Our exploration of Florida began at the Panhandle, which is the unofficial name of the Northwestern part of Florida. We started our exploration in Pensacola, a nice smallish town, the sort of American small town one could imagine from a movie. There's a small historic district we decided to walk around, with some nice old wooden houses. We also checked out the rather imposing T. T. Wentworth, Jr. Florida State Museum (even the name is imposing)! The building, which used to be the city hall, dates back to the early 20th century.
Evening was approaching, so we decided to press on to Navarre Beach, where we were staying the night. So no time to visit the famous Naval Airplane museum, which Pensacola is famous for. The drive to Navarre beach was pretty spectacular - Navarre beach is located on the Island of Santa Rosa, and our drive took us through the stunning Gulf Islands national sea shore. We had to stop and check out the amazing beach, with its white sands. Just beautiful.
We loved our little holiday cottage at Navarre Beach, located just by the beach. So after settling in, we went for a nice little walk on the beach, taking in one of those famous Florida sunsets. Our stay in Florida was certainly starting well!
The next morning, before pushing on, we decided to have a bit of a run along the beach. What better way to visit a place than a jog - that way one gets to burn off a few calories while taking in the views ?
The destination for this day was Carrabelle. We had quite a drive a head of us, so we decided to head off pretty early. (jet lag was still stubbornly keeping us in its grasp, which meant we got up pretty early, a good thing, I suppose!). The drive along the Floridan coastline was a pretty scenic one! Somewhat to our surprise, at least this part of Florida isn't all that built up, there are plenty of natural reserves and parks all over the state. We decided to stop at one of them - Grayton Beach. We started at the beach, another wonderful place, where we had some sandwiches we'd picked up at a cafe on the way to the beach. We then had a short walk in the sand dunes, next to a lake just by the sea.
We drove on, deciding to briefly stop for a coffee break at Panama City - another pleasent little Florida town, with beautiful wooden houses lining up the roads. Panama City is very famous for its beaches, and they did indeed look rather nice. But we had a tight schedule, so after having a coffee at a nice little coffee shop, we pushed on.
We arrived in Carrabelle just as the sun was setting (which meant I could get some nice sunset shots down by the harbour), after which we checked into our hotel. The hotel was, in a word, just great. (OK, that's two words). Skip, the owner, was a very friendly guy (he even spoke a bit of French!), and he put as at ease straight away. The hotel itself is almost like a historic home, so one almost has the impression of staying at a friend's place. Our room was nicely decorated, with a naval theme. We had dinner at a place called the Fisherman's Wife - seems that Carabelle is all about the sea.
The next morning, we decided to head off early in the morning again, as there isn't exactly a lot to see in Carrabelle. There is one quirky attraction we simply had to check out - the world's smallest police station. Skip was kind enough to show us where it was and take the mandatory photo. Actually, it seems to be little more than a phone booth, but well, there you go, world's smallest police station ticket off the list ;-)
Again, we had a long drive a head of us (the plan was to sleep in Jacksonville, all the way on the East Coast of Florida). But, based on a recommendation from Skip, we decided to stop by at a natural reserve called Wakulla Springs. Wakulla spring is so strong that it actually forms the Wakulla river (in other words, the spring is under the starting point of the river).
The real thing to see here is the Wakulla River, so we went on a boat tour. And it was great indeed - we saw plenty of cool wildlife. Mostly birds, but yes, we did finally spot our first Alligator. Well, actually, we saw loads of them. Most of them just lazing around in the sun. Wakulla Springs is also famous as the place where some of those Tarzan movies starring Johnny Weissmuller were shot. The "famous" Creature from the Black Lagoon was also shot here.
The road then took us to Tallahassee, which is, as you probably don't know, the state capitol of Florida. We started off by visiting Mission San Luis. The original mission, which dates back all the way to 1633 (that's ancient history as far as the USA are concerned!). It was built by the Spanish to colonize the region, and also to convert the local Appalachee indians to Christianity. Not much remains of the original structures, so the mission has been faithfully restored.
It's a very interesting place to visit, as it gives a lot of insight into Florida's history. I also liked how the place described the interactions between the colonists and the Native Americans. We were also shown how to clean an 18th century rifle by a guy in period dress. Pretty cool stuff!
Since we were in Tallahassee, we decided to check out the State Capitol (the old state capitol, that is, there is also a new one). It dates back to 1845, and is built in the Greek Revival style. An impressive building - it's a good thing they decided to keep it when the new (rather ugly) capitol was built in 1970's (as the old capitol was originally planned to be demolished upon completion of the new capitol building).
We then headed on starting our drive towards Jacksonville. However, on the way out of town, we were attracted by a sign indicating the John G. Riley museum, which we decided to check out. It's a rather interesting little museum (the place was actually closed when we arrived, but the nice lady custodian of the museum showed us around anyway). The place recounts a part of American history that the country still seems to be rather uncomfortable with - the history of Black Americans and the segregation they had to endure for more than a century even after slavery had ended (recent events I think prove that the wound is still open and bleeding). John G. Riley was a local black business man, who was active in the Civil Rights movement. I'm glad we made the detour!
And then, on towards Jacksonville!
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