Tyndall & Tallahassee Museum
After doing some browsing on Pinterest some time last year, Amber had seen a pin about the Dry Tortugas National Park. It is a National Park 70 miles off the coast of Key West, Florida amongst a small island chain. Before I knew it, we had a place booked in the Keys for a couple nights and ferry boat tickets to Dry Tortugas. (The Roving Dad has a pinterest, but unfortunately it is neglected right now. I promise I will get it up and going!)
Looking at the pictures of this place, I was definitely excited about it. It holds some of the best snorkeling in the world. Getting there is a logistics nightmare, but it was the perfect excuse to make a vacation out of the long drive. There were a few bucket list places we have been eyeballing along the gulf coast that we were going to squeeze in on the trip.
The good thing about traveling to Florida is that we have family all the way down, and they love having us. The first stop for the night was near Dothan, Alabama to stay the night with my Aunt Mickey and Uncle Billy. They live back in the pines on a small farm, and it is never a dull moment at Moon Creek.
On the way to Dothan, we took a break to check out Selma, Alabama and the Civil Rights Museum. It is near the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the same bridge that Martin Luther King Jr. started his march to Birmingham to protest in the 1960’s. The area is admittedly run down, and a little sketchy so we made it a quick stop. The park itself was in disrepair, but there was still some beauty there.
One of our first Gulf Coast stops would have to be Tyndall Air Force Base. My family loves the beach there. It is the place that helped me start this blog, and is the featured image on my introductory post (and this post).
After spending a great night visiting at my Aunt and Uncles, we all headed out towards Tyndall in the morning. My wonderful cousin Amber had reserved us a condo on Panama City beach about 30 minutes from the base. After arriving at the base, we got our picnic stuff together and headed out for the short walk to the beach. The sugar sand squeaks under your feet!
Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida.
Aunt Mickey and Uncle Billy taking a break for some sausage and crackers.
This guy LOVES this beach. He tells me all the time how it is his favorite. The first time I took him was on a trip where we were just passing through and decided to stop for a couple hours to smell the roses.
We had a great time at the beach even though the waves were a little intense. The best part about this beach? There are never very many people there. We were one of four groups on the whole beach as far as you could see. Due to the low traffic, the beach stays pretty wild.
A few hours on the beach will make you hungry, so we stopped at one of the places with the best view around, Hooters… and no, not because of the waitresses. The restaurant is ocean front with an incredible view of Panama City Beach.
When in Rome!
Once we had gotten some grub, we were ready to go to our condo and chill in the pool for a while. Some of the group decided they wanted to go down the PCB strip and go get a few drinks. We hit up a few places and ended the night off at Margaritaville. It was very appropriate considering where we were going to be in a few days!
The next morning we got up and had to say our goodbyes to Uncle Billy, Aunt Mickey, Amber, and Jonathan. We had so much fun, but had a long drive ahead of us. They were going to stick around for the day and enjoy the beach. St. Andrews State Park was in their future (bummed that we did not get to go with them), but we had to drive to the 8 or so hours to Naples, Florida. One last picture before we go….
Driving from Panama City to Naples was a long drive. In order to break up the monotony of driving, we were looking for something along the way to get into. We’d seen signs for the Tallahassee Science and History Museum and decided to give it a shot. I am glad we did. The place was full of nature trails with animal exhibits, zip-lining through the trees, and these cool dinosaur sculptures made from old car parts!
A carnivore scavenging on a dead “carcass”
Ankylosaur made form the roof of a Volkswagen Beetle.
The artist of these exhibits is the late Jim Gary.
Thank you Jim for the wonderful sculptures!
A view of the swamp on the nature walk. It was beautiful there.
The grounds that the museum are located used to be a plantation. The state marked the plantation home as a historical monument, and keep it on display. It definitely gave you a birds eye into the history of the place.
A view of the kitchen which was separate from the main home.
Travel Tip: If you are going on long drives, always stop to smell the roses. It took us years to figure this out, but you never know what treasures you will find.
I do have some more pictures of the animal exhibits that I will be adding to this post very soon. Our trip to the Science and History Museum was only about 2 and a half hours long, but it was a great way to spend the afternoon, and it made the trip so much better. You can find out more info about the museum on their website here! We got on the road, and continued south to Naples where my Dad, Aunt Mitzie, and Uncle John were waiting on us. We would soon be heading to the Florida Keys in a couple days, but first, we had our sights set on a place that was ranked in the top 10 family vacation spots of 2018 by National Geographic, the beautiful Sanibel Island!
