Florida's Emerald Coast-Navarre

April 15-22, 2017

Florida's Emerald Coast refers to a 100 mile stretch of white sand beaches and emerald green water along the Gulf of Mexico from Pensacola Beach to Panama City.

Navarre is about 25 miles southeast of Pensacola on the Santa Rosa Sound and only minutes from  the pristine beaches along the gulf.

You can walk for miles on these beautiful beaches.

Our base camp for a week was at the Emerald Beach RV Park. Although we were not right on the water we still had a small view when there was no RV in the site next to us. Being so close to the water we always had a cool breeze.

Our site #35

RV Park's pier out to a deck for sitting or fishing

Small private beach for the RV Park

They have a few water/beach sites

Pier with a nice deck

Relaxing on the water

We drove to Fort Pickens a pentagonal historic military fort at the end of Santa Rosa Island in the Pensacola area. It is named after American Revolutionary War hero Andrew Pickens.  We took the visitor's tour given by a national park volunteer.  He told us the history and purpose of the fort. He  took us to the best spot to view the Blue Angels who had a practice scheduled that morning.

We were lucky to be in town this week and get two chances to see the Blue Angels practice. We took local advice and watched from the top of Fort Pickens.  We were across the bay from the Naval base; the position of the fort gives an unobstructed view of the angels as they maneuver to fly over their practice area and is a popular spot for locals to watch. And when they flew over us it was loud. I brought my good camera with the zoom lens and got some great shots.

They fly this close to each other.

While on Pensacola beach we ate at Peg Leg Pete's for a great seafood lunch.

We enjoyed this so much we decided the next day to drive into Pensacola and see their second practice at the Naval base from the flight line. It's free and very well organized. http://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/attractions/blue-angels/

Couldn't help but take more pictures. One advantage of being this close is the full effect you get of how loud and powerful these jets are.

After the show we stopped at a popular restaurant in Pensacola,  The Fish House. I decided I finally had to try oysters. Knowing I just couldn't do them raw I went with fried oysters. Didn't improve my experience but at least I tried them.

A great beach getaway after our winter skiing and to rest up before we head to Orlando. We planned 8 days in Orlando, 6 days to tour Disneyworld and Universal and 2 rest days. I see a lot of walking in our future.

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