Pensacola, FL...home of the Blue Angels

Big Lagoon State Park, Pensacola, Florida

On Sunday, October 9th, we drove to Pensacola to visit my cousin, Jamie, and meet his lovely wife, Genny, and adorable kids, Tara and Holden. Coincidentally, Jamie's mom, Della, was also in town, so we got to visit with her as well. Bonus!

Genny, Tara, Jamie, Della

Jamie is on the Navy Blue Angels team and he took us all on a tour of his "office". We saw a couple of spare planes and part of the hangar where the team is based. So cool! 

My cool cousin, Jamie!

Check out the pawprints!


Afterward, we went back to Jamie and Genny's house for a nice home-cooked meal and some slobber, courtesy of Killian (doberman) and Guiness (hairy mutt). The dogs were hilarious. We managed to get a picture with Tara, but 2 year old Holden had already gone to sleep.

At Big Lagoon State Park where we camped, Ken and I headed down to the 'beach', which was really only about 2 feet wide. But we saw dolphins! Jumping out of the water! Neato! We also saw quite a few snowy egrets and a crane...or maybe it was a heron. Ornithologists we're not.

In any case, we had a great time in Pensacola, especially visiting the headquarters of the Blue Angels with Jamie...so interesting.

Heron? Crane? Bird.

When we left Pensacola, we drove through the rain and wind to Perry, Florida, where we spent the night in a Walmart parking lot. At least it was quiet.

Screwed tire

We left early the next morning on our way to Venice, but managed to hit a snag in Pinellas Park. Well, actually, it was a screw and it caused one of the tow dolly tires to roll off. With the help of two Good Samaritans to take the tire off, take the wheel off and then put the spare on, we were on our way again after only 45 minutes or so. Not too bad. A big thanks to the two of them!! We arrived in Venice in time to enjoy a nice dinner with Monte while watching the sun set over the Gulf at Sharky's.