Gulf Islands – Fort Barrancas

Situated on the bluffs overlooking Pensacola Bay, Fort Barrancas was built between 1839 and 1844 with the goal to protect the Bay and the Pensacola Navy Yard. The third fort established on the bay, it was constructed over the ruins of a 1798 Spanish fort named Fort San Carlos de Barrancas. Situated below the barrancas (Spanish for bluffs) was a 1797 water battery named Bateria de San Antonio which was modified to serve as a water battery for the new fort, and connected by a tunnel. To the north was the advanced redoubt, constructed to defend the northern side of the peninsula on which the navy yard was located.

Today, Fort Barrancas is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, which stretches 160 miles along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico and includes everything from the picturesque white beaches of Florida postcards to maritime forests, bayous, and marine habitat. In the Pensacola Bay area there are multiple parcels that are part of Gulf Islands NS, among others including Naval Live Oaks, and two of the forts that historically fortified the Bay: Fort Pickens and Fort Barrancas. The third Pensacola Bay fort, Fort McRee, is the only one of 42 Third System Forts built between 1816 and 1870 to have completely disappeared. Other Third System Forts include Fort McHenry outside Baltimore, Maryland and Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC.

If you plan on visiting the Fort, be aware that it is located within the Naval Air Station Pensacola, an active military base. All civilian visitors must enter through the West Gate (beware your GPS directions!) and must show proper identification; please see the Park Service website for more details.

After a short stop at the Visitor Center we followed the trail located behind it up a hill. At first all we could see was an American flag, but as we reached the ridge we could suddenly see it all: the fort and water battery, Radford Boulevard winding its way back to the Pensacola Lighthouse, and the blue waters of the bay.

Crossing the drawbridge we entered the main portion of the fort. During the Civil War Forts Barrancas and McRee (as well as the Advanced Redoubt and the navy yard) were occupied by Florida and Alabama militia. The fort was used to organize and train Confederate soldiers, and the cannon were used in a bombardment of Fort Pickens on November 22 & 23 in 1861. When the Confederate army evacuated Pensacola in May of 1862 it was reclaimed by US troops, and the only other action it saw was an attack on the Advanced Redoubt by the Confederate on October 8, 1863.

The boys enjoyed exploring the various rooms and tunnels, and soon we crossed the parade ground to enter the tunnel that leads to the water battery. The battery was originally constructed by the Spanish, who had learned from one of the least known but most significant battles of the American Revolution (when the Spanish took Pensacola from the British) that Royal Navy Redoubt’s position up on the bluff had rendered its fire ineffective. The water redoubt’s design was such that cannon projectiles from the battery would ricochet off the surface of the bay to hit ships at the water line, causing maximum damage. The water battery is the third oldest standing fortification in Florida; only Castillo de San Marcos and Fort Matanzas in St. Augustine are older.

To tour the advanced redoubt visitors have to hike up the ½ mile Trench Trail or drive up to the second parking lot. Fort Barrancas was a powerful defense against a naval attack on the bay, but was exposed to a land attack as the Spanish learned in 1818 when Andrew Jackson was able to plant artillery on a nearby hilltop within range of their fort. Designed to defend against a land assault, the fort was designed to be held by a small body of infantry with a few field guns. By the time construction was finished in 1870, it was already outdated.

Fort Barrancas also quickly became obsolete because of new developments to cannon and naval war vessels, but in 1902 it was equipped with a Fire Commander’s Station to help direct artillery fire from Santa Rosa Island and Perdido Key. The Coast Artillery Corps manned the defenses until World War II, after which Fort Barrancas was declared surplus in 1947. After becoming part of Gulf Islands National Seashore it underwent extensive restoration, which was completed by the National Park Service in 1980.

While at the Naval Air Station Pensacola, make sure to also visit the Pensacola Lighthouse. For more on the Gulf Island National Seashore and area, please see my posts:

   Naval Live Oaks

   Fort Pickens
   A fascination with aviation in Florida's panhandle

In the footprints of Hernando De Soto

We might have been in the Tampa area to catch up with some old friends and get in some time on the beach, but the temptation to explore led us to another site steeped in history – De Soto National Memorial.

There were others that came before Columbus, and there would be others after, Europeans marching across North American to explore and colonize the ‘New World.’ Hernando De Soto was a Spanish soldier, granted the license to explore La Florida by Charles V of Spain. He arrived in Havana in 1538, sailed to Florida in 1539 with 622 soldiers, and landed near Tampa Bay to spend the next three years trekking across the Southeast. Leaving disease and devastation in their wake, De Soto’s expedition sought gold and riches… What they found instead were hundreds of villages, but the consequences for their inhabitants were disastrous. Ironically it is the information about the Native Americans who lived here before us that is valuable to historians today, although the expedition was trailed by tragedy, the resulting social dislocation destroying the rich culture and traditions they were observing and recording.

De Soto burned his way north through Florida, then crossed into Georgia up to Ocmulgee. Upon reaching Cofitachequi in SC many of De Soto’s men were ready to settle. However, they were pushed on in search of gold and glory, and after cutting across to Coosa, TN they turned south, threading through Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas. Three years after landing in Florida, Hernando De Soto died of sickness and was buried in the Mississippi River. The remainder of his expedition stumbled back to Mexico, arriving at Pánuco River in 1543.

A good place to start your explorations of the National Monument is at the Visitor Center. We found the 20 minute film a little on the tragic side for young children, but the exhibits and artifacts on display offer insight into the expedition, Florida in the 1500s, the Natives who lived there, and the consequences of the excursion.

We opted to hike the 2 mile Memorial Trail, passing through a mangrove swamp out to the Manatee River. The first point of interest is the ruin of a tabby house. Built from a mixture of lime, sand and shell mined from the local prehistoric shell middens that once lined the shoreline, the structure is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Once attributed to the 1843 homestead of shipping merchant William H. Shaw, recent archeological surveys suggest that the site may be related to the freed black community of Angola, and date back as far as 1812.

From De Soto Point we headed south along the coast, eventually reaching the Holy Eucharist Monument and the Memorial Cross. Both were impressive, but the boys were by far more impressed with the beach.

The trail eventually emerges to the road, and we followed it back north to the parking area and Visitor Center. A highlight in this central area is the Replica Spanish Camp, complete with reproductions of Spanish armor and weapons. Modeled after an Indian village that was captured by De Soto to serve as a base camp, the demonstrations on everything from weapons to cooking were fascinating for adults as well as the children.

The large stone monument in the center commemorates the expedition. It was placed by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, and today is significant as the mark of the beginning of the De Soto Trail, the historic route of the conquistador’s expedition through the Florida Native American territories in his quest for fame and fortune.

If you are headed to De Soto National Memorial from May through October, be sure to sign up for the free 1.5 hour Ranger led kayak tour. Spots on the tour are first come, first serve, but they do take reservations – call (941) 792-0458 to reserve your seat. Tours run on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings at 9:00am, and include all your equipment (2 person kayaks, paddles and personal floatation devices).  Imagine seeing Florida the way the first Europeans saw it – blue waters ending at beaches lined with thickets of mangroves, gumbo-limbo trees shading the swampy understory.

The National Memorial is an expressive reminder of the tragic history of Americas. However, it also serves as a showcase of the natural beauty of the region; the coastal habitats are home to a wide variety of wildlife, and their range from aquatic to upland forest showcase the area’s diverse animal life. In terms of recreation, “The Cove” is a popular temporary anchorage for small boats, the beaches are well-known for not being too crowded, and the annual schedule of events allows for all types of interests.

I hope you enjoyed my National Park week series! Next week we’ll be back up in the FL panhandle, exploring the coast in an epic trip that took us from Tarzan’s Wakulla Springs State Park all the way to Pensacola… I hope you’ll join us in our adventure!

