Greetings from Pensacola

Saturday, 8 September

We’re in Pensacola, Florida for a few days to take care of our domiciling paperwork.  That’s right; we’ve switched gears from becoming South Dakota residents and have decided to make Florida our home state while we’re full-timing.  But that’s a story for later.  And so is today’s story.  I’m going to go back in time to last night first as that is when this short business/fun trip to the Sunshine State began.

The Army, coast guard, and air force welcome us to Pensacola!
(I couldn’t fit the Navy and Marine Corps pelicans, which were on the far side of the
street, into the picture, but I’m sure they’re glad we’re visiting Pensacola, too.)

Friday, 7 September

Normally, for a short trip like this one, we would drive to Dulles International (IAD) and park in the economy lot.  However, we’re traveling on United award tickets this time and we’re flying in and out of different airports, so we decided to make our way to IAD by public transportation — a metro ride, followed by coach service operated by Washington Flyer.  At $2.10/person for a one-stop metro ride, and $10/person for the 20-minute bus ride, the cost is not insignificant, but it beats the $45 fare for a cab ride.

The coach service leaves from the West Falls Church metro station.

The bus is all but empty; we're just two of six passengers heading to IAD.

For a Friday evening, passenger traffic at IAD was surprisingly light.  In fact, we had no wait whatsoever at the security checkpoint.  By 6:00p, we were on the people mover, traveling to Terminal C.

The people mover beats the old mobile lounges hands down.

With plenty of time on our hands, we decided to walk the length of the terminal to the D concourse and have dinner at Gordon Biersch, a brewery restaurant that describes the dining experience as: “Fresh, handcrafted beer and premium, made-from-scratch food...all served up in a friendly and fun atmosphere … .”  It’s one of the better eateries at the airport and it didn’t disappoint.  We both ordered Caesar salads with grilled salmon; the salad was crisp and the salmon was grilled just right.

Mui hides behind the menu, but there’s nowhere for me to hide behind our shared beer.

Caesar salad with grilled salmon at GB helps pass about an hour of our wait time at IAD.

United flight 5724 was delayed 25 minutes for minor mechanical repairs.  We boarded the Canadair CRJ200 at 8:10p, dropping our carry-on bags at the bottom of the stairs since we knew the overhead bins would be too small to accommodate them.  We’d snagged exit row seats during online check-in — for free, no less — so we were quite comfortable for the two hour flight.

We landed at Pensacola at 9:14p — this part of Florida is an hour behind DC.  Picking up our rental car, we were on our way out of the airport 30 minutes later.  Our destination — the Navy Lodge at Naval Air Station Pensacola.  I’d say that this place is the equivalent of a 3-star chain hotel.  At $75/night, you can’t beat it’s beach-front location.  We have a spacious room, a small kitchenette that is equipped with all that we need to self-cater our meals, and a balcony that has a view of the beach.  Of course, we had to wait until the new day dawned to verify the last part of that description.

Suite 306 at the Navy Lodge.

Before we could get to bed, we had one problem to deal with.  Our Capital One Visa card was declined when we picked up our rental, and again when we checked into the lodge.  Good thing we have a second card for just such eventualities.  We’ve had more problems with this card than we ever did with AmEx.  Admittedly, we neglected to call CapOne to advise them of our travel plans.  But we’ve never had to do that with domestic travels before.  Mui thinks Visa might be more twitchy since we have a reasonably high credit limit on the card.  Regardless, with our plans to fulltime in the near future, we can’t afford to have hassles with our card, so we’ll be looking at some alternatives when we return home.

It was 00:30a when we finally fell into bed, dead tired.

Back to Today … September 8

This Google Maps image shows the locations of NAS Pensacola where we’re staying at
the Navy Lodge (bed marker); the Fish House, where we had lunch (fork & knife marker);
and the areas where we did some drive-by sightseeing today (camera markers).

After only five hours of sleep, we were up at 6:30a.  That wasn’t the plan since we’d gotten to bed so late, but our bodies seem to have a mind of their own :-).  I drew the curtains open to overcast skies and a view of the beach veiled by a light mist.  I stepped outside and sat down to take in the early morning stillness.  The silence was broken by the droning of the A/C unit on the ground below us, but the patch of white sand with the blue-grey waters of Pensacola Bay beyond made it easy to close my ears to the noise.

Within minutes, the forecasted 40% chance of rain became reality.  First a few drops … then a light drizzle … then a downpour.  We didn’t mind as the overhang from the floor above gave us plenty of protection.  Mui went downstairs to grab a couple of “go-bags” for breakfast — included in the room rate.  Nothing fancy, but enough to sustain us this morning.

