Discovering Destin

I only know what I've read online about the Panhandle, so am discovering it for the first time this winter.  I'll share what I find, as I find it, with you.  To start, the sand and ocean are unlike any other place I've seen.  The ocean glistens emerald green/teal blue/aqua and the sand is pure sugar.

History of our Sand

The unique sand of the beaches in the Destin area is among the whitest and most homogenous of the world.

Consisting of small quartz particles, this sand came from a process involving the Appalachian Mountains and the Apalachicola River 20,000 years ago. At the end of the last Ice Age when the world temperatures began warming and the ice caps began melting, large volumes of water were carried by the rivers to the world’s oceans. The Apalachicola River, rising in the Appalachians, carried water to the Gulf of Mexico and continues today.

This water carried the quartz particles from the rock that forms the Appalachian Mountains and deposited them in the Gulf of Mexico, just 125 miles to the east of what is now Destin. As the sea level began to rise, these quartz sands eventually formed a new shoreline. The sands today continually replenish and reach as far west as the Pensacola Pass, their final destination.

Average Destin Weather the Six Months I'll Be Here:

(High/Low/Rainfall/Water Temperature)

November     72   48   3.2”   72

December      63   44   5.0”   64

January          61   42   4.0”   64

February        63   44   4.3”   64

March            68   50   6.0”   66

April              76    58   4.5”   72


If these averages prove true this year, it will suit me just fine.  Sixties and seventies with sunshine is paradise to me!

I'm on strip of land in the Panhandle surrounded by the Gulf on one side and a bay on the other: