Ah, Pensacola. Our last visit was in 2009, but it still seemed so familiar and little had changed since then. We spent nearly a week and stayed at our same hotel on the beach (which rocked!) and we spent a lot of time in the ocean.
The white sand beaches look like snow and the sand is so fine and soft. It's weird to walk on, but easy to get used to.
We were pleased to see that despite BP's best attempts to obliterate the entire Gulf back in 2010, the water was surprisingly clear and the beaches were clean. No signs of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, although I'm sure it did a number on the bottom of the ocean.
We visited our favorite places; Flounder's, Peg Leg Pete's, Crabs – We Got 'Em, Lilo's, and McGuire's. and we did some touristy stuff like buying t-shirts and junk. We also spent some time at Fort Pickens, which was built after the War of 1812 and used to guard Pensacola Harbor. It's a huge and very creepy network of underground fortifications and has a prison where Geronimo was once imprisoned. On top of the fort, there are numerous artillery placements pointing out to sea. One of the plaques said that they could hit a target 17 miles away!
The interior of the fort was surprisingly cool, although very humid. Most of it looked like it could have been made for the set of a vampire movie.
Are you afraid of the dark?
Ok, here's a picture of Cynthia smiling in case that was getting too creepy for you...
One day we visited the Pensacola Lighthouse. 177 steps to the top! If that isn't daunting enough, they are very narrow rickety steps. Eesh. This lighthouse was featured on an episode of Ghost Hunters and there was a room partway up the tower where you could watch the show. I tend to think that show is mostly fake, but it was really creepy to watch it while sitting in that very lighthouse.
Since the lighthouse is on base, we also visited the National Naval Aviation Museum just down the road. That place has a huge collection of aircraft... all indoors! There were a lot of interesting stories accompanying many of the aircraft on display, telling about the experiences of the pilots and crew.
It was a great trip, we spent lots of time outside in the intense Florida sun and brought back the sunburns to prove it. We gathered shells for the girls in the morning and watched the tide come in at night. So much fun, I can't wait to go back.
Still dreaming about it...
