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Conservation Park

Conservation Park quickly became our favorite park in Panama City Beach.
It's located inland about 15 minutes from the beach.
It has parking, restrooms, large park map display (pocket paper maps available).
The trails themselves are well signed.
We found the park relaxingly serene, very enjoyable for walking, the elevated walkways are our favorite.


Conservation Park


Park restrooms and also map display and pocket maps available


Park map display


Start of wide trail


Gravel pathway with tall pines


Trail signs


Start of elevated walkway


Elevated walkway with tall pines


Elevated walkway


In some areas the green algae on top of water looks like smooth green carpet


Elevated walkway with Cypress trees


Elevated walkway viewing platform bench

Cypress knees - protrusions from the Cypress tree roots , possibly to help stabilize the tree or for more oxygen


The park has a number of ponds with beautiful reflections


Pond reflection


Pond reflection


Spanish Moss on tree


The park trees are mostly Pine and Cypress that grow straight and tall but there some that differ from the uniformity


Differently shaped tree, perhaps an oak


Very tall and straight Pine


The bark of a Pine tree that protects it from fire, the sap from pines is very flammable ( turpentine used to be made from pine sap)


Pine tree bark after a fire, the tree survives


Odd shaped tree offshoot


Dead tree with termite damage


Fungi on dead tree


Fungi on dead tree


Metal rebar mosquito in front of mosquito control building on the road to the park, we haven't noticed any mosquitos while in the park or in the city

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Air Force Armament Museum

Day trip to Elgin to visit the Armament Museum located outside Elgin air base.
The museum has free parking and is free to visit.
The museum has exterior and interior exhibits with a mixture of guided and unguided bombs, missiles, small arms and airplanes.


Air Force Armament Museum


Two inert bombs that can be sat on - Dr. Strangelove immediately came to mind


MOAB - Mother Of All Bombs is actually Massive Ordinance Air Blast Bomb


Museum building view from upper walkway


Small arms display


General purpose bomb


Various missiles are exhibited


Fat Man - exhibit of the nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki Japan during WWII.


B-52


F4 Phantom


MH 53 helicopter


SR 71 unusual shape


SR 71 under view


We took a different road on the way back and drove through an actual town named Niceville


Niceville Turkey Creek

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Duplin Winery

The Duplin Winery in PCB is housed in a beautiful wood building with a lake and a large patio area.
They have a dedicated tasting room to try their wines made from Muscadine grapes.
Along with the wines they also have cheese / cold cut trays and cakes to snack on while having a drink ($).
The whole experience was very enjoyable in a beautiful relaxing setting.


Duplin Winery building


Wine barrel truck in front of winery building


Inside the building, market style


Wine displays


"Sunshine" in a bottle


Dedicated tasting room


Patio area


Patio and building


Relaxing spot on the wood pier on the lake


View of building covered porch

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Rainy days

The weather has been mostly sunny but there's also been some cold windy rainy days.
On those days we try to find indoor activities or at least partially indoors.
Here's the ones we tried so far.

Rainforest black light golf & arcade.
Once our eyes adjusted to the black glow lights we enjoyed it more than we expected.


Indoor glow in the dark mini golf with arcade games and a snack bar


Arcade games at the entrance


Arcade games at entrance


Glow in the dark mini golf rainforest theme


Glow animal statues


Glow dinosaur


Glow portal


Glow pterodactyl


Glow plant


Glow plant


Glow dinosaur head

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Rainy day continuation

Ripley's Believe It Or Not has a collection of oddities along with some art work and some odd / bizarre items.
This location also has a maze and a theatre.
We have seen it at other locations so we weren't as impressed as someone seeing it for the first time but was ok on a rainy day.



