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Jun
26
Posted by robin sherman
Navarre Beach Park, a bright spot on Navarre Beach, is scheduled to reopen this October. The Navarre Beach Park was destroyed in September of 2004, by Hurricane Ivan.
The park is run by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Recreation and Parks and includes 400 parking spaces, picnic tables, pavilions, dune walkovers, and restrooms on both Santa Rosa Sound and the Gulf of Mexico.
The Navarre Beach Park has been a popular spot with bird watchers as the habitat on the Santa Rosa Sound is perfect for shorebird nesting. In fact, the park’s reopening was scheduled for this summer, but has been delayed due to concerns about possible distrubance of the shorebird nesting season.
The Santa Rosa County Commission has solicited suggestions from area residents for services to offer in the Navarre Beach Park. According to a Pensacola News Journal article some of the suggestions have included activities for stargazers, a concert stage and the return of campsites.
Navarre Beach is on the eastern tip of Santa Rosa Island - Pensacola Beach anchors the western end of the island - and is populated primarily by a few high rise condominiums and a smattering of beach rental homes and primary residences. With the exception of the few Gulf front condominiums at the center of the beach, Navarre Beach is relative untouched and commercial free (two restaurants and a convenience mart). The average sales price for the first five months of 2008 in the combined area of Navarre and Navarre Beach was $273,506.
The October Navarre Beach Park reopening will coincide with the annual Beaches to Woodlands tour hosted by the Santa Rosa County Tourist Development Council. This is a popular festival linking northern and southern Santa Rosa County through outdoor activities.
For Similar Articles:
Jubilee . . . Remembering Old Florida
Four Things to Love About Navarre Beach
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May
27
Posted by Robin Sherman
Crab Jubilee – Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m 50. Fifty is the new 40 you 
know (But, of course, in my case it’s the new 30). Since I’m being honest about my age I have no problem telling you some of the things I remember about the Old Florida. That’s the Florida that came WAY before the internet . . . heck that’s the Florida that came WAY before Cable television and the 8–Track (if you don’t remember 8–tracks, they came WAY before CDs).
When I was a kid we would finish our dinner, load the Igloo cooler with snacks and head to Santa Rosa Island (Pensacola Beach). We would pull the battery out of the car – no kidding – plunk it in a galvanize d tub sitting in an inner tube and connect it to lights we floated on the water. My grandfather would tie the inner tube to his belt loop with a rope and pull the entire contraption behind him as we walked through the Santa Rosa Sound (Intracoastal Waterway). What in God’s name were we doing you ask? CRABBING – this is the way you caught your fill of Blue Crab in those days and as a kid, it was more fun that Halloween and the Interstate Fair all wrapped into one.
Now, this is a thing most people have never witnessed, but I count myself among the lucky few (relatively speaking) who have been on the beach at the height of a Jubilee. The biologists will tell you a Jubilee occurs when there is too little oxygen in the water and the crab make their way to the shore. I will tell you that a Jubilee is a CRAZY TEAMING MASS of Blue Crab making their way to shore by the hundreds of thousands come hell or high water.
I have only seen one Jubilee in my adult life (a small one at that), so I suspect we have done something to alter our environment in such a way as to eliminate this amazing phenomenon. But I cherish the memory of being a child, dozing off in the back seat of a Ford Fairlane, surrounded by buckets of Blue Crab, bubbling their last breaths as we trundled down the highway toward a backyard overflowing with aunts, uncles and cousins all gathered around a bonfire prepared just for one of our southern crab boil get-togethers.
For More Articles like this:
Blue Crab Jubilee – Wild Delaware
Alabama – Great Days Outdoor Magazine
Mobile Bay Jubilee – Wikipedia
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May
17
Posted by Robin Sherman
I have friends coming to visit in a couple of weeks and as I was driving to my office today I couldn’t help but look at things as I imagine they will see them. What will they think about my hometown? Will they love it as I do?
My drive to my beach office is about 14 miles with little to no traffic, so a short commute by most standards. I’m heading west, so on MANY Tuesday and Wednesday mornings – if I hit the road early enough – I am rewarded with a SPECTACULAR sight; the U.S. Navy’s flight demonstration team the Blue Angels taking to the skies with the sun illuminating them from behind me.
Now, I grew up here and I’m the wife of a Navy man, so seeing the Blue Angels isn’t anything new to me. But, I have to admit that no matter how many times I’ve seen them – up close or at a distance – my heart starts racing and I feel the goose bumps rising. I can’t explain it, but when I see that diamond formation of gleaming blue jets turning in tight formation I’m WOWED. Every time, no fail!
So I make a mental note to check the Blues’ practice schedule so, hopefully, I can take my friends to NAS Pensacola for a closer look.
On my trek to work I pass through the Naval Live Oaks Area of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. From the highway my view is simply woodlands and a bike path, but I know that a quick turn off Highway 98 will lead me into a quiet preserve of live oaks, with a trail to walk and miles of beach to explore. This might make a great jaunt with my friends.
As I drive along toward the office I take a turn south and head over the Bob Sikes Bridge. Now, I 
can’t use the word SPECTACULAR twice in one post so I will have to term this one PHENOMINAL. As I crest the bridge I look out on Santa Rosa Island (Pensacola Beach) with the clear blue- green waters of the Gulf of Mexico pressed against the bright, white sand of the beach. Below me is the Santa Rosa Sound. I always – rain or shine – make sure I turn the radio off so I can take it all in.
That’s it for my drive to work, but my friends will surely need to see historic downtown Pensacola, the Blackwater River State Park, Scenic Highway, Perdido Key and well . . . it’s looking like I will l have to work on keeping them here for more than a week!
