Wednesday July 2nd
Welcome to Wednesday! Today we’re venturing out! We get up and active slowly, we’re still on
beach time, so there’s no rush, but we want to drive to the Naval Air Station
today in Pensacola. So we’re really
ambitious, we’re heading to another state (which is less than an hour
away). But the Air Station also has the
oldest lighthouse, and we can go up in it – and we’ll check out the Orange
Beach area on the way there and back, maybe head to Flora-bama for lunch or
dinner. But first, breakfast! Patti and I have been watching a show on TLC,
“The Next Great Baker” – our friend and fellow ya-ya, Angela’s cousin Lia is on
the show, and she’s doing very well at making St. Louis proud! On the first episode of the show the bakers
had to make something that spoke to the judges about where they came from, and
Lia made a gooey butter cake (of course).. and came in 2nd – but the
dish that came in first was biscuit cinnamon rolls. The judges just loved them, and the recipe
was posted on the website – so I thought it would be fun to bake something
while we were on vacation and packed up what we needed (pre-measured all the
dry ingredients and put them in zip-locks).
Patti said that today would be a good day to make them and offered to be
by sous chef. We have a few pics of our
work and the final product – they were good, but a little dry – if I were to do
it again, and I might, I would use just a white flour (they asked for a white
wheat flour), or may even just use a Bisquick biscuit recipe, and I would roll
them looser. They were just a little dry
and may have had more room to expand if the roll were more “relaxed”.. but it was fun and I’m glad we did it!
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| Notice I'm using my can of beef as a rolling pin |
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| Making the icing |
The further behind I get on the blog, the
harder it is to remember all the little details, and really, that’s what makes
the blog for me when I go back and read it.
I don’t want to just list out: made cinnamon rolls, went to Naval Air,
Lighthouse, shopping, Crab Trap.. it’s
the little silly moments that I want to remember and that we’ll be talking
about for vacations to come. But it’s
been sooo lazy that I’ve even slacked on taking notes in my phone.
It has kind of become our daily ritual to
watch our “cabana boy” Chance (yes, his real name) set up the chairs for rental
down on the beach. There are wooden
lounge chairs with padding and umbrellas that you can rent for $20/day, and
every morning about 7:15, Chance sets them all up – about 20 chairs or more –
walking back and forth with the padding and umbrellas, and then having to plant
each umbrella in the sand. The whole
process is a workout – we get tired just watching him. No we don’t.
J
After our exciting morning we pile in the
car and Amy drives us over to the Naval Air Station – it’s not a very long
drive and we spot some shops we want to check out on the way back, and
Flora-bama (at the Alabama/Florida state line) that we want to try on the way
back. We get to the Naval Station and at
first we’re not sure we’re in the right place because it looks like we’re
entering a secure base (I guess we are) – and we have to state our purpose of
our visit, I guess we got it right
because he gives us a parking pass for the Museum and Lighthouse only, and keep
it displayed at all times, and as soon as we leave the base, DESTROY the pass.
I will tell you that we didn’t destroy it when we left – we are clearly in
violation and I hope that no one that can do anything to us is reading this
right now. It reminds us that Patti has
already had one violation on this trip – from the Condo people. She hung her towel over the balcony to dry
and there was a notice on our door, a violation served… Patti quickly learned
her lesson and has not been violated
since. Well, until now. I'll post a pic of all of our violations at some point... Until then, you wait!
When we walk up to the Naval Station there
is a trolley parked out front and Patti wants to ride it – the tickets are
free, and while we have no idea where it takes us, Patti doesn’t care, it’s a
free trolley ride, C’mon! But when we
ask at the desk for our free tickets, they only have 3 left – one of the women
working tries to plead our case and asks if they can fit just one more person
on the trolley, and no, no they can’t. So we walk around the station and gawk at the
HUGE airplanes everywhere – it’s a pretty cool place and we learned some
stuff. It was interesting to see that it
was their 100th anniversary and their first planes were in 1914 (if
you’re doing the math with us) – they looked very similar to what you envision
when you think of the Wright brother’s planes – it’s so interesting to see how
the aircraft evolved in their design for different purposes. There was one plane that was a multi-passenger
plane that seemed to made of out of the parts of the airplane hangar – I would
not want to fly in that plane.
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| Big plane! |
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| Inside the carrier |
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| The outside of the plane, made from an old airplane hanger? |
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| Dana thought that I looked like I was sitting in the plane |
This is also the place where the Blue
Angels practice and you can hear them flying above as well as see some of their
planes hanging on display. The ones
hanging have a strange “thing” (not sure what to call it) extending from the
front of the plane, it looks to me like one of those mics on the headsets of
the Time-Life operators – but I know that planes don’t need that.. so another
guess we had was that it was the sky-writing apparatus. Anyone know?
