Traveling Huntleys

Inspiring travel stories, tips, and guides from a couple exploring the world one destination at a time.

Road Trip

Panama City Beach, Florida: Sugar-White Sand, Historic St. Andrews & a Winter Stay at Emerald Coast RV

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Last Updated: August 1, 2026

Panama City Beach is a spring break and vacation town for much of the southern United States, and its miles of sugar-white sand are consistently rated among the best beaches in America. The area went through a real estate boom in the mid-2000s with a wave of new construction and rising prices. Then, on October 10, 2018, Hurricane Michael came ashore near Tyndall Air Force Base with 161 mph sustained winds — a Category 5 and the most powerful storm ever recorded to strike the Florida Panhandle. Driving through three years later, it was surprisingly hard to tell. Most structures had been rebuilt or repaired. What gives it away is the tree line: the downed and topped pines and oaks are still everywhere once you know to look. From Orange Beach, Alabama it was about a three-hour tow with the Airstream.

Empty stretch of sugar-white sand beach with no one in sight on a January morning at Panama City Beach, Florida
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Fort Pickens, Florida & Orange Beach, Alabama: Camping on Santa Rosa Island, Civil War Brickwork & Gulf State Park

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Last Updated: August 1, 2026

Fort Pickens sits at the western tip of Santa Rosa Island inside the Gulf Islands National Seashore of Florida. Sandy and I have camped here before, and we keep coming back for the same reason: miles of white sand without the beach crowds or the wall of high-rise condos that swallow so much of the Florida coastline. This was our favorite kind of travel day — about an hour and a half of sunny, scenic coastal driving from Santa Rosa Beach and Topsail Hill Preserve to the Fort Pickens Campground, with our brand-new 27-foot Airstream behind the truck and Jake stretched out in the back seat.

Large coastal defense cannon aimed toward the Gulf of Mexico from the ramparts of Fort Pickens, Gulf Islands National Seashore, Pensacola Beach, Florida, photographed by travel blogger Michael Huntley
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San Diego Zoo Safari Park, Birch Aquarium, Queen Califia’s Magical Circle, and More

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When Patrick and Sheila Corey flew in from Portland, Maine for a week-long visit, we finally had a good excuse to revisit some of our favorite San Diego spots — and a few we had been meaning to get to. Over several days we made it out to the Safari Park in Escondido, Birch Aquarium in La Jolla, the USS Midway downtown, Queen Califia’s Magical Circle, the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park, and a handful of our favorite local places for food and drinks in between. Showing visitors around a place you love has a way of reminding you why you love it.

Patrick and Sheila Corey, Balboa Park, San Diego, California
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Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve

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We had driven past the turnoff for Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve more times than we could count during our California coast travels, always telling ourselves we would stop on the next trip. Finally, on a warm July morning, Sandy and I turned off the 101 and hiked it properly — and it immediately reminded us of why it ranked among our favorite spots in all of San Diego County.

Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve with views of sandstone cliffs and the Pacific Ocean
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Carlsbad Flower Fields: California’s Spectacular Spring Bloom

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Every spring, the hills above Carlsbad in North San Diego County erupt into one of the most breathtaking seasonal displays anywhere in California. Sandy and I had been wanting to visit the Carlsbad Flower Fields for years — finally, this spring we made it happen during our California coast travels, and it was worth every mile of the drive north from San Diego.

Sandy Huntley, Carlsbad Flower Fields, CA
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Sonoran Desert Life in Three Quarter Time: Tucson, Tubac & the Desert Museum

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Last Updated: July 31, 2026

So much of travel moves at a pace set by logistics — the next destination, the checkout time, the reservation that can’t be changed. The Sonoran Desert has a way of overruling all of that. You slow to three-quarter time whether you intend to or not, because the things worth seeing here don’t reveal themselves to anyone moving too fast. The cactus wren sitting three feet away on a saguaro arm. The bobcat stretched out in a patch of morning sun. The Costa’s hummingbird hovering in front of a blooming aloe, iridescent purple gorget catching the light. You have to be moving at the desert’s pace to see any of it. Continuing our spring stay at Western Way RV Resort near Tucson Mountain Park, we had two more weeks to let the desert set the tempo — with a day trip south to the artist colony at Tubac and daily visits to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum thrown in. Jake set the pace each morning, and it was always exactly right.

Saguaro cactus and spring desert landscape in the Sonoran Desert near Tucson, Arizona
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