Out and About
We are also featuring The Vine Wine Bar, Bistro & Shoppe in this week’s issue. As you may have read in Navarre Press, The Vine Wine Bar, Bistro & Shoppe has a new owner as of June 1, Jennifer Hensley. Jennifer was an educational writer for Navarre Press about 17 years ago and left us to become a teacher in Santa Rosa County District schools. Her newest chapter in life has led her to be a business owner at one of the most popular meeting and unwinding spots in town. I have had several business meetings there and it is always my go-to place for meeting a business client, or my family and friends for a sip of wine and some of their delicious small plates. Sometimes we just call it dinner. Wine flights are always fun, and we usually find a wine that we really like and take home a bottle or buy bottles for gifts. There is also a private room that can host a larger business gathering or even a baby or bridal shower.
Another cool story in this issue is about Shane Reynolds, who is a Fort Walton Beach High School graduate and former Travel Channel, NatGeo Wild host who has moved back closer to home. He has a series where he drops a 360 camera over local piers and bridges and posts the videos on his YouTube Channel. He did a short video of the Navarre Pier 8 months ago. I’ve included a couple of QR codes below. One goes to his series on camera drops and the other goes directly to the Navarre Pier camera drop.
On the Military page we have a salute to the B-52 Stratofortress. June 29, 2025, marked the 70th anniversary of the first operational Strategic Air Command (SAC) B-52 Stratofortress delivery to the 93rd Bombardment Wing at Castle Air Force Base, California. I was working in Fort Worth, Texas, at General Dynamics when Carswell Air Force Base had B-52s. I used to ride my bike along the Trinity River and enjoy watching them in the skies. My husband flew in B-52s as an Electronic Warfare Officer and currently my son is the Squadron Commander in Texas for B-1 bombers. And my dad was an engineer on the LANTIRN (Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night project) that Martin Marietta worked on in the 1980s. They called him Jack O LANTIRN. As it turns out, my bio-dad was a Marine in WWII and was an aircraft maintenance officer and served on the Island of Palou. I know this because I asked for and received his military records from the National Archives. If you haven’t seen the WWII series, “The Pacific” and you have an interest in WWII – you should watch it. I bought the Blu-ray set so we can watch it on demand. It will give you a new appreciation for what our service members went through in some of the most intense battles of WWII.
Please enjoy your Independence but remember why we are able to celebrate our independence. It took the bravery of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, many who later lost their lives and winning every hard-fought battle ever since with great sacrifice and loss of our nation’s blood and treasure. I’m thankful for the miracle of the United States of America.
Quote of the Week: “No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.” Douglas MacArthur, (1880-1964) American General