Ok, so my husband was only in Pensacola for around 5 months and he did NOTHING except study and go out to eat with friends a few times. Crazy man did not have a social life...at all. Well, while I was there the two times I visited and the few weeks when I moved there before moving to Texas, I made that man get out and DO things! We were in FLORIDA and I wanted to make the most of it!
Pensacola is a great city and the Naval base there is huge! I guess first I will talk about the parts of the base that I was able to see and give a little bit of a rundown.
First off, it is an open base. As long as you have any photo id with you then you can get onto base. Sometimes only the driver needs an id unless they are doing 100% id checks, then everyone in the car needs their id. It is a beautiful base as well. You cross a bridge to get to the main gate if you are coming from downtown and the view is pretty great.
. If you have never been, I highly recommend going. It is very interesting to see past and present aircrafts and learn about the history of Naval Aviation. If the history stuff is not for you, at least check it out to see the awesome displays they have and to eat at
. Pretty good food and some pretty interesting history.
Going along with aviation museum, NAS Pensacola is also the home base of the
. Although I did not personally get to go seem them while I was there, you can attend their practice shows and sometimes there are vendors there which allows you to purchase Blue Angels memorabilia. The Blue Angels come out to sign autographs and do a little Q&A with the crowd. Unfortunately, due to sequestration, some of their air shows have been cancelled and this may also affect the frequency of their practice shows.
. This fort was one of three originally used to protect the bay from invaders. It is a beautiful place to see and get a good look at the bay and the base. It is really fun to walk through all of the super long hallways and look out through the little slits in the walls. Some parts of the internal walls are even dirt and if you go up top they have some cannons lined up along the walls.
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| A view between the walls |
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| Aerial view model |
The last place you HAVE to see on base is the
lighthouse and museum. It is really cool even if you do not want to pay the $6.00 to walk up to the top. A warning to those with small children, you cannot carry them up the lighthouse stairs, they have to be able to walk up the stairs on their own to be allowed to go up to the top. There are 177 steps so take heed! Outside of the lighthouse is a nice little beach. Very pretty, very clean, and a good view of the bay.
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| Going out to the beach by the lighthouse |
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| Beach by the lighthouse |
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| The Lighthouse |
Ok, let's review what there is to do on base:
- National Museum of Naval Aviation
- Cubi Bar Cafe
- See the Blue Angels
- Fort Barrancas
- The Lighthouse
- AND MUCH MORE!
The Rest of Pensacola {If you want to have a life outside of base!}
Ok, yeah, base is great and all but I'm sure you do not want to spend your whole life there! Especially if you have someone in the flight program, they will hate going to base and want to be away from "work" as much as possible!
One of the first things we did was scope out places to go hiking. My husband was the one that really got me into this so of course he had scoped out the closest place to the apartment before I ever got there! He found the
University of West Florida.
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An Overview of Just the Boardwalk
(From uwf.edu) |
The University of West Florida, UWF, had this amazing nature preserve right on their campus that included a lake, swamp, and woods. It was great to go there for hiking because they had the shorter, simple, and smooth trails if you want a shorter walk and they also had the longer trails if you desired something a little more rugged. It is a great place to hike. In the time that I was in Pensacola, we went to UWF at least 10 times between my three trips there. I loved it every time. We would always look for the alligator that apparently lived in the water but we never got to see it. However, we did get to see some alligator gars, huge red ear slider turtles, and a variety of different fish.
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| Red Ear Slider @ UWF |
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| Names of the Two Trails |
Another place we found for good hiking was
Tarkiln Bayou Preserve State Park. Not our typical idea of hiking because it was flat and sandy, but still fun nonetheless. It was kind of like a palm and pine forest, but not very thick and the ground is mostly sand. You walk in and there is one trail that is paved and short but we decided to take the longer un-paved path. You could tell people used bikes there a lot as there were lots of tracks. It was kind of swampy and wet at first, hey, its Florida, and not too far in we came to this huge bog of water but we were able to make our way around the edge and keep
going. We knew we were walking along a bay and eventually made our way out to the shore and it was a beautiful, clean beach. We admired it for a while and then continued on our way back in the trees. There were plenty of palm trees, sand, and fire ants but that was about it. We mostly had fun just being together but it is still a place worth checking out if you like being outdoors.
