Day 13 - Pensacola - Pensacola, FL

Pensacola, FL

The day started great, and just kept getting better!

First of all, we slept in, at least Sean did. I woke up around 6 and read, until Sean stirred at about 7:30. We had a simple breakfast in the hotel lobby, then started our day.

Of course, all Sean wanted to do was go to the beach and build forts in the sand. We did this, although the sun was so strong and the air so hot that I spent most of my time floating around in the water, which was as warm as a cool bath.

Sean just seemed to be in his element, digging and piling up sand, all in an effort to hold back the almost non-existent waves. He developed complex concepts for designing the walls and ditches. Interestingly, he kept correcting me every time I called it a sand castle or moats, calling them instead sand forts and drainage canals.

I just didn't have the same interest in the sand structures, so I paddled around. There was a very gentle swell and not a breath of wind.

Although the beaches were incredibly pristine white, and the water very clear, there were very large patches of algae growing in the water, occupying perhaps 60% of the water within a few hundred yards of the shore. It didn't appear to be attached to the seabed, but instead was likely just large clouds of greenish-brown algae, with barely any physical consistency.

While checking out the algae, I could see schools of fish, everything from very small minnow-like fish in enormous schools, to 12"-long silvery fish and a blue-shelled crab whose carapace was a good 10" across.

Most interesting of all, though, was the shark (that got your attention!). After standing completely still for about 10 minutes, I saw a fish about two and a half feet long swimming slowly along the bottom, in and out of the nearby algae. It swam in a seemingly random fashion. As it got closer, I could see that it had whiskers, similar to what I'd expect on a catfish. Eventually, it got so close that it kept brushing my feet.

I'll admit that having a shark so near me made me feel uncomfortable, but the thing that really made me nervous was the shark that I didn't see, that was likely much larger. Despite having plenty of sharks around, Florida only has one or two shark attacks per year, so it must have been pretty safe.

When the heat and sun got to be too much for me (after over an hour and a half), we went back to the room to clean up and get dressed. This accomplished, we set out for the day.

Our first stop was just half a mile down the road, where there was a place advertising wave runner (jet ski) rentals. Sean immediately went into the "I don't want to do this mode", which is his code word for being scared. We went upstairs to a good surf bar to have lunch and talk it over. After a really good lunch, we went down and got a jet ski.

As with other items such as the inner tubing, Sean's initial hesitation yielded to outright joy and lust for speed. We started with me sitting in front and his holding on to my waist. Although I had never ridden a jet ski before (I'd always wanted to, but hadn't for one reason or another), it was very easy to operate, although I was stunned at the incredible accelerating power of the engine.

After a few minutes, Sean and I swapped, with him in front so that he could steer and control the throttle.

To put the change in perspective, when we started our half hour on the water, he asked me to only drive at idle speed - about 2 MPH. At the end of our time, he was driving (both steering and controlling the throttle) at speeds of up to 51 MPH!!!

After we cleaned up again and got dressed, we hopped in the car and drove to NAS Pensacola, where the National Museum of Naval Aviation is located. We had about 3 hours in the museum, which as with the other museums we visited on this trip, was just enough to scratch the surface.

Speaking of museums, now is probably a good opportunity to compare the differences between the Navy and Air Force museums. Although I am a Navy vet, my comments are from the perspective of an airplane aficionado.

The Air Force museum has the coolest airplanes: F-22, Bird of Prey, SR-71, and XB-70 Valkyrie. The Navy museum has planes of historical significance, like the NC-4, an enormous WWI-era flying boat that was the first plane to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

The Air force planes are kept in large, dark hangars completely devoid of windows, and the lighting levels are so dim that it is often hard to see the planes. In Pensacola, the planes are located in bright, airy buildings with some windows, giving everything a more open feeling.

Finally, there was one very significant difference: the Air Force museum keeps most of its planes behind ropes, and many sport signs warning visitors not to touch the planes. In Pensacola, the planes are unprotected, allowing visitors to walk around them and gently touch them. The difference in approach is amazing - the Pensacola museum feels 'friendlier'.

And then there's the Atrium: The Naval Aviation Museum has a glassed-in atrium from whose ceiling are suspended 4 of the Blue Angels' A-4's, arranged in a typical diamond formation. By being able to walk under and around the planes, a visitor can get a distinct feeling of what it is like to fly in very tight formation.

Below are a slew of photos, although only one requires any explanation. In front of the museum are a couple of statues of typical Naval Aviation personnel. While shooting photos of Sean with some of them, there was a family with two kids doing the same. I offered to take a picture of them together in front of one of the statues. They were from Georgia and seemed to be having a really good time. When the teenage daughter stood next to the statue of the sailor, I got an idea - I asked her to adopt a pose kissing the sailor, and she obliged. It was a lot of fun.

As the museum closed, we headed to the Museum store for some power shopping - I need to get some Navy gear to wear so as not to be overwhelmed by the Air Force bias of my group at work (6 of the people on my team are USAF Academy grads).

After leaving the museum, we went across the street to visit the Pensacola Lighthouse, which is 150 years old. Despite the heat (95 degrees, and 115 degree heat index), Sean and I climbed the 177 steps to the top. From up there, we had a great view of Sherman Field (the actual air filed at NAS Pensacola), the beaches, and downtown Pensacola. At the same time, there were some enormous thunderstorms to the north of us, so it was interesting to watch the imposing black clouds approaching.

As we drove through the base, I wandered around a little, looking for places I remembered. Although some were still there, unchanged, like the Officer's Club, most were gone, including almost everything along the waterfront, like the Gym, old aircraft beaching ramps, and the Obstacle Course.

For dinner, we went to one of my old hangouts, McGuire's Irish Pub. When I was a flight student, most of us hung out there. As I remember it, on Friday and Saturday nights, most everyone in the bar was a Navy pilot, or someone wanting to get to know a Navy pilot. Now days, the clientele is mostly locals or tourists – I didn't see anyone there who looked like they were a Naval Aviator.

One of the traditions at McGuire’s when I was in flight school, which still holds true today, is that people sign a dollar bill, then affix it to the walls and ceiling. Over the years, they've accumulated hundreds of thousands of the bills.

We had a truly great dinner - some of the best food of the trip.

By the time we got back to the hotel, it was 9 o'clock, and Sean looked absolutely beat. All day, he'd been focused on the chance to go back out and play in the sand some more, yet when we got to the hotel, he fell asleep on the bed when I went in to use the bathroom. Normally, I'd have let him sleep, but I knew how much playing in the sand meant to him, so I woke him up.