Until we go grocery shopping, a go-bag breakfast will suffice.

Our simple meal finished, we took advantage of a break in the downpour to go for a walk on the beach.  Well, wouldn’t you know it — it started pouring again the minute we stepped on the sand.  Undeterred, we kept going.  We were the only ones on the beach — well, us and the herons, and the pelicans, and the shorebirds flirting with the surf in their quest for breakfast.  We were soaked by the time we got back to our starting point, but we didn’t mind.  Besides, we were going to take a dip in the warm waters of Pensacola Bay anyway.  No photos to prove it, though; too much rain to risk the camera.

We returned to the room, took our showers, and prepared for the day ahead.  By then the sun was out of course.  Just in time to raise the temperature to a point where it was downright uncomfortable.

The weather changed from this at 7:00a ...

… to this at 9:00a.

The only item on today’s agenda was to go to the commissary and stock up on groceries to self-cater some of our meals.  We figured we would have breakfast and dinner in the room, and dine out at lunch.  We had no set plans for the rest of the day, so after dropping off our grocery purchases in the room, we decided to check-out Oak Grove, the on-base campground, which is located just down the road from the lodge.  Determining that it will do nicely for a future stay, we then headed off to find a place for lunch.

The boarding passes I had printed when I checked into yesterday’s flight had a few restaurant recommendations listed.  Familiar with Bonefish, we decided to go there — oops, not open for lunch on weekends.  So, we programmed another restaurant also listed on the boarding pass.  This time we hit pay dirt.  The Fish House turned out to be an excellent choice.

Located in the Seville Harbour area, the Fish House does right by us.

We braved the hot temperature to sit at one of the shaded dockside tables.  There was a light breeze that kept us from overheating as we enjoyed our seafood meal.  Our server was not only efficient, but she was very nice.  I ordered the grilled tilapia with grilled vegies and corn fritters; Mui opted for the Pacific grilled salmon with the same side dishes.  The hush puppies were a tasty surprise.

Without the umbrella to provide shade, we’d have to eat inside.

This was our view for our lunchtime al fresco dining experience.

Our plates don’t look all that different, except that I have the grilled tilapia (Left) and
Mui has the Pacific grilled salmon … the Pacific means the fish is soy-infused to add a
different flavor; it worked very well with the salmon.

After lunch, we decided to just go for a drive and see where the car took us.  The temperature gauge read a humid 91F (33C) and the sun was brutal; much too hot to be wandering about on foot.  Our drive first took us to Gulf Breeze, and then to Pensacola Beach on Santa Rosa Island.  We were unable to drive all the way out to Fort Pickens, however, as the road was closed.  Nor could we continue to Destin, as the road in that direction was also closed.

The long expanse of white sand called out to us, but it was just too darn hot.  Besides, having traveled for this short getaway to Florida with carry-on bags only, we simply did not have all the accoutrements for a day on the beach.  It would have been a crime not to at least take a peek, though, so we found a parking spot near one of the beach access paths and stepped out of the car.  Oh wow — the sun was definitely more than brutal.  Some quick pics, and we dashed back to the A/C comfort of the car.

Welcome to the white-sugar Pensacola Beach!

Two minutes to check out the beach and dip our toes; that was the limit of our beach visit.

The road to Fort Pickens is closed off.  This is all part of Gulf Islands National Seashore.

Next, we went to check out the Blue Angel Campground.  This is another military campground, but it is off-base.  Though we think we would prefer the on-base Oak Grove Park, this one would certainly do in a pinch.

Seeing as how Perdido Key was not too far, we made a quick jaunt in that direction next.  But we turned back before we reached the Florida-Alabama stateline so that we could get back to the lodge and Mui could take one more dip in the ocean before the sun went down.

Unlike Pensacola Beach, the strip on base is nearly deserted.

Not much of a sunset, but the water is warm and Mui enjoys a dip.
That black dot in the water is Mui :-) 

Back in our room, we put the dining table on the balcony so that we could enjoy an al fresco dinner.  Our meal consisted of pasta with spinach and artichokes (frozen Kashi entrée), and some baby carrots and cucumber sticks in lieu of a salad — nothing elaborate to be sure, but it served us quite nicely.  I’ll try to remember to take pictures the next time we have dinner on the balcony.

Not sure what we’ll be doing tomorrow.  A cold front is moving through tonight.  Cold is relative, of course, but the high is forecasted to only reach 86F (30C) … and even better … very low humidity.  I’m sure there will be some beach time in the morning; after that, we’ll play it by ear.