Yellow-streaked Blue Angels’ jets hang from the ceiling at The National Naval Aviation Museum.
The National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola.
Sealab I is on display at the Museum of Man in the Sea in Panama City Beach.
Underground tunnels to Fort Barrancas, Pensacola.
Leaving Alabama, I cross the Florida state line at Perdido Key on State Road 292 East to 173 South, the Blue Angel Parkway, until my must-see first stop—the National Naval Aviation Museum at the Naval Air Station Pensacola. The base is the home of the Blue Angels, the Navy’s Flight Demonstration Squadron with its shiny blue jets that fly in precise formation often at national events and celebrations. With free admission, the museum is the world’s largest naval aviation museum with more than 150 restored aircraft—World War I and II planes, and more recent jet fighters like F-14 Tomcat featured in the movie Top Gun and the F-4 Phantom II, to name a few. What catches my eye is Marine One, the olive-green helicopter serving presidents Nixon and Ford, and the one fromwhich Nixon waved a final goodbye after resigning the presidency in 1974. Yellow-streaked Blue Angels’ jets hang from the ceiling, and visitors can also squeeze inside Blue Angels’ jet cockpits and ride flight simulators. A great place to view Blue Angels’ practice sessions is from atop the nearby 1859 Pensacola Lighthouse and Museum, the Gulf Coast’s oldest lighthouse. “They fly by; sometimes they wave and do a wing-wiggle,” says Jeff Reve, the museum’s outreach coordinator. From the lighthouse, the expansive views include Pensacola
Bay and shoreline, and Civil War-era forts Barrancas and Pickens, which remain today. Only a five-minute drive, Fort Barrancas, with its elongated brick walls, dates back to the 18th century. Cannons once fired from the white-walled semicircular battery facing the Gulf of Mexico. Confederates troops first occupied the fort during the Civil War, abandoning it in 1862 after battles with Union forces. “The ironic thing is that the forts were built as our first line of homeland security on our coastline to protect the United States,” notes Park Ranger Sandy Tennyson. “As it turns out, the only time the forts were ever used was during the Civil War when we were fighting each other.” I continue east along State Road 292, passing through downtown Pensacola before merging onto U.S. Highway 98 and crossing the three-mile-long Pensacola Bay Bridge. I opt not to take a toll bridge to the Pensacola Beaches on the barrier island and Fort Pickens, where Geronimo and other Apache prisoners were once held, and instead stay on Hwy. 98 to Fort Walton Beach on Okaloosa Island, home to its 1,262-foot-long fishing pier and a beachside boardwalk lined with restaurants. The region’s early history is showcased at The City of Fort Walton Beach Heritage Park and Cultural center,
EMERALD COAST
COAST TO COAST FALL MAGAZINE 2017
23
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter