The Chase Famiy Goes to Pensacola, Florida

We had a great weekend trip down to Pensacola Florida. We stayed on base at the Naval Air Station there. They had a wonderful Aviation Museum, my boys just got a kick out of that! I guess we are lucky in that I love learning the history behind anything! The same goes for these fighter jets, literally hundreds of F-14s, F-18s, and a whole bunch of other numbered planes :) things like Tomcats, Hellcats, Corsairs, even some space shuttle stuff. The recovered pod from the Apollo mission in 1972 is even there. We didn't get to see the Blue Angels fly, they were regrettably, off base when we checked into the Navy Lodge. But hopefully we will get the chance to see them fly when they are back at home.

We ate a wonderful restaurant called The Crab Trap. At first, we just picked it out of the phone book because both KC and myself had a hankering for seafood, but it turned out we hit pay dirt when we got there to find it was a full family restaurant with a playground in the middle of the dining area outside. Also it was only 50 yards from the shore! Thomas spent most of the time running around on the jungle gym as Ben sat and played with us. Plus they had the best seafood we had in while and the scallops (garlic broiled) were probably the best I or KC have ever had anywhere, and that is saying something! So we really lucked out. On Saturday morning, we were able to go and enjoy the beach. Because the base has its own beaches the water line is much cleaner and not as crowded. The water was crystal clear and warm, we had small fish coming up to Thomas there in the water. The sand was even more soft than it had been in Panama City. After we had seen the museum and explored a playground area for Ben and Thomas, we headed over to Mobile Bay (45 min away) which is home to two old Army forts dating from just after 1812, Ft. Morgan and Ft. Gaines. Those two sit on either peninsula guarding the bay into Alabama. Ft. Morgan was the one we visited. It was used infamously in a Civil War Battle August 5, 1864 where Admiral James Farragut (Union) past through the blasting cannons of the forts (which had been seized from the Federal Govt by the Confederacy shortly after the southern states succeeded) and made his way into the bay loosing only one ship, the USS Tecumseh, a Monitor. That is where you get the famous saying "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!"

Now that you all have had your history lesson for the day, I have to say it was a great brick structure and was huge! So I am pretty happy, one Civil War site down! I am looking forward to going back to Pensacola soon!