In addition to hiking, we found another outdoor activity that we loved, kayaking!! We found a great place to do it too,
Adventures Unlimited Outdoor Center. They do many things in addition to renting out kayaks such as zip lining, tubing, and canoeing. They have a couple of different trips on different rivers and with different lengths. We really wanted to do the
Blackwater River trip but they require a minimum number of people to go out there so we ended up doing Coldwater Creek instead. The first time my husband and I went with my mom and sister while they were still in Pensacola and we did the 7 mile trip.
We did not want to take one that was too long but the 7 mile turned out to be maybe a bit short for us since my family is pretty experienced at canoeing and kayaking. We still had a great time and were able to turn it into an almost all day trip. The second time we went, my husband and I went by ourselves after my family had left and we decided to do the 15 mile trip which was awesome! We started much farther up the river and had a great time. It was very relaxing and we really enjoyed it!Even though we only did kayaking, the zip lines looked like they would be really fun. At the end of our kayak trip there is even one line that goes out over the river and we had people zip lining over our heads! Really looked like fun! Maybe if we are ever back in Pensacola we will have to check out the zip lines....
Overall, Pensacola was really nice and I most certainly would not mind my husband being stationed there again. Where he lived,
Governor's Gate, was nice, really nice actually, but I would have chosen somewhere a little closer to base. It does rain nearly every day but the beautiful weather when it is not raining is completely worth it! Unfortunately, I was not there as long as I will be in other places so I do not have as much information about Pensacola as perhaps I will others but hopefully what I do have here is helpful!
More Pictures From Pensacola! (Me & My Sister!!
The main attraction on this base is the National Museum of Naval Aviation. If you have never been, I highly recommend going. It is very interesting to see past and present aircrafts and learn about the history of Naval Aviation. If the history stuff is not for you, at least check it out to see the awesome displays they have and to eat at Cubi Bar Cafe. Pretty good food and some pretty interesting history.
The main attraction on this base is the National Museum of Naval Aviation. If you have never been, I highly recommend going. It is very interesting to see past and present aircrafts and learn about the history of Naval Aviation. If the history stuff is not for you, at least check it out to see the awesome displays they have and to eat at Cubi Bar Cafe. Pretty good food and some pretty interesting history.
The University of West Florida, UWF, had this amazing nature preserve right on their campus that included a lake, swamp, and woods. It was great to go there for hiking because they had the shorter, simple, and smooth trails if you want a shorter walk and they also had the longer trails if you desired something a little more rugged. It is a great place to hike. In the time that I was in Pensacola, we went to UWF at least 10 times between my three trips there. I loved it every time. We would always look for the alligator that apparently lived in the water but we never got to see it. However, we did get to see some alligator gars, huge red ear slider turtles, and a variety of different fish.
going. We knew we were walking along a bay and eventually made our way out to the shore and it was a beautiful, clean beach. We admired it for a while and then continued on our way back in the trees. There were plenty of palm trees, sand, and fire ants but that was about it. We mostly had fun just being together but it is still a place worth checking out if you like being outdoors.
In addition to hiking, we found another outdoor activity that we loved, kayaking!! We found a great place to do it too, Adventures Unlimited Outdoor Center. They do many things in addition to renting out kayaks such as zip lining, tubing, and canoeing. They have a couple of different trips on different rivers and with different lengths. We really wanted to do the Blackwater River trip but they require a minimum number of people to go out there so we ended up doing Coldwater Creek instead. The first time my husband and I went with my mom and sister while they were still in Pensacola and we did the 7 mile trip.
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