Abanico Tapas Bar, Spanish small plates in Greenville

There is no other place in Greenville like it, and the luscious Spanish tapas will only tempt your tastebuds more as we slowly turn the corner into spring and roll into the heat of summer…

Abanico Tapas Bar - Restaurant & Music opened its doors four months ago, serving a menu of small plates as well as a few entrees. The name means ‘fan’ and is a nod to the owner’s Spanish roots as well as the range of items on the menu. A Madrid native, Amador Herraiz has hired a chef from Spain in a successful effort to recreate the authentic Spanish tapas experience here in Greenville.

The menu is bursting with flavor; seafood options such as Gambas a la Plancha (prawn seared with sea salt & olive oil), Atun con Salsa de Frutos (seared ahi tuna with wild berry sauce) and Coca de Venduras con Anchoa (puff pastry with roasted peppers, onions & anchovy) dominate the current menu, although vegetables make intriguing appearances in dishes like the Coles de Bruselas (fried Brussel sprouts with mojo sauce and Manchego cheese) and Champinones Relleno (stuffed mushroom with goat cheese and ham). A robust drinks menu that includes favorite local drought beers and a generous pour on the wine, combined with delectable dessert offerings such as Spanish flan rounds out the package – what more could you want?

Gambas a la Plancha with Coles de Bruselas and Chiperones Fritas in the background

Maybe dancing? The club upstairs offers a venue for music and dancing, as well as private events. Salsa lessons, DJs, dancing late into the night…

Well, that’s a fantasy for this mom right now, because in reality we are toting three young children around, so any restaurant we frequent has to be open before 6pm and family friendly – which is another way Abanico stands out in the Greenville scene. So many children’s menus offer the same things: chicken nuggets, hot dogs and burgers. The closest thing to a burger on the menu was the Pincho de Chorizo (house-made Spanish sausage with baguette), yet the boys all left with their appetites sated and having tried a dozen new things – without even knowing it. Meanwhile, the adults were able to enjoy a mouthwatering meal that effortlessly brought back memories of paella on the Mediterranean…

Pescaito Frito, whole small fried fish

The thing about tapas is that they are small, and they are meant to share. You order something and the kids don’t like it? Fine, the adults eat it and there is no waste of food. You want to try something new? Go ahead and order it, it’s not going to hit the wallet like an uneaten entrée. If you really have a picky eater try the Patatas con Tres Salsas (potatoes w/ 3 sauces), bound to satisfy even the fussiest eater. But if your children are like mine (hungry!) they will try a few things and put together a customized meal, broadening their palates and discovering new foods in the process.

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This post is part of the Food on Friday series. For more featured restaurants, click here.

Want to read about the freshly caught seafood, Gypsy Kings-style music, Mediterranean breezes and Spanish architecture feels that a meal at Abanico will evoke? You’ll want to read my post about Saintes-Maries-de-La-Mer, Barcelona, and Gaudí…

The people of Barcelona

Playing boule in the park next to Sagrada Familia

From all the cities in Europe I have visited, Barcelona is my favorite.

Texting "Honey, will you come pick me up? I found the pair of shoes I was looking for"

There are quite a few famous reasons, like Gaudí, but I base my choice on other grounds as well: the tapas, the historic Catedral, the flamboyant Ramblas, the green spaces, la Boquería, the magnificent architecture, the ocean… the people!

"You missed one"

I am already formulating my list for returning. I wish to stop on Costa Brava on my return trip to Barcelona, witness a sardana dance, eat more tapas, enjoy the nightlife, visit Museu Picasso, see the “Magic” fountains, hit the beach…

Just another day, clocking off the construction site... at Sagrada Familia

There are the places in this world that have a magnetism that draw me back again and again. To that list I add Barcelona.

