Pensacola Adventures - Day 62 to 65 - Pensecola, FL

We spent a long weekend in Pensacola (Friday, 12/3 to Tuesday, 12/7) and had a great time despite some rather (relatively) cold weather (50s with a windchill in the 40s).

We docked on Thursday (12/2) at Palafox Pier Yacht Club, which is located just outside the historic downtown district.  According to locals, this area went through urban renewal several year ago and the result, as shown in the three photos below, was extremely positive.

Guided Discovery at Palafox Pier Yacht Club

Note the condos to the left

View looking south east at Jaco's a restaurant at dockside

We encounter our first large yacht, a 110 footer with a crew of six. 

We ate at Jaco's twice.  It just opened and is immediately adjacent to the marina.  It features exotic flatbreads.  We also had two excellent dinners at another local restaurant called the Fish House, which was four blocks east of the marina.  Both were great restaurants.  Kodi absolutely loved the park like environment.

Saturday we visited the National Naval Aviation Museum located at the Pensacola Naval Air Station, home of the Blue Angels. 

This free to the public museum has over 150 beautifully restored aircraft.  dating from the beginning of aviation through today.  The exhibits take you from the beginning of aviation and then through WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War.  The focus is on naval aviation, which means carrier based aircraft.

National Naval Aviation Museum entrance

One of the unique airplanes, which was truly one of many, was an SBD Douglas Dauntless Dive Bomber.  The Dauntless on display was recovered from Lake Michigan in 1994. 

This airplane was on Ford Island when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.  It then participated in the sinking of the Japanese carriers in the Battle of Midway, a decisive US victory.  Having been hit by enemy fire 219 times, it was transferred to Glenview Naval Air Station where it was used to train carrier pilots.   It was ditched during an errant approach to one of the two training carriers that were based in Lake Michigan.  After recovery in 1994 it went through seven years of restoration at the museum.  Click here for full details on this valuable artifact of naval history.

Walking through the 150 airplanes by yourself is interesting but very time consuming as each exhibit has a sign explaining the aircraft's history and service.  The good news is that the museum provides free guided tours.  We took one with David Drummond.  It lasted 90 minutes and he made the exhibits come alive.  The descriptions were so rich that we were only able to get through the WWII.  If we continued it would have taken another two hours to cover Korea, Vietnam, Balkan War and the Gulf Wars and that still would just be touching the surface.  Bottom line.  You could spend days in this museum and still not see it all.

David describing the Sopwith Camel

Side Story: I got to talking with David and discovered that he had worked at Bethlehem Steel's Quincy Shipyard in Quincy Massachusetts and wrote a book chronicling its history.  My family used to spend summers in Hull Massachusetts and I crossed a bridge that overlooked this great shipyard many times.  I plan to read his book, The Shipyard during our journey.

Sunday's activity was a car trip to the Gulf Islands National Seashore, which is located south of Pensacola on one of the barrier islands that form the Inter Coastal Waterway.

Located here is Fort Pickens, an important piece of Civil War history.  Fort Pickens was build between 1833 as part of the coastal defense system that was developed after America's struggle with the British Navy during the War of 1812.

Fort Pickens taken from a distance.  A massive structure

Fort Pickens was the key fort protecting Pensacola Bay and the Naval Ship Yard that was built here, the main one in the south.   In 1861 it was occupied by the Union Army and fought a decisive two day battle in November of that year that resulted in the Confederacy withdrawing from Pensacola.  This fort had over 100 heavy cannons.  The Confederate forces had occupied Fort McCree just across the cut that forms the entrance to Pensacola Bay.  In the battle, the guns at Fort Pickens literally leveled Fort McCree.

The National Park Service has done a great job of preserving this site.  Of special interest is the fact that the fort is entirely built of bricks, some 2,000,000 in total.

David Ogden describing the brickwork and limestone stalactites

We caught up with the formal tour which was conducted by David Ogden.  Again, these sites come alive when you have the opportunity to listen to the docent's descriptions.  David was extremely knowledgeable and entertaining.  He was so good that we bought a pamphlet he authored called The Fort Pickens Story.  It was a good read.  Note: the temperature was 50 degrees with a 15 knot north wind.  I would estimate a windchill in the 40s.  David had to be good to endure the cold.

Quite frankly we could spend several more weeks in Pensacola but alas the calender says we have to be moving on.  Next stop Fort Walton Beach, 43 miles to the east.

Written by Les.