Hello from the panhandle of Florida!
I'm Elithe and my sister Marchell sent me Camryn's Flat Stanley for one last trip before he heads back to your classroom this week.
I live on the Panhandle of Florida in the town of Destin. It's a small little fishing village that has grown to be a popular Spring Break destination due to the beautiful white sandy beaches and emerald green water. That's actually a nickname for this area: Emerald Coast. Destin was settled in 1845 by Captain Leonard Destin who is a fisherman from New London, Connecticut but had been home to area Native American tribes for years. Additionally, a little know fact about this area of Florida is that this actually home to the earliest European settlement! The town west of here, Pensacola was settled by the Spanish in 1559!
"In August 1559, Spanish explorer Tristán de Luna sailed into what would one day be known as Pensacola Bay. (A local tribe called the region Panzacola, perhaps meaning "long-haired people," as the indigenous inhabitants may have been known.) Spain's viceroy of Mexico, Luis de Velasco, had charged Luna with establishing a settlement on the bay, reconnoitered by Spanish navigators the previous year. Nearly a century later, Mexican scholar Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora would describe Pensacola's natural harbor as "the finest jewel possessed by His Majesty...not only here in America but in all his kingdom."
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/harboring-history-in-pensacola-125617869/#QEFUqKW6I9hUescS.99
That event was 6 years before St Augustine was settled on the east coast of Florida, and reason it didn't survive is because only weeks after settling in Pensacola Bay a hurricane blew through and destroyed all but 3 of Luna's ships!
I hope Flat Stanley had a great time while here and he's on his way back to Maine for your celebration!
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