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Hotel Class: 
3 Stars - 190 Opinions
573 Santa Rosa Boulevard, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, 32548, United States
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of people enjoy staying here
190 Opinions
Christmas lights in the park from the car
ruth's chris
Sunsets on gloomy days are beautiful still
View from the pier side
We chose to stay in Destin - right next door to Fort Walton Beach. Time was limited so we tried to have a quick look at the whole area. Other than a drive over the bridge the previous night after dinner, we mainly viewed Fort Walton either on the way to Destin or a couple of days later, leaving Destin. The Indian Temple Mound was one place I made a point of stopping at.
The Staffs were among the early and very colorful settlers. Theodore "Pop" Staff and his wife Amelia "Molly" Gerlach Staff were married in 1901. They moved to from Indiana to Medina Mexico where they grew vegetables and especially pineapple. They had eight children including a pair of twin girls. Due to the Mexican revolution, the family left Mexico in 1912 and settled on the Gulf Coast of Florida in Camp Walton.
Theo purchased a hotel from Mr. L.I. Smith a retired MN banker, and began the Gulfview Hotel. He spent a lot of time fishing, and also coached all his children to be champion swimmers.
Joining the Staff clan from Indian were Joe and Dick Gerlach - Molly's brothers. They became the first automobile dealers in the area, selling the early Oldsmobiles, Stars, Maxwell and Studebakers, later becoming Chevrolet dealers. The building that is now a restaurant was built to house the cars of the guests at the hotel. and then became a Studebaker dealership.
One of the twins Agnes "Aggie" Staff married Theodore "Docie" Bass. Mr. Docie established the Staff Cafe in 1931 using the former garage/car dealership building at 24 Miracle Strip Parkway
To get to Naval Live Oaks (an 1,378 acre woodland area in Gulf Breeze, Florida) take U.S. 98 east from Pensacola, Florida. The Naval Live Oaks Area is just east of Gulf Breeze on U.S. 98. But we were coming from the condo meeting in Fort Walton Beach so we went west on US 98. We got to the Gulf Islands National Seashore Visitor's Center at the Naval Oaks section about 11:50. This center is open all year 8:30 am - 4:30 pm. Closed on Christmas day.
The Fort Pickens part of the site (out west of Pensacola Beach) is closed due to hurricane damage, and the Naval Oaks center didn't have their normal tape show because the auditorium and the tape equipment was damaged in the hurricanes.
But we did request and see an orientation film about the park called "Trees for Defense" on the historic use of live oak trees for national defense. The live oak wood is the heaviest of all oaks, a cubic foot may weigh 75 pounds and it is resistant to disease and decay. The USS Constitution, built in the 1790's which saw action against the British during the war of 1812, received the nickname "Old Ironsides" due to the strength of its live oak construction.
We also looked at the exhibits which included an exhibit on a cross-section of a wooden vessel (photo 2). Afterwards, we went hiking on one of the shorter trails (third picture). We saw several birds (fourth picture) and there were signs pointing out various types of vegetation.
Also on the site: Eastern National bookstore. Picnic area with a pavilion, individual picnic tables, restrooms, drinking fountains, outdoor showers, and a youth group camping facility
This chain of the Southwest was started in Texas using five inch hamburger buns instead of the usual four inchers. The entrepreneur's idea was that everyone who had one would say "What a BURGER".
This was the first fast food place that ever gave us a pager to alert us that our burgers were ready. Since the night before, we had been at a regular restaurant that gave us little pieces of paper with numbers on them instead of pagers, I found this amusing.
While we were eating, we got to watch the folks outside on ladders (first and last pictures) repairing hurricane damage or putting up Xmas lights. I thought maybe one of them would fall and create a photo-op, but it didn't happen while we were there. I had a bacon cheese Whataburger and Bob just had a plain Whataburger. The lunch cost $11.88.
Once again at the docks. You can never tell what is going to be brought back from the fishing trips. Here is small shark that was caught on the trip.I once saw a large red snapper fish where the entire back had been bitten out by a shark.
It is free to watch the fish being hung on the rack and caught that day. You can even take pictures of you or someone else standing in front of the fish as if you had caught them. A little fib.
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Address: 573 Santa Rosa Boulevard, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, 32548, United States
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