FTJ, Entry 59: Scenes from Destin Area (Beau's debut blog)

This is my first attempt (prior to Ms. Editor getting her final say) at writing a blog. See Jane. See Bob. See Bob chase Jane. See Bob try to grab Jane's.....See Jane slap the snot out of.....oops -- never mind.

Anyway, if you haven't gathered this already, we are quite enamored with the panhandle of Florida, and in particular this Destin area, so most of this is pictures of the sights we've enjoyed here. One thing that we find most appealing is the bright, white sand of this area, "sugar-white" as the locals call it. I (me, Beau) went to the Destin Fishing and Historical Museum yesterday and learned a bit more about it. It's a unique "silica" sand, deposited on the south coast of the panhandle by the Appalachian River (had never heard of it), and it's the product of the glaciers grinding on the quartz in the Appalachian Mountains . Who'da thunk it?!? It then was pushed around and distributed along this part of the Florida coastline by currents, tides, and storms. According to a tour guide at the museum, who happens to be a direct descendant of one of the founding families of the area, it is considered by experts to be the whitest sand in the world. We don't disagree.  Below are some new pictures of it.

The above are RVs at our park, right on the sand.

Hard to see, but there is a jellyfish in the middle of all this.

 

Another thing we have thoroughly enjoyed: the sunsets...

Here's a photo (below) of me watching the most spectacular one yet! I had run outside because I saw what was happening with the clouds, but got down on the beach and realized I had forgotten the camera. Laura had stayed behind but decided to come out later and thankfully remembered the camera and at least caught the tail end of it. 

The colors were absolutely stunning, caused by the interaction of the sun with the varying formations of clouds -- the sky had areas of deep sea blue, blue-bird blue, turquoise, iridescent green, pink, orange, lavender, glowing-red like lava, and of course, that brilliant yellow ball. It was definitely the most beautiful sunset I have witnessed in my entire life, anywhere!

Of course, the ocean has many moods. Here are some shots from today, which I call "Surf's Up!" with about a 25-knot wind blowing out of the southeast (in fact, it's shaking the whole RV as I write this!), cloudy and cool, and a bit showery this AM.

These pics really don't do the wave sizes justice -- they're a lot bigger and more violent than the photos show!

A few miscellaneous sights: Below is a view from our RV site looking south toward that magnificent beach:

A C-130 Hercules at VERY low altitude on patrol:

Way above us, an antique B-24 (WWII vintage) flying over (that's my head at the bottom): 

We also had a B-17 and a P-51 fly by but the camera wasn't ready. There are two Air Force bases plus the Pensacola Naval Air Station in the area -- we're kind of surrounded by them. We get fly-overs day and night, including C-130's, F-22 Raptors, F/A-18 Hornets, F-15 Eagles, F-16 Falcons, and even the exotic Osprey, a controversial vertical-take-off-and-landing (VTOL for you aviation-types) cargo/troop carrier.

Below is another view of our beach -- that's not a cloud you see, it's smoke!  The state does many controlled burns in the forests (which are abundant in this area of Florida) to control underbrush and undesirable species. One fire we experienced was so big that there was ash falling like snow!

This is our large, comfortable site here at Camping on the Gulf. It's the only direct beachfront RV resort in the whole area. 

I think we will be back.

Tanks, Panky

P.S. from Laura: I believe I should take a vacation from blogging. Beau does a really nice job!