Destin Executive

On Eglin Air Force Base near KVPS. Free admission. Outdoor display includes an SR-71 Blackbird, B-17G Flying Fortress, B-52D Stratofortress, B-25 Mitchell, F-105 Thunderchief, F-15A Eagle, and an A-10 Warthog. Indoor exhibits cover the development of Air Force armament: every air-launched weapon from WWII to today, the Doolittle Raid (with a B-25 Mitchell mockup), the Son Tay POW raid (planned and rehearsed at Eglin in 1970), and the long history of Eglin as the proving ground for U.S. air-delivered weapons. The Doolittle gallery has training photos, original maps, and crew memorabilia from the 1942 mission practice on Eglin's auxiliary fields.

The most extensive naval aviation collection in the world — more than 150 aircraft on the ground and in flight, on the grounds of NAS Pensacola. The SBD Dauntless that helped sink the Japanese fleet at Midway hangs from the ceiling. Apollo 7 command module, NC-4 (first aircraft to cross the Atlantic, 1919), F-14 Tomcat, A-6 Intruder, Blue Angels A-4F, and the only surviving Curtiss Pusher trainer (1911). Free admission. The Cubi Bar Café inside recreates the Officers Club at NAS Cubi Point, Philippines — pilots have signed plaques on these walls for decades.

Naval Air Station Pensacola has been the home of US Navy flight training since 1914. During WWII, some 28,000 naval aviators earned their wings here — including a young George H.W. Bush, who became the Navy's youngest pilot at age 18. The base is home to the National Naval Aviation Museum, the world's largest naval aviation museum with over 150 restored aircraft. It's also home base of the Blue Angels. The museum and base are accessible by car after landing at KPNS, but from the air, the scale of the facility — hangars, runways, and seaplane ramps dating to WWI — tells the story of naval aviation's birthplace. The on-base National Naval Aviation Museum is the largest of its kind: 150-plus aircraft including the SBD Dauntless that helped turn Midway, the NC-4, an F-14, and a Blue Angels A-4; admission is free, and the Cubi Bar Cafe inside recreates the old Officers Club from NAS Cubi Point.

Wakulla Springs is one of the largest and deepest freshwater springs on Earth. It pumps an average of 250 million gallons of crystal-clear 70-degree water per day from a cave system that descends more than 300 feet straight down — divers have mapped over 30 miles of passages and still haven't reached the end of the conduit network feeding the Floridan Aquifer. The clarity is the signature. The water carries almost no suspended sediment, so on a calm sunny day you can see fifty feet to the bottom of the spring boil. The first commercial glass-bottom boat tours started here in the 1870s. Manatees winter in the warm water; alligators sun on the cypress logs along the Wakulla River; bald cypress and Spanish-moss-draped tupelos line the banks. Hollywood discovered Wakulla in 1941 when MGM filmed "Tarzan's Secret Treasure" here — the fifth film in the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan franchise. Newt Perry, the local swimming-promoter who later invented the Weeki Wachee mermaid show, knew Weissmuller and pitched Wakulla as Hollywood's American jungle. Universal followed in 1953 to film "Creature from the Black Lagoon" — Ricou Browning, an FSU student and Wakulla lifeguard, was cast on the spot to play the Gill-man in the underwater sequences. The clarity of the water made cinematography possible that couldn't be replicated on a studio backlot. Browning could hold his breath four minutes and swim with the foam-rubber Gill-man suit weighted to neutral buoyancy. The 1954 film is still regarded as one of the great achievements in underwater cinematography. The two sequels (1955, 1956) also filmed at Wakulla. The 6,000-acre park surrounding the spring includes the 1937 Wakulla Springs Lodge — a Mediterranean Revival hotel built by Edward Ball with a marble lobby and a five-story tower over the dining room. The Lodge is still open: 27 rooms, no televisions, an ice cream counter in the lobby. The park was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1966 and a National Historic and Archaeological District in 1993.