Santa Maria del Mar square

Barcelona

Even after a Gaudí day on our first day in Barcelona, there was still so much to do and see. It seemed overwhelming looking at the map, so instead of intensive scheduling we just headed south from our hotel towards Plaça de Catalunya with the thought to see what we could see. A hub that divides old and new Barcelona, four famous boulevards radiate out from the plaza; la Rambla, Passeig de Gràcia, Rambla de Catalunya and Avinguda Portal de l’Angel. We had spent some time on Passeig de Gràcia the previous day, as La Pedrera and Casa Batlló are both located on this boulevard, and so after a stop to harass the pigeons and bask in the sunshine we headed down Avinguda Portal de l’Angel. Named after the angel that crowned the gate in the medieval wall that once encircled the old town, it is today a pedestrian-only street that leads to the Cathedral.

On Plaça de Catalunya

A 14^th century Gothic construction, supposedly the Catedral was where the Native Americans Christopher Columbus brought to Spain were baptized. Weekly Catalan sardana dances occur in front of the cathedral, and the geese run the show in the cloisters.

The Catedral, note: Roberts is not the one in the Michael Jackson jacket

We cut across to la Rambla to find la Boquería, a produce market bursting with fragrant fresh fruit, strung up legs of ham, olive selections I couldn’t believe, fruit juice stands, little one-counter cafés, curtains of colorful peppers, spices with unpronounceable names, baskets of eggs all sizes and colors, fish and lobsters and crabs galore. More strawberries in our stomachs and fresh fruit juice in hand, we emerged back out onto la Rambla to find Plaça Reial.

A booth in la Boquería

Neoclassical buildings surround the square which is lined with cafés and outdoor seating. We found a spot for lunch and watched the show; it seemed the street artists/panhandlers had some sort of unwritten schedule; they rotated around the plaza, completed their act and then asked for money at all the nearby tables, but they rotated clockwise around the plaza stopping at almost identical locations. While we were seated an acrobatic group, an accordionist, a juggler (on stairs) and perhaps a few others performed, keeping Lauris well entertained.

All smiles in Plaça Reial

La Rambla is something else. One block with flower stands, one with newsstands, one with live animals, interspersed with tourist shops, tapas joints and benches, there is a never-ending parade of characters passing by. Keep your children close and your wallets closer (as advised everywhere in Barcelona), enjoy a coffee or a beer, ignore the continuous din from the men selling noisemakers, and stroll on south to the seafront.

La Rambla

Within Port Vell is a shopping center, aquarium, IMAX cinema, and a shopping center. We walked out past the Columbus monument (where Ferdinand and Isabel welcomed Columbus home after his first trip to America) onto La Rambla del Mar, a wooden pedestrian bridge linking the mall and other attractions, and enjoyed the people-watching. Once back on dry land we headed into the La Ribera district.

I travel light...

The centerpiece of La Ribera is Santa Maria del Mar, a Catalan Gothic church that took only 55 years to build. To the south is the monument to the September 11, 1714 massacre of Catalans by the Bourbon king: an eternal flame burns at the site of the mass burial.

Santa Maria del Mar

We still had some energy left, and so we headed northeast to the 70 acre Parc de la Ciutadella. Built by Philip V to control Barcelona, the citadel was demolished in 1868 and replaced by gardens. It hosted the 1888 World Fair and today is home to the Barcelona zoo and Parliament of Catalonia. I fell in love with the waterfall; designed by Josep Fontserè, it has a touch of Gaudí who was a student at the time.

Parc de la Ciutadella

We thoroughly enjoyed the various playgrounds, took a ride on the giant stone mammoth, and spent a relaxing couple of hours wandering the numerous pathways.

See, I told you there was a mammoth!

