10/27 and 10/28, 2018 – Pensacola
Saturday, 10/27
Today I did some exterior RV and truck cleaning and generally hung around the RV. Nancy did some house cleaning and then took the short walk to the Historic Lighthouse here on the Naval Air Station Pensacola (NASP). I kept working on the RV cleaning while she went but after she came back and told me how interesting it was, I wished I had gone. We had driven by it several times and it just looked like an average lighthouse to me…….WRONG. It is the tallest lighthouse in the state of Florida. Also, according to some of the Lighthouse museum literature:
“First settled by Spaniards in 1559, Pensacola is the oldest European settlement in mainland America……Pensacola is Florida’s second oldest city, and has the deepest bay on the Gulf Coast. The mouth of the bay is bounded by Santa Rosa Island to the east and Perdido Key to the west. To guard the entrance, Spain established Fort Barrancas atop a 60-foot bluff on the mainland opposite the bay’s mouth. Soon after the United States took control of Florida from Spain in 1821, the federal government, recognizing the importance of Pensacola’s harbor, moved to establish both a naval yard and lighthouse there.”
Nancy really enjoyed the lighthouse tour. Later this afternoon we took our chairs to the beach to enjoy the sunset and have a cocktail. As usual, Frisco joined us and had a blast at the pet friendly beach near our RV site.
Frisco locked in on a crab den in the sand
Frisci spent lot of time inspecting and barking at a lone rock in the water……
Sunday, 10/28
We had a nice Sunday without leaving the Naval Air Station. The weather was spectacular so we decided to take a bike ride to do some more exploring of the Naval Air Station at Pensacola. There is a lot of history here….several old forts that go back to the 1600’s and 1800’s (including Fort Barrancas), a national cemetery, and the Navy Aviation Museum. The cemetery is one of 136 national cemetery’s under the supervision of the National Cemetery Administration (part of VA). There are over 32,000 veterans and their eligible relatives buried here. This is also where Navy and Marine pilots get their training. The base itself has 27 holes of golf, multiple beach areas, a great marina and boat/RV storage area, softball diamonds, multiple gyms, etc. There is also a Coast Guard station here. It would be a fantastic place to do your time in the military! We are already planning to spend some time here again next year when we come back to Florida for the winter.
We stopped and toured the Naval Air Museum on the way back. It’s a very impressive museum with a lot of very interesting history. The National Aviation Museum at Wright Patterson AFB is much bigger and has more aircraft, but this museum includes a lot of navy airplanes and some very interesting aircraft carrier and battleship exhibits as well. Both museums are really impressive!
After we got back from the museum, we went to the beach for a couple hours. It was a very good “last day” here at the Naval Air Station Pensacola.
Tomorrow we head to Ocala for the night (on the way to Punta Gorda).