Travel Week #23 Year #2 (12/05-12/11) Pensacola, FL
Tracking, receiving, and organizing all the Christmas present being delivered almost daily (the office was great about getting all those deliveries!).
Living life.
On Thursday we got to meet one of PsyDoug’s co-workers; he’s worked for the same company 9 years and this is the first co-worker he met face-to-face. They both work remotely for a company in California.
Friday we went on an excellent field trip to Pensacola Lighthouse – lots of coordination went into planning it! The naval base is closed to the public, so you need a military sponsor to escort you on base. BUT the lighthouse offers tours, so they were able to arrange an escort/driver and get us a home school group discount if I could find 6-7 more people to join us. Thanks to FB, I was able to find another home school fulltime family in the area that was interested! Then as we got there, we found out the extra bonus that the docent was available to stay late and give us a museum tour as well! So many blessings that day!
THEN on Saturday, we went to the Pensacola Christmas Parade in Mardis Gras style with LOTS of beads! One of the biggest parades I’ve been to.
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Green pins are Year #1 travels and the dark blue pins are Year #2 travels. One pin for any time we unhitched the camper. The purple pin in MS is where Togepi is.
Looking at our campground from the bridge at night with the boats in the marina lit up with their Christmas lights.
National Naval Aviation Museum on base. We did not get to stop because the base was on lock down (for covid?) and our tour was only for the lighthouse.
Pensacola Lighthouse. We were very fortunate to get a special tour! I was able to arrange a military sponsor to escort us. CJ was a retired Navy pilot with lots of stories and information.
Outside the Pensacola Lighthouse Keepers house. The tour guide found out we were coming and stayed late to give a second tour for the day. I was completely surprised by this bonus part of the tour!
About halfway up the lighthouse looking out a window onto Pensacola Bay. It is a coastal deep water section of the Gulf of Mexico.
Looking down on the lighthouse keeper’s house from the top of the lighthouse. Thirteen stories tall.
The Blue Angels hangar is in the center of this picture (the planes were outside in front on the left side but we couldn’t clearly see them in the fog). The striped poles are water towers. When the Angels practice, they will fly between the lighthouse and those water towers about another 150ft up at the speed of sound (or faster).
Everybody made it to the top of the lighthouse, but I didn’t get a picture of everyone.
The handles on the windows are what the keeper’s would hold on to when they climbed to the top to clean the windows for the light. Gargoyle downspouts, too.
Looking up into the light of the tower.
The steps are numbered. 177 total
Mom’s deathgrip on the railing as she slowly climbed down. We found out later the the steps are 9″ tall (compared to regular 7″ steps), and that is what made the climb even harder.
Munchlax (nearest) making his way down. The smallest child in our group was 3yo. I was able to find another full-time travel home school family to join our tour to get enough people to make it possible.
View from about halfway down the lighthouse.
At the bottom after climbing the lighthouse.
Pensacola Lighthouse was first used in 1859, before the Civil War. It changed hands a couple of times, and took cannon fire. It has a very interesting history.
As close are our escort could get us to see the actual Blue Angels planes. Two rows of planes just to the left or right of center.
The campground beach and marina at night.
We previously had a picture of the toilet being broken. The adventure continues with replacing the whole thing!
Out with the old toilet.
Preparing the water line for the new connection.
New water line now has a shut off valve inside. Before we would have to go outside to shut off the camper water completely if we needed to do anything with the toilet.
Working in tight quarters.
The new toilet works! Upgraded features – more water flow, slow close lid, and a seat that doesn’t tip when you sit on it!
Panoramic of the campground from our camper roof.
Panoramic view from the roof at the front of the camper. A storm is rolling in (but it was just rain).
Pensacola Christmas Parade. It was a Mardi Gras style parade with lots of beads thrown.
The floats were huge, some being pulled by semi tractors.
We enjoyed the bagpipe marching band.
We were near the beginning of the parade. They started 3 or 4 blocks down from us, went another block past us, then looped back around for about 6-8 blocks. Definitely one of the biggest parades I’ve been to, second only to Disney for me.
All the beads, etc that were collected at the parade š
We even got some beads ourselves.
Selfie with all the bling.
Video of the new toilet installation.Video of the bagpipe marching band.
