops. I had to go to Sundog Books – love this place and always find something for the smaller grandchildren. We checked out some of the homes. I looked online and home here start at $900K. Most are over $1 million. Yikes (!). We had lunch at the Pizza Bar- pizza and draft beer – yum! Then back to the camper for reading and relaxing.

Fun facts - Seaside is one of the first master planned new urbanism communities. The movie "The Truman Show" was filmed here.