This past weekend of August 15^th was a special time for Pensacola – we had “party” celebrating the founding of our fair city. Don Tristan de Luna, a Spanish explorer stumbled upon us in 1559 and as history has it, planted the Spanish Flag and claimed the land for Spain. The weather was eerily overcast. Original settlers who survived a massive hurricane all those many years ago, returned to Spain. It was many years later before anyone returned. With storms out in the Gulf, gray skies covering the area over Pensacola Beach, it seemed somewhere, somehow, the original settlers were watching.

The history behind Pensacola and Perdido Key is intriguing. Stories have the famous pirate, John Lafitte, sailing his ships from the Gulf of Mexico to safe harbor behind Perdido Key. Did he do this until a storm had passed or was it not to be seen by other ships? Could they have buried any treasure only to return at a later date to retrieve it? Many ships were lost due to heavy storms and battles that still lie offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Our imaginations can conjure what may have happened.