Today's post is brought to you by rain, jellyfish, and the Blue Angels. It was quite a day.
We started our day bright and early. We wouldn't expect any different at this point. The kids rolled over and announced they were awake around 6:15. Initially we encouraged them to stay in bed but it didn't last long before we let them snuggle with us for a few minutes. Then we figured we should get up and get moving anyway because we knew we needed to leave early for today's activity.
We went down to the breakfast area and had breakfast. Kenzie chose a chocolate chip waffle and Will had a regular waffle. Actually, we all had waffles. This particular Hampton Inn didn't have a large spread for breakfast. It was probably the smallest we have ever seen but when it is free, we don't complain. We aren't big breakfast people anyway so one rule we live by on trips is basically that our hotel has to have free breakfast. It wasn't too long after we finished that we were on our way to start our day.
Our plan for the day was to head down to the Naval Air Station Pensacola to visit the National Museum of Naval Aviation. The big attraction today was a practice by the Blue Angels at the flight line behind the museum. We did some prior research and knew that they practiced most Tuesdays and this was set to be one of them. We were actually pretty worried though because we knew a line of storms was moving in and we didn't know what that would mean for the practice but we wanted to see the museum anyway so we figured it wouldn't be a total loss if they didn't fly.
We found the Naval Air Station (NAS) pretty easily and it wasn't too difficult to get onto it. We just told them where we were going and had to show ID. We had to swear we didn't have weapons or contraband and were allowed to enter. This was (obviously) a 100% ID check area though so we had to have our ID checked again at the door to the museum and we had red lines drawn on our hand to show that we had already been checked. I'm getting ahead of myself though. We read online that it was recommended to get there early. The museum officially opened at 9am and the practice was set for 11:30am but we knew it would be pretty crowded. When we got there a bit before 9, there was already a good amount of people waiting to enter the museum. We took a few pictures and then waited in line to get in.
Getting in was fairly easy. Like I mentioned, we had to have our ID checked. No large bags are allowed out on the flight line so I elected to only take my camera case but it still had to be checked and a band had to be added to it to show that it had been checked already which allowed us to come and go without going through a bag check again. Not too bad and everything seemed to run pretty efficiently. I wouldn't expect much less from the military. Once we entered, it was like some sensory overload for Will. The kid went crazy. He wanted to look at (and sit in) all. the. things. All of them. Thankfully, some did allow that. Immediately upon entering we went left (though looking back I think it was probably encouraged to move right but it worked for us) where we found Blue Angel cockpits you could sit in. This was the first of many times Will insisted on sitting in a plane.
After that excitement, it was basically just us chasing Will around (and sometimes Kenzie) as he ran from plane to plane losing his little mind. Honestly, we didn't know what to expect with this museum. Steven saw somewhere that it was rated as a Top 10 Museum in the country but we had grand memories of the Air and Space Museum in DC so we thought this couldn't compare. Well, we were wrong. Compared to this one, Air and Space looks like child's play. There were over 150 planes in this place. They were everywhere. And I don't think that includes the little pieces of planes like the ones we sat in that were either broken down pieces of or mock ups of the Blue Angels. It was something to see. The place was huge too. Seriously, we kept getting turned around and lost inside the main part of the museum. We looked at plane after plane and could have easily spent a full day there, I think. Actually, we almost did. The kids found a play area at one point and played for about 5 minutes but there was so much else to see that neither one minded being called away to continue exploring. At one point we found a bit open area with Blue Angels hanging above it. So (of course) I laid down in the middle of the floor of the museum to take a picture.... and then Kenzie followed suit a little while later. That kid is definitely mine.
At about 10am we decided to visit Hangar Bay One which was next to the main part of the museum and housed even more aviation history including a previously used Marine One. Okay, it is only called Marine One when a president is on it, but you know what I mean. We wandered around the Hangar for a while checking out all the planes inside of it. Eventually we stopped to ask someone working the Blue Angels simulator about the practice to get some insight. We saw outside a line forming waiting for the flight line viewing area to open around 10:30 and wondered if it was worth going over to wait in it as it looked pretty long and there were still about 15 minutes left before opening. He said that we could see the Blues (they have a nickname <3)from just about anywhere but if we wanted to see any low maneuvers we would need to be closer. We then decided to walk out to join the line. I sent Steven out while I took the kids to the bathroom. While in the bathroom I got a text that the line was much longer than we thought. As I followed the line from the beginning to end to find Steven, I realized he wasn't joking. It HAD to have about 1,000 people in it already. We live in Orlando and have Disney Annual Passes but I have never seen a line like this one. We were also wondering what might happen because it was obvious that a rain cell was moving into the area. We were told that they wouldn't cancel practice for just rain but visibility had to be a certain amount so we weren't sure what would happen. As we stood waiting, someone came walking down the line advising us that there was rain at the end of the runway so they were asking everyone to go inside and there would be an announcement made about whether or not the practice would go off. Lo and behold... it started to pour on us as we walked/ran back to the museum. We wandered around a while longer waiting to see what might happen.
At about 11:00 we saw people going back outside and decided to follow. We ended up way closer to the front of the new line this time around and after a few minutes they started letting us into the viewing area. We knew that they could still cancel the show at any point but we were willing to risk it. We even found enough room on the viewing area bleachers to sit down and watch the show. The announcer advised us that the plan was still to run the show but the Blues were waiting to see what their visibility would be. They require 3 miles of visibility to run a show so they needed to have that. Then it started to rain again. At this point, we were invested so we stuck it out. It rained pretty steadily for a while and we were told that even if they ran a show, it would be a low maneuvers show. Also, it would be a shorter show as they were holding for at least 15 minutes past the initial show start time to make sure visibility was good and they can only close the air space for an hour to run the practice. Their time starts at 11:30 regardless so they would lose minutes as they waited out another storm cell in the area. Eventually they taxied out onto the runway and we were able to sit and watch them... well... sit. The leader of the Blues made the final call on whether they would fly or not and he wasn't impressed with the weather. The show we saw used 4 Blues doing group maneuvers and 2 solo flights. The leader decided to send one of the solo planes up to do some weather recon. We figured at that point, even if they didn't do the show we got to see one of the planes go up. Usually when he takes off he does a roll but they didn't do any of the low rolls today because of the weather. After a couple of minutes he radioed down that it looked good and then it was officially time to start the show! We were initially a bit worried about it being too loud for the kids but it ended up being fine. The planes did all sorts of amazing stunts that I won't even pretend like I can remember the names of. At one point they do a parade formation and fly past the crowd with 18 inches of clearance between them at points. As in, they could pretty much high five each other if they wanted. One of our favorite stunts was when one plane flew very low to the ground and very close to the crowd at over 700 mph. The announcer asked if we all felt "the need for speed" and it was so quick that neither Steven nor I could grab a video of it. The solo planes did a lot of opposition maneuvers (I think that is what they called them) and they would fly at each other then roll over one way or another. The announcer telling us at some point that some stunts were so easy that then they make them do them inverted (upside down) and then we would see that stunt. Crazy. Most of the time the planes went by us at closer to 700 mph but at one point they do this awesome stunt that lets the two solo planes move at about 100mph. I don't remember all the details but... Holy cow! Our absolute favorite of everything we saw though was the "Sound of Freedom" as the announcer referred to it. We worried initially about the kids' hearing like I said but it was all fine... until this one moment. We could feel it in our bones and it was the only time the kids covered their ears. Hint: Turn your sound UP for this one!! It's worth it.
This was honestly something that we would make a point to come back and see again. The kids were enamored. We were amazed. We would highly recommend this to everyone that visits Pensacola. The particular show we saw had to be viewed from up close but usually you could see most of the show right outside the museum we were told. They can run one of three shows usually. Today they seemed to improvise some because they were limited in time and the fact that they couldn't do a higher show but regardless of what you see... we definitely recommend it.
