Today we ventured to the point farthest west in our travels – Pensacola. This had been the target for our vacation this time. Because of difficulties booking campsites we are at Fred Gannon Bayou (which is very nice), which is about 70 miles short of Pensacola, further than I had realised. So a trip there would take all day. We set out and made good time. The number one attraction at Pensacola is the National Museum of Naval Aviation (yes another aircraft museum). But this one is big. Too big to take in really, but we booked ourselves onto a walking tour inside and a bus tour outside. This gave us a bit of time to look at some bits in the museum. We walked through three very accurate diorama’s. The flight deck of a wartime Carrier, a Marine camp on a South Pacific Island (circa 1943) and ‘Main Street USA’ (circa 1943 also). The Main Street in particular was fascinating. I did not realise that USA had rationing during the war, I must look further into that one.
The tour indoors was conducted by a retired naval pilot and was very interesting, as each of the planes he talked about were real and had stories about them, which he told and brought to life. Not all war stories, but about how flying boats were operated, how the first plane to cross the Atlantic managed it, how to avoid being shot down by a Zero.
The bus tour showed us some planes parked outside. The bus driver/tour guide was a retired lieutenant colonel, he retired in 1975, two years after I started work! The whole visit was very interesting. But is was time to move onto the other attraction of Pensacola – its fish industry.
We moved into the historical area of Pensacola and visited ‘Patti Joe’s’, a fresh fish shop, built onto a fishing quay. They bring in the fish and sell it straight away. It is very popular. You can walk through the shop and see all sorts of fish, either as whole fish or prepared. You can pick your lobster and have it still alive, or cooked ($9.99 a lb, no extra cost for cooking it), Jumbo Shrimp at $7.00 a lb, Wild Atlantic Salmon at $4.99 a lb. It was fascinating to watch. We didn’t buy anything though.
After this we moved on to the famous Fish House Restaurant, as recommended by Carol and Richard. It was an excellent meal, everything you could ask. We had Crab Claws in a garlic sauce as starters. Sally had Salmon encrusted with pecan and deep fried with asparagus. I had ‘Shrimp and Grits A Ya Ya’, shrimp (big prawns) with a sauce on a bed of grits (creamed corn, with cheese melted in it), which sounds awful, but tasted very nice. We followed that with Key Lime Pie. Yes, it was excellent, good food, lovely surroundings, a great view, warm plates, an intelligent and attractive waitress and good company. It was a god job we had held Sally’s birthday meal in reserve.
This just left the long drive home, we left Pensacola just as the sun was setting over the bayou, beautiful. We had one difficulty, there is a sea side drive, where the road is on a huge (about 20 miles long) sand spit and the road literally is built on the beach. The only trouble is that (although we were warned and only remembered at the wrong time) in one place the road had been washed away during a hurricane and we didn’t realise this until we got to the point where it ended, so we had driven about ten miles only to have to turn back and take another road. Also, because the beaches are so fabulous the whole 70 miles of the coastline is developed with condo’s, houses and shops, which meant it was a very slow road. So the trip home was longer than expected, so we arrived home very tired.
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