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Pensacola NAS
Dunes and beach located behind the lighthouseWe started the day off with a cheap ($7) breakfast at McDonald's, then headed down the 297 (off 1-10 W) to the Pensacola Naval Air Base (home of the Blue Angels!) to visit the National Museum of Naval Aviation. The museum is located on the base, so you have to show ID and get a temporary visitor's pass before driving in. On the way in we stopped first at the Pensacola Lighthouse, which is currently used as the office of the Coast Guard liason. The lighthouse was built in 1856 and stands 171 feet from ground to focal plane. Apparently they do offer tours, but it was closed when we got there so we only walked around the outside. After taking some pictures we wandered down a small hill to the white sandy beach that borders the base. I have never seen sand so white in my life! I think it was even more impressive than the Keys or South Beach, and certainly more secluded. Along the entire stretch of dunes and water, we saw only two people off in the distance.
Our next stop was the museum. The building, which is the largest naval aviation museum in the world,
Pensacola Lighthouse
Located at Pensacola NAS houses over 150 Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard planes, several of which were recovered from Lake Michigan after WWII and have since been beautifully restored. The way the planes are packed into the facility, it's almost impossible to tell where one ends and another begins, which is really what makes the museum so interesting. You are literally surrounded by a maze of aircraft, not only around you but above you as well. It was truly an interesting experience, and even better, it was free! We also happened to be at the museum during their Annual Symposium, so the place was packed with special guests and visitors. We listened in as Navy Commander Sunita Williams described life as an astronaut (STS-116 and STS-117) and her experiences on the International Space Station (as part of Expeditions 14 and 15). It was really interesting to hear an astronaut talking in person about her experiences.
After our visit to the museum, we headed back out to the 1-10 W and drove the 50 miles to Mobile, Alabama. We found a cheap ($40) hotel (Howard Johnson) online the night before, so we already knew where we were going to be staying for the
night. The funny thing was that we hadn't realized that the time changed when we reached Pensacola yesterday, so we've been off an hour for over a day! We disovered this when we tried to check into the hotel and the man at the desk told us we had to wait until 3pm (But it's 3:15!...Oh...wait, no, it's 2:15!). We drove around the area and killed some time before going back to check in and drop off our luggage.
There wasn't really anything that caught our eyes in terms of dinner, so we found a mall and decided to eat there and just walk around. We ended up having dinner at Chick-fil-A and then wandered around window shopping for awhile before heading back out on the road to explore the city. One thing I will say about Mobile, there are some GORGEOUS houses here (and also nowhere to pull over to take pictures of any of them). There is also a really cute street, Dauphin Avenue, filled with little shops, restaurants, and bars. We drove through and looked around, but most of the shops had closed so we decided to call it a night and head back to the
Pensacola NAS
Dunes and beach located behind the lighthouse hotel.
I think we might push ahead to New Orleans a day early, if we can find a decent priced hotel for tomorrow night. It's only 144 miles from here and we're itching to get to the Big Easy!
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Lighthouse
The lighthouse was beautiful. Bet you are disappointed that you didn't get to climb to the top. Yeah, right! You must have enjoyed the museum since you took so many pictures. Enjoy your stay in New Orleans.