Our route home took us back out to la Rambla and through Plaça de Catalunya, which in the setting sun took on a completely different hue. And for dinner, what else than tapas at a tiny little corner restaurant? Twelve little dishes capped off with a dessert that left us feeling sated and happy, wishing for another week to explore the city further! However, after a trip to Parc Güell the next morning it was the start of our journey home, with a stop in coastal Séte…

MJK on La Rambla

A Gaudí day

We left Andorra right after breakfast in order to have enough daylight left to jump right into Barcelona. We succeeded; the roads were relatively clear, the children relatively quiet, and the navigator relatively reliable on how to get there. After a harrowing descent into the bowels of the hotel to park our car, we skipped unpacking to head right out for our first taste of modernisme, the Catalan version of art nouveau. In the early 20^th century Barcelona was transformed by this movement, and this influence is most visible in L’Eixample, the grid-plan district that was developed from the 1870s on, in which our hotel was located.

The most famous modernisme architect was Antoni Gaudí, whose family originally came from somewhere in the Auvergne, our neck of the woods. You can read more about his life and architecture here and here, but in my opinion the key is integration of ceramics, stained glass, wrought iron and woodwork into his structures, in addition to the recurring themes of religion and nature. Our first glimpse was Casa Milà (La Pedrera), with its ice-cream eaves. The building was finished in 1912 and is now on the UNESCO World Heritage list along with his other works in Barcelona. Steel structure and curtain walls enforce the façade (which is self-supporting), and an underground parking area and separate lifts and stairs for the owners and their servants were pioneer features in architecture of this type.

We were still blocks away from our next destination when we could already see the construction cranes and towers of Barcelona’s landmark Sagrada Família. Gaudi spent the last years of his life working on the church, and even now, 100 years later, the church has yet to be finished. The construction is funded exclusively by private donations and entry fees, and I found estimates of date of finish starting with 2020.

Completed, the church will have 18 spires: a dozen 330 ft spires representing the apostles will stand in groups of four and mark the three entry facades. Four taller towers dedicated to the Evangelists will surround the two tallest central towers: a 400 ft tower of Mary and a 550 ft Jesus tower. Circling the building will be an exterior ambulatory, and the recently finished Passion façade will chronicle the life of Christ along with the Nativity (only façade Gaudí lived to see finished) and Glory facades. Gaudí lived on site for more than a decade, and is buried in the crypt which is visible from windows within the church.

The interior was like no other church that I’ve seen before – in place of a hushed, severe, dark atmosphere was light, curves… beauty. I can’t find the words to describe it, you must visit it yourself.

A quick train ride and we emerged near Casa Batlló. Gaudí based the work on the legend of St. George and the dragon, conveyed with skull-like balconies and a dragon-back roof. Gaudí introduced several new techniques in the treatment of materials in his architecture, and one example is trencadís, which utilizes waste ceramic pieces. The façade is covered with mosaics utilizing this technique.

We spent two nights in Barcelona, and I’ll jump ahead to our final morning because we hopped aboard the #24 bus to Park Güell, the 30 acre garden that was supposed to be a 60-residence gated community. My favorite feature of the park was the mosaics, possibly best represented by the dragon fountain near the entrance of the park, but visible throughout with the largest-scale being on the grand terrace.

The focal point of the park, a long mosaic bench in the form of a sea serpent surrounds a plaza that has a great view over the city. Rumor has it that to design the curvature of the bench surface Gaudí used the shape of buttocks left by a naked workman sitting in wet clay. True or not, what is a fact is that he designed a water system in which rain that falls on the plaza flows into and through the columns of the “market” and power the park’s fountains. (The market is a forest of columns with an undulating mosaic canopy under which the communities produce market would have been staged, and a good example of Gaudí’s incorporation of nature into his work, just like in the arcade of columns that imitates a surfer’s “perfect wave.”)

And here we had reasons 1 through 7 why Barcelona is my favorite European city to date, #1-4 being the four Gaudí works, #5 being the ease of public transportation, #6 being the grid plan (with the blocks of houses with trimmed corners forming octagonal squares at all intersections) and #7 the buttock bench in Park Güell. More reasons to follow as the second day in Barcelona was spent on the Ramblas and in the Gothic quarter, Barri Gòtic.