Ripley's building in the shape of a boat


Ripley's building


Intricately carved Jade stone boat


Except for the wood base this sculpture it's carved from bone


Bone carving detail


Bone carving detail


Temple door


Megalodon shark jaw over 5 feet


Genuine tribal mask


Tribal mask


Tribal mask


Jimmy Hendrix image made with guitar picks


Across the street from Ripley's is Wonderworks, the "upside" down building design is very eye catching but we haven't visited it so we can't comment on the interior

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Rainy day continuation

Center for the Arts is a small art museum in Panama City (not Panama City Beach), entrance is free / donations accepted.
Despite it's small size and small number of exhibits we enjoyed viewing some of the quirky art pieces from local artists.
We made it a day by visiting the rest of the City's waterfront.



Center for the Arts in Panama City


The collection includes both paintings and photos


Shoehorn bill bird painting


Raven painting


"Melted Clocks" mural detail, reminiscent of Salvador Dali

Monochromatic photo, one of the best pieces IMO


Glass artwork


Mixed media


Traditional sculpture, life sized and very detailed


Quirky piece


Quirky piece

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Man in the Sea Museum

This a small museum with some interesting diving items, on the exterior there are some submersibles ( including Sealab) and some historical and more contemporaneous pieces on the inside.
A weight belt and shoes are available to try taking 12 steps to replicate the scene from the movie Man of Honor.
Surprisingly there is a saturation breathing apparatus used on a spy mission on the Soviet Union.


Man in the Sea submersibles


Exterior display


Visitors can try taking 12 steps with the diving shoes and weight belt


Old diving helmet


Old diving suit and helmet


Self contained diving apparatus


Saturation breathing apparatus used in spy mission


Explanation of the importance of the diving spy mission


Photo of diver parachuting, the amount of gear on him is surprising

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Panama City Beach, Falling Waters and Caverns.

After several weeks in Panama City Beach we are finally departing and travelling to Myrtle Beach.

On our way to Myrtle Beach we are visiting Falling Waters State Park and Caverns State Park in Florida.


Last day in PCB


Last night in PCB


Falling Waters State Park


Woodpecker carving inside the park


The park has accessible pathways to the falls


The falls were very disappointing, more of a trickle perhaps due to the lack of rain.

Next we went to the Forida Caverns State Park.
The Caverns can only be viewed as part of a tour.
Due to a medical emergency - a person in our tour group had claustrophobia / panic - we had to evacuate the Caverns, after that the tour resumed but we didn't have enough time to continue so we only saw a portion of the Caverns.
The Caverns are hot, humid and fog up eye glasses and camera lenses.


Florida Caverns State Park


Beautiful coloration due to the different color lighting used in the Caverns


The blue lights reflected intensely from a pond in the Caverns


Caverns


Caverns


Caverns


This is the narrowest "tunnel" in the Caverns - less than 4 feet high - shortly after the tunnel the medical emergency happened

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Hobcaw Barony and Atalya Castle were our next stops on our trip ( thanks for the travel tips Gretchen).

Hobcaw Barony is 16000 acres of mostly natural wildlife habitat.
The only way to visit is with a guided tour on a mini bus.
Our guide was very knowledgeable, explaining both the historical importance of the property, it's residents and guests along with the environmental research and habitat rehabilitation.
We visited one of the slave villages ( the slaves originally worked on the rice plantation) on the property as well the main house.


Hobcaw Barony welcome center


Mini bus for the guided tour


Hobcaw house no photography inside


House front porch


The house is made of cement and brick in order to avoid fire that destroid a previous structure


Slave village house


Interior of slave house


Slave village church


Inside of the church


Church altar


Inside the church is the list of slaves that lived at Hobcaw Barony

Atalya Castle design has a Moroccon style design and is entirely made of brick .
The brick was painted white on the interior and left natural on the exterior, volunteers are trying to preserve it and stop any further deteoration.
All the furnishings were removed by the family.


Atalya Castle entrance


The castle's covered exterior walkway


Interior rooms, all that remains are the brick walls, no furnishings


Interior walkway


Castle's tower


Beautifuly restored iron window grates


Window iron grate

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For anyone that was reading my trip report and was wondering why it suddenly stop - we had an emergency that required us to stop our trip and return home.
All is fine now but unfortunately we didn't have the opportunity to explore Myrtle Beach and the surrounding area.
Perhaps a future trip.

Travel adds to life, happy travels.