After the show was over we made our way back inside. We made it quickly enough that we only had to wait about 15 minutes to get a table at the restaurant in the museum, Cubi Bar Cafe. We knew we were limited on food options nearby and it was pretty late at this point (almost 1pm is late for our family for lunch) so we figured this was our best bet. We were initially expecting something more theme park-ish and weren't super excited about lunch but this place ended up being great! They had hot dogs for the kids that were HUGE. Steven and I both had a half soup and half sandwich. It was all reasonably priced and was actually really yummy. Our server was also awesome and helped point us in the direction of a Publix for when we left. The kids seemed to like their hot dogs so it was a winning situation all around. After lunch we took the kids (finally!) to the gift shop. So I have to back up here and mention that about a week ago when we told the kids about going to see the Blue Angels, Kenzie decided that she HAD to have a stuffed Blue Angel as a souvenir. We warned her that something like that was oddly specific and we couldn't guarantee it. Do you know that they totally make those? So now we are the proud owners of "Blue" (Kenzie's Blue Angel) and "Airy" (Will's Blue Angel). These kids used their new toys to do all sorts of fancy flying maneuvers the entire way to our next destination and most of the way back to the hotel later. They are presently sleeping with them in their bed next to us.
So... while we were watching the Blues, the rain stopped and the sun came out. It stayed that way the entire time we were inside the museum having lunch and shopping then almost as soon as we left, the clouds rolled back in. The weather was against us today. We started our trek towards Perdido Key State Park. Perdido Key was ranked for years as one of the best beaches so we figured this would be an awesome place to go... if the weather held up. We found the Publix that our server led us to pretty easily. We would have likely driven right past it anyway but it was comforting to know it was definitely there. Our original plan was to go to the beach, swim, and have a picnic on the beach. We picked up some chicken tenders for the grown ups and popcorn chicken for the kids as well as some other food.
We found Perdido Key State Park pretty easily and it wasn't exactly what we expected. We started at the East beach. There was no one in the guard gate so we drove right in. It was raining some at this point so we weren't sure what was going to happen. We walked down and made sure there was actually a beach and then I changed the kids and myself while Steven carried the tent down to the sand. Here is where we hit our first snag. It was windy. So windy in fact that a tent was never going to work out. Steven ended up carrying it back to the car and grabbing the toys and other items we had. While he was gone the kids sat our their allotted time for not listening today while I walked back and forth in the water. The water was fairly warm and seemed pretty nice. When Steven got back the kids finally ran out their time and wanted to go in the water but I realized I saw what looked like a jellyfish floating past. One jellyfish... not an issue. Then we saw another on the beach. Okay, we can make that work. I was standing with the kids in the water and had to pull them out as one floated right by us less than a foot away. Nope. Done. I'm not dealing with the screaming that would likely come with a jellyfish sting. We decided at that point to pack it up and call it a day. The weather was still iffy and we weren't feeling it. Usually we won't give up on a beach that easily but we were tired too and not in the mood for kids screaming because something stings them.
We changed the kids (and me) back and decided to drive down to the West beach. For future reference, this is the better of the two beaches. It was much wider. We saw another jellyfish on the sand here though and I saw another family run out of the water when they were nearly brushed by one (or more) so they were apparently all over today. We walked up and down the beach for a while killing time and letting the kids at least walk in the water with strict instructions to watch where they stepped.
We decided that instead of eating on the beach, we would drive back to Big Lagoon State Park that we visited yesterday and have a picnic there as they had pretty nice picnic areas. We did just that. We only ate dinner but it was really nice to eat on the water and enjoy the slightly cooler weather this evening. The rain made it much cooler and the humidity doesn't even compare to what we are used to at home so it was almost the perfect night.
After dinner we drove back to the hotel and took a dip in the pool for a bit. We had a great day despite some of our plans needing to be reworked. The Blue Angels practice was definitely a highlight and I think it is something the kids will remember for a long time. Tomorrow we are milling around the hotel for a while in the morning before we are off to our next stop, Jackson, MS to see family. We are looking forward to it.
