Bob and I left the lovely Destin beach rental house at 1:30 on Saturday for a one night stay at a TownePlace Suites Hotel across the bay in Niceville, Florida. We were warmly greeted by the town and hotel, so maybe people really are nice in Niceville. The name definitely sets moderate expectations.
The hotel was comfy. It looked to be new, and it had a great fitness center. Unfortunately, Bob’s Marriott Titanium status didn’t pull as much weight as we had hoped. Although we were able to get in early on Saturday, we could only extend our stay until 2:00 pm on Sunday. We were hoping to stay until 4:00 since we weren’t to meet up with our homeowner until 6:30.
This forced us to get creative, so we ended up visiting the free Air Force Armament Museum near the Fort Walton/Destin Airport. With the current actions of the US government, we had a hard time generating much enthusiasm for the impressive array of various instruments of war, but it was attractively displayed and provided a good amount of information.
There were exhibits both inside and outside of the building.
This two-seater plane entered service in 1989
and first saw combat in 1991 in Operation Desert Storm.
it is capable of flying at speeds over Mach 3.2.
It first saw combat in Vietnam.
one of 20 painted herons scattered around Oskaloosa County.
We had seen another at Destin Commons on Friday.
began being used in Vietnam in 1963.
the Army’s first unmanned aerial vehicle, started in 1979.
The Army abandoned the program in 1987.
It contained 1800 kilograms of the poisonous agent Phosgene.
It could produce a lethal area covering one acre of land.
After a little over an hour at the museum, we drove into Destin, which was about 25 minutes with weekend traffic, to kill some time at a bookstore before heading to dinner.
At 6:30 we met up with the wife of our homeowner couple in Niceville, who gave us a quick walk through before offering us a glass of wine which we took out on their back patio for a lovely sunset view.
Our homeowner left today at 1:00 pm to meet up with her husband for their sailing trip along the coast. We will be caring for their 3 indoor/outdoor cats — one of whom we may not see much of as she is not so fond of people.
We are here until early on the 25th.
Peckish Travels 