Pensacola

After a busy few days it was nice to have a chance to have a sleep in; too bad we both ended up waking up before dawn. Luckily we were rewarded for the early rise with a beautiful view of the sunrise from our balcony in Pensacola Beach, on a lovely calm morning with a pod of dolphins slowly working their way down the shore.

For the morning we were off to the famous Pensacola military base to visit the aviation museum. The Naval officer who checked our IDs when we drove onto the base said ours were the first Canadian IDs he'd ever seen, so apparently this is an attraction that mainly appeals to Americans. Since the guide book said "Visiting the base/museum is 'free' because your taxes have already paid for it." If we're the only non-Americans to visit, I read that as "Everybody else had to pay to get in here but you!"

We spent an hour in the (mostly deserted) museum, looking at various aircraft and making ourselves sick by flipping upside-down repeatedly on the 3D jet fighter flight simulator.

Leaving the museum we found out why it was empty outside: everyone had just shuffled in to see the Blue Angels do a practice show. (We saw the massive line up on the way in but since it was nearly 30C with no shade, we figured we'd see if we could get in later since we've seen the Blue Angels before.) Luckily we got there just in time for the show to start.

For the afternoon we went back to enjoy our beach resort, but this stretch of the Gulf coast is more geared toward that younger, party crowd, and we preferred the quieter resort towns from a few days ago.