Day 2 - Done!
We started our day bright and early. We wouldn't expect any different at this point. The kids rolled over and announced they were awake around 6:15. Initially we encouraged them to stay in bed but it didn't last long before we let them snuggle with us for a few minutes. Then we figured we should get up and get moving anyway because we knew we needed to leave early for today's activity.
We went down to the breakfast area and had breakfast. Kenzie chose a chocolate chip waffle and Will had a regular waffle. Actually, we all had waffles. This particular Hampton Inn didn't have a large spread for breakfast. It was probably the smallest we have ever seen but when it is free, we don't complain. We aren't big breakfast people anyway so one rule we live by on trips is basically that our hotel has to have free breakfast. It wasn't too long after we finished that we were on our way to start our day.
Our plan for the day was to head down to the Naval Air Station Pensacola to visit the National Museum of Naval Aviation. The big attraction today was a practice by the Blue Angels at the flight line behind the museum. We did some prior research and knew that they practiced most Tuesdays and this was set to be one of them. We were actually pretty worried though because we knew a line of storms was moving in and we didn't know what that would mean for the practice but we wanted to see the museum anyway so we figured it wouldn't be a total loss if they didn't fly.
We found the Naval Air Station (NAS) pretty easily and it wasn't too difficult to get onto it. We just told them where we were going and had to show ID. We had to swear we didn't have weapons or contraband and were allowed to enter. This was (obviously) a 100% ID check area though so we had to have our ID checked again at the door to the museum and we had red lines drawn on our hand to show that we had already been checked. I'm getting ahead of myself though. We read online that it was recommended to get there early. The museum officially opened at 9am and the practice was set for 11:30am but we knew it would be pretty crowded. When we got there a bit before 9, there was already a good amount of people waiting to enter the museum. We took a few pictures and then waited in line to get in.
Getting in was fairly easy. Like I mentioned, we had to have our ID checked. No large bags are allowed out on the flight line so I elected to only take my camera case but it still had to be checked and a band had to be added to it to show that it had been checked already which allowed us to come and go without going through a bag check again. Not too bad and everything seemed to run pretty efficiently. I wouldn't expect much less from the military. Once we entered, it was like some sensory overload for Will. The kid went crazy. He wanted to look at (and sit in) all. the. things. All of them. Thankfully, some did allow that. Immediately upon entering we went left (though looking back I think it was probably encouraged to move right but it worked for us) where we found Blue Angel cockpits you could sit in. This was the first of many times Will insisted on sitting in a plane.
After that excitement, it was basically just us chasing Will around (and sometimes Kenzie) as he ran from plane to plane losing his little mind. Honestly, we didn't know what to expect with this museum. Steven saw somewhere that it was rated as a Top 10 Museum in the country but we had grand memories of the Air and Space Museum in DC so we thought this couldn't compare. Well, we were wrong. Compared to this one, Air and Space looks like child's play. There were over 150 planes in this place. They were everywhere. And I don't think that includes the little pieces of planes like the ones we sat in that were either broken down pieces of or mock ups of the Blue Angels. It was something to see. The place was huge too. Seriously, we kept getting turned around and lost inside the main part of the museum. We looked at plane after plane and could have easily spent a full day there, I think. Actually, we almost did. The kids found a play area at one point and played for about 5 minutes but there was so much else to see that neither one minded being called away to continue exploring. At one point we found a bit open area with Blue Angels hanging above it. So (of course) I laid down in the middle of the floor of the museum to take a picture.... and then Kenzie followed suit a little while later. That kid is definitely mine.
