THURSDAY NOVEMBER 12

Finally…the sun!!!!! Steve and Nancy Bachand picked us up at 8 am and took us for an all day tour of the area. It was great having our own personal tour guides. First we went to Crystal Beach, which is east of Destin Florida. It was low tide and the beach is beautiful. The area is known as “the Emerald Coast” because when the sun shines on the white quartz sand at a certain angle reflects and appears green.




We continued on to the Naval Air Station at Pensacola. The Naval Air Museum is located there. As we were entering the museum an Air Force F16 buzzed everyone and then put on his afterburner. He was most likely practicing for the air show that would take place over the weekend. I can’t begin to describe it, but everyone totally loved it. The speed, the noise, the ground and your body shaking. Believe me, it was a first hand exposure to the power of those jets.

The museum was fabulous. Every aircraft in the museum had been flown by Navy pilots except for one. And that aircraft looked liked a model airplane of sorts. The display presentations where so well done. Whatever area specific aircraft had been used in, the surroundings depicted the actual conditions. One was set up like it would have been in the pacific. Complete with sandbags, outdoor shower and an officer’s club.

WHOA!! And I thought our props were big. This is one of the props from the aircraft carrier
Intrepid.








We ate lunch at the museum’s Cubi Points café. The original Cubi Points Officers’ Club was located near Subic Bay in the Philippines. That base has been closed so they removed all the plaques and used them to decorate the museum café. Each plaque had the names, and nicknames, of each squadron. Not only did pilots has squadrons but also mechanics, nurses, etc. who had squadrons. It made us speculate how some of these people got their nicknames. But we think alcohol may have been involved.





The Naval Air Station at Pensacola is home to The Blue Angels. They have been on tour but have just returned home. They put on an air show that we watched. These guys flew like they were happy to be home. They were short a pilot though so when they heard Ross had his pilots license they asked him to fill in.









Just kidding!!!

These pilots are nothing short of amazing. But I’m glad I’m not any of their moms. I was nervous just watching. Especially when they would fly at very low altitude directly at one another and then at the last second roll their jets over and miss one another.