The following first appeared as part of Live & Play, a special section in the June issue of Military Officer magazine. The magazine is available to all MOAA Premium and Life members. Learn more and access the digital edition here; learn more about joining MOAA here.)

By Amanda Miller

Alabama boasts natural beauty and history for visitors to enjoy. Highlights include:

• Russell Cave National Monument, which was occupied for 12,000 years, from the time of the earliest people to inhabit North America until about 1650. It affords a peek inside Alabama’s underground. Just an hour’s drive to the southeast, Cathedral Caverns State Park invites guests in to walk around.

• Huntsville, a.k.a. “Rocket City,” where U.S. rocket development started in the 1960s and continues today. Visit the U.S. Space & Rocket Center for a tour, or register in advance for one of Huntsville’s frequent job fairs catering to people with a security clearance.

• Fort Morgan, which Union troops took back in 1864 while unleashing “one of the most intense bombardments of a single fort recorded during the Civil War,” according to the Alabama Historical Commission. On the peninsula outside Gulf Shores, the fortification — and its beaches — are open to guests.

• A stretch of shoreline on Mobile Bay that might be the only place in the world where a variety of fish, shrimp, and crabs regularly rush the bank in a writhing mass, while locals scoop up a harvest.

• A classically styled statue topped by a big black beetle in Enterprise, which commemorates how the residents there averted America’s agricultural boll weevil disaster by planting peanuts instead of cotton.

• Military exhibits including the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park (Mobile), the Berman Museum of World History (Anniston) with its collection of military weapons, and the U.S. Veterans Memorial Museum (Huntsville).

Sponsored Content: As a retirement destination, Alabama is a bit of a hidden gem. But if you ask anyone who has decided to live their golden