At about 10am we decided to visit Hangar Bay One which was next to the main part of the museum and housed even more aviation history including a previously used Marine One. Okay, it is only called Marine One when a president is on it, but you know what I mean. We wandered around the Hangar for a while checking out all the planes inside of it. Eventually we stopped to ask someone working the Blue Angels simulator about the practice to get some insight. We saw outside a line forming waiting for the flight line viewing area to open around 10:30 and wondered if it was worth going over to wait in it as it looked pretty long and there were still about 15 minutes left before opening. He said that we could see the Blues (they have a nickname <3)from just about anywhere but if we wanted to see any low maneuvers we would need to be closer. We then decided to walk out to join the line. I sent Steven out while I took the kids to the bathroom. While in the bathroom I got a text that the line was much longer than we thought. As I followed the line from the beginning to end to find Steven, I realized he wasn't joking. It HAD to have about 1,000 people in it already. We live in Orlando and have Disney Annual Passes but I have never seen a line like this one. We were also wondering what might happen because it was obvious that a rain cell was moving into the area. We were told that they wouldn't cancel practice for just rain but visibility had to be a certain amount so we weren't sure what would happen. As we stood waiting, someone came walking down the line advising us that there was rain at the end of the runway so they were asking everyone to go inside and there would be an announcement made about whether or not the practice would go off. Lo and behold... it started to pour on us as we walked/ran back to the museum. We wandered around a while longer waiting to see what might happen.
At about 11:00 we saw people going back outside and decided to follow. We ended up way closer to the front of the new line this time around and after a few minutes they started letting us into the viewing area. We knew that they could still cancel the show at any point but we were willing to risk it. We even found enough room on the viewing area bleachers to sit down and watch the show. The announcer advised us that the plan was still to run the show but the Blues were waiting to see what their visibility would be. They require 3 miles of visibility to run a show so they needed to have that. Then it started to rain again. At this point, we were invested so we stuck it out. It rained pretty steadily for a while and we were told that even if they ran a show, it would be a low maneuvers show. Also, it would be a shorter show as they were holding for at least 15 minutes past the initial show start time to make sure visibility was good and they can only close the air space for an hour to run the practice. Their time starts at 11:30 regardless so they would lose minutes as they waited out another storm cell in the area. Eventually they taxied out onto the runway and we were able to sit and watch them... well... sit. The leader of the Blues made the final call on whether they would fly or not and he wasn't impressed with the weather. The show we saw used 4 Blues doing group maneuvers and 2 solo flights. The leader decided to send one of the solo planes up to do some weather recon. We figured at that point, even if they didn't do the show we got to see one of the planes go up. Usually when he takes off he does a roll but they didn't do any of the low rolls today because of the weather. After a couple of minutes he radioed down that it looked good and then it was officially time to start the show! We were initially a bit worried about it being too loud for the kids but it ended up being fine. The planes did all sorts of amazing stunts that I won't even pretend like I can remember the names of. At one point they do a parade formation and fly past the crowd with 18 inches of clearance between them at points. As in, they could pretty much high five each other if they wanted. One of our favorite stunts was when one plane flew very low to the ground and very close to the crowd at over 700 mph. The announcer asked if we all felt "the need for speed" and it was so quick that neither Steven nor I could grab a video of it. The solo planes did a lot of opposition maneuvers (I think that is what they called them) and they would fly at each other then roll over one way or another. The announcer telling us at some point that some stunts were so easy that then they make them do them inverted (upside down) and then we would see that stunt. Crazy. Most of the time the planes went by us at closer to 700 mph but at one point they do this awesome stunt that lets the two solo planes move at about 100mph. I don't remember all the details but... Holy cow! Our absolute favorite of everything we saw though was the "Sound of Freedom" as the announcer referred to it. We worried initially about the kids' hearing like I said but it was all fine... until this one moment. We could feel it in our bones and it was the only time the kids covered their ears. Hint: Turn your sound UP for this one!! It's worth it.
This was honestly something that we would make a point to come back and see again. The kids were enamored. We were amazed. We would highly recommend this to everyone that visits Pensacola. The particular show we saw had to be viewed from up close but usually you could see most of the show right outside the museum we were told. They can run one of three shows usually. Today they seemed to improvise some because they were limited in time and the fact that they couldn't do a higher show but regardless of what you see... we definitely recommend it.
