After our visit to the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, we drove to the Pensacola pier for lunch and sightseeing.
Beautiful skies, almost too beautiful. We were eating outside and the restaurant asked us to move inside. There were two storms headed toward us.
Both of them missed us but I took photos of the resulting skies. I’m not afraid of rain, I am really afraid of lightning though so I was careful. Hear it fear, see it flee it is my motto.
Nothing like a good storm coming through for energy and clean air.
On our vacation to the Gulf Coast in September we found out that the National Naval Aviation Museum at Pensacola Naval Air Station had reopened to the public. It had been closed since December 6, 2019 after a terrorist attack by a Saudi Arabian directed by al-Qaida of the Arabian Peninsula killed three people and wounded eight others.
We had been to the museum years ago and were looking forward to a return visit. When we got there a free tour was starting so we jumped into that and were glad we did.
The guide was a retired naval aviator and he had lots of a knowledge about the various aircraft on display.
We don’t generally take the tours but we were glad we did on this one because the number and variety of airplanes to look was overwhelming.
He was able to talk about technological advances over time from the first naval aircraft to the present day and further how tactics and strategy of naval aviation has changed.
He spent a lot of time on World War II in the pacfic and in particular the pivotal Battle of Midway made such a huge difference in how the war went.
The tour was interesting but by the end my brain was full and overflowing.
So if you are in the Pensacola area and have some time I recommend checking the museum out. It is on the grounds of the Pensacola Naval Air Station.
The installation is the home base for the Navy’s Blue Angels. We saw them practicing as we drove to the museum. What they were doing in the air was incredible.
My backyard trailcam captured this image of a squirrel munching on an acorn. We have a bumper acorn crop this year. The squirrels can’t keep up with them. Our little dog Kodi has learned the trick of picking one up and bringing it inside where we give him a treat to trade.
We have a few little rabbits who romp around in our yard.
Young Kodi howls when my wife leaves. He’s inconsolable in his sorrow.
The howling kind of irritates our sweet cat Lizzie. I can just see her thinking, “Suck it up dog!”
More skywatch photos from our trip to Orange Beach, Alabama in September
We had great skies almost every day. I loved the mix of clouds and sunshine.
Some of the sights were spectacular
Like lots of condos in the area, the front faced the beach and the back faced the highway. Even those views were not bad.
Went on a bike ride at the Gulf State Park nearby. They had great views as well.
The lakes there are alligator habitat. People were still letting their dogs swim out there.
We went for dinner at nearby Perdido Key, Florida. Our restaurant had great views of the sunset. Everybody was up on their feet with the cell phones just happily snapping away. Me2, I was snapping away with all of them.
Another fence shadow with our Pomeranian Kodi and Me!
Shadows on a nice fall day in the courtyard at the gym for some cardio drumming. That’s my wife way at the end, Heather leading the class. She makes it a good workout and fun.
I went hiking on Turkey Mountain earlier this week. I encountered, several times, a family of three or four deer. This was the best photo I got. Lots of trees made focusing difficult. I love seeing deer in the woods.
And I saw this butterfly. Google tells me that it is a Red Admiral.
And I was walking along and I heard a woodpecker up in the trees. I looked and looked and saw this one but he wouldn’t stay still very long. Sorry for the grainy cropped shot.
And here is our Pomeranian Kodi. He’s cute as all get out and likes me 95% of the time but watch out for the other 5%.
I woke Lizzy the cat up from a nap the other day. She was not amused.
And I captured the image of this little bunny in our backyard early Friday morning. We have a lot of hawks in the neighborhood and they feast on little bunnies.
And speaking of feasting we have a bunch of squirrels this season. Watch out little dudes!!
Kodi loves going places so we took him on a hike at Ray Harrall Nature center. He did two miles and never slowed down. His little feet were moving fast.
And that is my critter report this week. I am linking with Saturday’s Critters.
The three of us took a late vacation this year. I’m ashamed to say that all the traveling I did by myself was part of that (but I’m not sorry that I did it.) Son is taking college classes but they are online so yep, he can attend school anywhere we have wifi.
So this was the SuperMoon on August 31. Also a blue moon since it was the second full moon of August. I took this the night before we left on vacation. Technically though I am retired I am on a permanent vacation.
We had some decent skies on our drive from Tulsa to the Alabama Gulf Coast. My wife was driving when I took this photo. I used to take photos of her driving but she has gotten pretty good with her backhand so I don’t do those so much any longer.
I love this two story dock at a rest stop in Arkansas. Too bad the dock is closed.
So we spent the night in Jackson, Mississippi on the way down there. No photos there. So we had a short drive to Orange Beach. We stopped at Buc ees on the way to the beach. Oops never again!! It is like a giant gas station paired with a giant Bass Pro with the worst of both. Lines to get in, lines to get out. It looked like a good place to get covid to me. We couldn’t get out of there fast enough. But our condo was nice when got there.
The Gulf of Mexico right at our feet. Going so late in the season meant a lot less people and the temps were very mild and the humidity low. Sign me up!!
Evening sunset was nice.
Here’s Heather out in the water. I love the feel of the ocean, sand, and wind in my face.
And a hand holding romantic shadow selfie. Look how skinny we are.
I had some time so I went to check out the “The Herd” at Tulsa’s Lafortune Park. The county parks department commissioned an installation of a herd of bison at Lafortune Park. They had been there forever but wrapped up in plastic so I noticed that the plastic had been taken off so I went to check it out.
Here’s the little red dog or calf.
Here’s the dad. A huge old bull.
And the mom. As with all species the hardest working family member of all. I didn’t get very good photos. Taking photos of bronzes in full sun is some thing I need to work on.
So I sneaked off from the Herd and around the side of the little league ball parks.
And found a geocache. This is unique because it was actually 3D printed from a computer app. That takes geocaching up a notch from the recycled Bismati Rice plastic jars that I like to use.
And then I went by this pond on my wat back to the car. I can’t go by a fountain or pond without taking a photo. This one has a bit of a rainbow on the left side.
