I wanted to write this week about some of the great activities for your family in northwest Florida if you wanted or planned to go to the beaches but they end up closed due to the oil spill. But then I received an e-mail on a whole different topic and truly wanted to share it, so this post will be two-pronged, if you don’t mind.

First, having lived in Pensacola (I used to write for the Pensacola Naval Air Station newspaper, The Gosport) I know that one of the best and most overlooked attractions in northwest Florida, just a stone’s throw from Pensacola Beach but also just minutes from Alabama’s Perdido Bay, Orange Beach and Gulf Shores, is the National Naval Aviation Museum on board the base. It’s a jewel, with all manner of naval air history coming alive for visitors plus an IMAX theater featuring the wonders of military flight, including NAS P’Cola’s own Blue Angels. I think its static displays are even better than the Smithsonian, and offer visitors a chance to experience the past while also encouraging optimism for our nation’s future. And you can even see real Nasal Radiators if you visit. Oh, that’s just a little term of endearment for naval aviators we Marine wives used to hear while serving up the cold brews at McGuire’s Pub in downtown P’Cola.

Another great option in northwest Florida is a visit to Adventures Unlimited on Coldwater Creek in the Blackwater River State Forest, just north of Milton (which is just north of Pensacola and the place where aspiring Marine and Naval aviators do their familiarization or FAM flight training). At Adventures Unlimited, you can kayak, canoe or have a canopy zip line adventure on one of the neatest rivers ever, an unspoiled place where the water is shallow and you can picnic on a sand bar half way through your float. When I floated years ago the adventure was rather austere, but now you can plan a whole vacation around Adventures Unlimited.

The websites for both attractions are filled with details. See http://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/ for info on the museum and http://www.adventuresunlimited.com/ for more on the outdoor activities.

Meanwhile, for those of us not going on vacation, but still thinking about our country and the direction in which it’s headed, there is something new on You Tube that dramatically illustrates the divide we’ve been experiencing. It moved me to tears, and while I watched it was hard not to miss the huge gap between the Americans who believe in this nation’s exceptionalism and the Americans who believe we are no better than the sorriest third world country. I don’t know what to do about this divide, but your reaction to this video is a sure indicator of which side you are on. It brought me to tears. See it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?vI0fQd858cRc.