After the show was over we made our way back inside. We made it quickly enough that we only had to wait about 15 minutes to get a table at the restaurant in the museum, Cubi Bar Cafe. We knew we were limited on food options nearby and it was pretty late at this point (almost 1pm is late for our family for lunch) so we figured this was our best bet. We were initially expecting something more theme park-ish and weren't super excited about lunch but this place ended up being great! They had hot dogs for the kids that were HUGE. Steven and I both had a half soup and half sandwich. It was all reasonably priced and was actually really yummy. Our server was also awesome and helped point us in the direction of a Publix for when we left. The kids seemed to like their hot dogs so it was a winning situation all around. After lunch we took the kids (finally!) to the gift shop. So I have to back up here and mention that about a week ago when we told the kids about going to see the Blue Angels, Kenzie decided that she HAD to have a stuffed Blue Angel as a souvenir. We warned her that something like that was oddly specific and we couldn't guarantee it. Do you know that they totally make those? So now we are the proud owners of "Blue" (Kenzie's Blue Angel) and "Airy" (Will's Blue Angel). These kids used their new toys to do all sorts of fancy flying maneuvers the entire way to our next destination and most of the way back to the hotel later. They are presently sleeping with them in their bed next to us.
So... while we were watching the Blues, the rain stopped and the sun came out. It stayed that way the entire time we were inside the museum having lunch and shopping then almost as soon as we left, the clouds rolled back in. The weather was against us today. We started our trek towards Perdido Key State Park. Perdido Key was ranked for years as one of the best beaches so we figured this would be an awesome place to go... if the weather held up. We found the Publix that our server led us to pretty easily. We would have likely driven right past it anyway but it was comforting to know it was definitely there. Our original plan was to go to the beach, swim, and have a picnic on the beach. We picked up some chicken tenders for the grown ups and popcorn chicken for the kids as well as some other food.
We found Perdido Key State Park pretty easily and it wasn't exactly what we expected. We started at the East beach. There was no one in the guard gate so we drove right in. It was raining some at this point so we weren't sure what was going to happen. We walked down and made sure there was actually a beach and then I changed the kids and myself while Steven carried the tent down to the sand. Here is where we hit our first snag. It was windy. So windy in fact that a tent was never going to work out. Steven ended up carrying it back to the car and grabbing the toys and other items we had. While he was gone the kids sat our their allotted time for not listening today while I walked back and forth in the water. The water was fairly warm and seemed pretty nice. When Steven got back the kids finally ran out their time and wanted to go in the water but I realized I saw what looked like a jellyfish floating past. One jellyfish... not an issue. Then we saw another on the beach. Okay, we can make that work. I was standing with the kids in the water and had to pull them out as one floated right by us less than a foot away. Nope. Done. I'm not dealing with the screaming that would likely come with a jellyfish sting. We decided at that point to pack it up and call it a day. The weather was still iffy and we weren't feeling it. Usually we won't give up on a beach that easily but we were tired too and not in the mood for kids screaming because something stings them.
We changed the kids (and me) back and decided to drive down to the West beach. For future reference, this is the better of the two beaches. It was much wider. We saw another jellyfish on the sand here though and I saw another family run out of the water when they were nearly brushed by one (or more) so they were apparently all over today. We walked up and down the beach for a while killing time and letting the kids at least walk in the water with strict instructions to watch where they stepped.
We decided that instead of eating on the beach, we would drive back to Big Lagoon State Park that we visited yesterday and have a picnic there as they had pretty nice picnic areas. We did just that. We only ate dinner but it was really nice to eat on the water and enjoy the slightly cooler weather this evening. The rain made it much cooler and the humidity doesn't even compare to what we are used to at home so it was almost the perfect night.
After dinner we drove back to the hotel and took a dip in the pool for a bit. We had a great day despite some of our plans needing to be reworked. The Blue Angels practice was definitely a highlight and I think it is something the kids will remember for a long time. Tomorrow we are milling around the hotel for a while in the morning before we are off to our next stop, Jackson, MS to see family. We are looking forward to it.
Day 2 - Done!
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