Pensacola Florida's Naval Air Station is the home to the Blue Angels. They practice a couple of times a week in the summer months, so went to see. And to see Fort Pickens, too. THAT was a pretty impressive National park site! The fort is old, huge, well- preserved. Interesting, too. Also hot. (The Tourist gift shop was air conditioned, however.)
It was close to a two hour drive to get to the national park. we got up and had pancakes and leftover Striklin's sausage for breakfast, packed a picnic lunch, umbrellas, towels, drinks, and were out the door by 8 am! Pretty good!
We wandered through the fort looking at all the places to put Armaments. And places to live, I suppose. Cook. Eat, perhaps. Store food? ammo? Hide? Get lost in? We didn't take the self guided OR the Ranger tour, so we did not know what we were looking at. But it was cool. There were a few plaques around.
We cooled off for about 15 minutes in air conditioning and purchased souvenirs. I got a magnet, naturally. Then we went to the car and got chairs ( a mistake- they were low-to-the-ground BEACH chairs. Unusable for us folks who can't get out of a sand chair :-/. But the large beach umbrella was NOT a mistake.) And we got a water bottle each. We climbed to the top of the wall via stairs and viewed the 30 min "Air Show " from up there. Nice view. Good show, too! The umbrella gave us some much-needed shade. There was a pleasant breeze. But sweat was just rolling down my back. And there were lots of ants. Few bit.
At the end of the airshow, we drove on out of the Fort area and found parking at the nearest beach. They had bathrooms ( Yay!), soft white sand... So so pretty. So we swam!
And swam and swam.
I got a nice sunburn because I did not re-apply sunscreen . Oops. Corbin did. We took a swim break once and ate lunch in the shade of the umbrella. Sandwiches. Cool drinks. Snacks. It was perfect. Except for all that salt and sand. . .
Haha. And the little fish that kept surrounding Mike's feet and nibbling. Ick! They were about 4 or 5 inches long. When they found MINE, I was out of there. Corbin tried to catch one. Unsuccessfully, though he did touch a fin.
There were occasional clouds, too, so it didn't seem quite so hot. But it was still SO hot.
It was hard to drag Corbin away. He would have stayed all day. As it was, we were back by 3 :30 or so with one stop to get milk on the way home.
So tired! Every day is long... And exhausting. Because it's hot and we are old and fat and out of shape and have been enjoying great food in large amounts..ha.
Tonight: Butch cooked some of our fish out on the grill and we had fresh coleslaw, rolls, leftover salads. Plus desserts. Yes, desserts, as in plural. And not just two. We had THREE. But not everyone has three. I merely had banana pudding. I made that for Rob at his request. I did NOT know that Sally had made Butch's favor dessert of yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Plus there was still some of the caramel cake from Stricklin's that was left, too! Man, we are livin' it up.
I think Corbin may have overdone it with the sun and sand today as he is feeling rather pukey tonight. Or the fish didn't agree with his yummy. He ate a lot.
Photos:
Fort Pickens
Big cannon on tracks for turning it around. This was a key Naval Station area for a long time, like Revolutionary War!!
And then we hit the beach. Langley? Langford? I don't recall. But it was nice.
Corbin body-surfing.
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