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| Evidently this is a blast! |
Tuesday 12/4 and Wednesday 12/5 in Pensacola FL: Pensacola is great. It definitely joins our list of top places to return to and maybe places we could live along with Chattanooga! Palafox Marina is right in downtown allowing great walking adventures.
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| Kermit in front of city hall |
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| Kermit walking down Palafox Blvd |
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| Michael Hechtkopf and Rich Mandel wandering down the street |
This town has pelicans everywhere. There are pelican statues decorated on the sidewalks.They have a pelican drop for New Year’s, and lots of great restaurants.
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| Fabulous lunch at Adonna's Bakery and Cafe - yum! |
We even took Rusty into the restaurant at the marina, where he was welcomed!! At the restaurant I met the nicest folks who talked about an interviewing experience they just had. The daughter was preparing for the MCATs and getting into medical school. Very nice son. What a nice family!
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Karen Brown's old house
- she restored it |
We walked up Palafox Blvd to see Karen Brown’s old house at Gadsden and Barcelona. Lots of churches with stained glass. We tried to go in to see the stained glass because Paula works on the Stained Glass Project in Philadelphia, aimed at providing alternatives for inner city youth through art. However we couldn’t get in any churches.
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| Palafox Marina |
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| Palafox Marina |
Rusty was still recovering from his shoulder injury after the beach at Fort McRae so he didn't get to wander around as much as he would have like. A few turns around the Palafox Marina park was all he could handle. Poor old man.
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| Pelicans at Palafox Marina park |
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| Fresh caught tuna |
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| Beautiful tropical foliage with Paula and Rich Mandel and Judy Hechtkopf |
We visited Joe Patti's Seafood Market - a huge place that sells seafood wholesale. We had lunch there too. Everyone had fried fish because that is what was available. I took my fried shrimp in a salad. You have to start somewhere to eat healthy. We have had a lot of fried foods.
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| A huge row of fresh fish with a dozen people to help you find exactly what you want. We bought fresh caught shrimp. |
Naval Air Museum: We spent the better part of the second day here. This is a can’t miss site. I didn’t really care whether we went there or not. So what they have old planes. But I was wrong! This is so much more. Every plane tells a story. For some reason I can't locate the pictures from Pensacola Naval Air Museum. When I find them I will add them. In the meantime here are some of the stories. If you get a chance, be sure to visit this museum. Here are some images from Google. Sorry about that.
NOTE: I found the pictures!! They were in Picasa where I put them. Silly me...
We had an old guy tour guide who told story after story about everything we saw. It is a completely different tour with an old-guy tour guide. I want to be an old-guy tour guide when I grow up!!
We had two tours – George was our guide inside and “Frank” (I didn’t catch his name so we will call him Frank) on a bus tour of the big planes in the back yard. Both told a million stories. I can’t remember all of them but I will share a few I do remember.
First naval airplane was built by Curtis who got into a long drawn out patent battle with the Wright Brothers that completely stopped development of military air force until US government stepped in to buy the patents. Curtis went on to design many airplane enhancements and opened a training school for military pilots in San Diego.
George showed us how to wind up one of the early planes which caused a huge racket disturbing the board of directors meeting going on next door. It was hilarious.
George was a retired judge from Montgomery. In WWII he commanded an air craft carrier in the Pacific that was hit by kamikaze planes. He had lots of great stories so we followed him around like puppies for about 2 hours.
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| Kermit listening to George our tour guide |
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| A plane waiting in for restoration |
In WWII they opened Glenview Naval Air Station to train lots of pilots to land and take off on aircraft carriers. They converted two lake cruisers into pretend aircraft carriers to simulate the real thing then had new pilots do 8 takeoffs and landings before they were certified to fly in the military. They used old WWI planes as trainers. Evidently part of learning is making mistakes so many planes sunk in Lake Michigan. The Naval Air Museum has pulled about a dozen of these planes out of Lake Michigan is restores them in the restoration hanger so they can be displayed in the museum. The best display was a representation and movie about recovering the planes lost in Lake Michigan following training.
Every plane on display is an actual plane that flew for the military except the Curtis in the lobby that is a reproduction from the original plans. All the restoration is done by volunteer men and women who lovingly wash, repair, paint and reassemble the planes for display in the museum. It is an amazing effort. We saw planes from the early Curtis’s to the Ford Tri-Motor, to the different kinds of engine innovations, to the latest stealth plane. That picture didn’t turn out!! Couldn’t see a thing!!
During WWII manufacturing companies converted production to make military equipment. Kermit learned that Rosy the Riveter came from the Goodyear plants in Akron OH that converted to build planes.
After WWII most of the fleet was sold off to flying schools and barnstormers. Hollywood bought most of them to use in movies. They painted US planes to look like Japanese zeros but it is hard to tell the difference.
This is the home base for the Blue Angels so we saw the planes at the hanger. And we got to sit in one!
After the museum, Ben Katz took us out to the base and we toured the trainers he uses to learn to fly. He should graduate 12/22 and this Friday 12/7 he will learn where he will be stationed for the remainder of his tour. Everyone was nice. The base has classrooms that look like a nice junior college.
This is Ben's class. He learned he got his preferred assignment in Omaha NE. Good for him!
We had a nice dinner with Bill and Joy from Proud Lady. We met them originally in Dog River and then again in Pensacola. It is nice to see loopers again. Bill and Joy are staying at Pensacola for a few more days for repairs and to recieve mail. I suspect we will see them again!
Oh man, great post. I used to love that place as a kid. Climbing in and out of cockpits, looking at all the old planes, looking at the models... Just awesome. I was there when they first introduced the "sunken plane" exhibit. I loved it.
ReplyDeleteI haven't been there since 1994 or 1995, hope to go back when I return to the U.S.
Thanks for sharing your trip!