The other plane that was parked outside didn't have it, but all of the
ones on display inside did.
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| What is that thing on the right of the plane? |
There are some cute retro historical
displays all around, and we have a good time posing at the old movie theatre,
in the bunk room, Dana tried washing her hair with the old Navy shower system,
and I loved the old poster for foot care (with the strategically placed
socks).
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| Amy gets her ticket |
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| Gonna wash that man right outta my hair... |
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| Ready for lift off!! |
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| My favorite poster |
We head back downstairs via the
old rolling stairs (made me think of the stair-car from Arrested Development,
but Patti wanted to be Jackie-O coming off the plane, and Dana and Amy wanted
to be the Beatles)…
Dana spots this cut up Blue Angel plane
that they let you sit in – it seems to only be kids lining up, but we have no
shame – we’re kids at heart and we do what we want. The line to the plane was back a ways from
the plane itself, giving some “ATM” line space to the people in the plane
getting their pictures taken, but some people see that as there not being a
line and try to just walk right up the stairs to the plane. There were two boys that seemed really
excited about getting in the plane and with my adult guilt, I told Dana to let
them go on ahead of us because I thought it was just them and they just wanted
to look. But it turns out it was rude
grandpa that told them to go on and get in the plane despite the line – and then
took his time getting the pics – Dana would not be letting that happen
again. Don’t let them smell your
weakness in line, or you’ll be waiting there for days. Dana gets her turn and follow as the
photographer – Amy sets up on the other side to get another angle of Dana in
the plane – I actually got video of Dana getting in the plane, but I think that
I’ve been banned from showing it.
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| In the Blue Angel plane |
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| Dana with her famous Top Gun plane |
We get done and then I ask Amy if she
wanted her pic in the plane too – sure why not?
So we get back in line after a short bathroom break, and we get there
just before a group of kids traveling in a school group get there. I’m waiting to take Amy’s picture, and Dana
is going up with Amy to get the picture from the other angle, and I hear these
boys talking to each other, “Man, I really want to get up in that plane.. I don’t
think there’s a line, we should just go… do you think we can …”… and then they
head toward Amy and Dana. These boys are
all up on that plane, they have no notion that these adults are actually in
line for the plane, despite Amy’s checking body language – I’m waiting for a
throw down, Amy keeps getting closer to the plane, and the boys keep trying
edge between her and the plane to get past her.
Finally Dana tells them that they need to get in line, that they’re in
line first – very disappointing moment for those boys, but Dana and Amy are
having none of it.
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| Don't even try it kid... |
We head outside an get some pics with the
full Blue Angel plane before getting back in the car and driving across the way
to the Lighthouse.
It’s a MUGGY day, and
we’re contemplating 172 (?) step climb in an enclosed space… When we pull up we
see the light house is being painted, we wonder if maybe the painters can just
take us up that way. We enter the gift
shop and it has the AC on blast! So nice, and we know that it’s going to feel
great when we come back through there at the end of our climb. There is a little museum in the house
attached to the actual lighthouse, and we look around a bit before heading to
the spiral staircase for our “safety lecture” – no shoes are allowed without
backs (no flip-flops, and no sandals with no backs – Navy regulations), which
includes the shoes I’m wearing, so since those shoes are not allowed on the
stairs, I’m told I have to carry my shoes and climb up barefoot.
The stairs are narrow and those coming down
have the right of way, if we meet someone coming down as we’re going up, we are
to go to the center of the stairs and cling to the pole. There are windows along the way if we want to
take breathers we can step aside and get a little air (very similar to our
climb up the tower of Pisa). The stairs
are beautiful, winding with a design in the wrought iron.. as you look up and
down it just a cool sight. The windows
do make great places to stop and catch your breath, and there is a nice breeze
coming in. We’re doing ok until we hit
about 150 steps (some of them are numbered), and Patti and I take a little more
time before heading all the way up. The
view is worth it, and the designs in the light is really cool – Dana got some
of her artsy shots of the stairs and the light, and some pics of us huffing and
puffing. The way down for me actually
hurts my feet more, the stairs are steep enough that there is quite an impact
as you step down on each step, and the design in the iron is making my feet
tender. I consider violating Navy
regulations and putting on my shoes – but I don’t. We’ve been violated enough. J
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| Dana with her certificate that says she did it! |
We are quite moist after our climb down –
and we are really looking forward to the AC of the gift shop and we pick up
some frozen Italian ices out of their freezer.
It’s the perfect thing after a lighthouse climb. We spot someone in front of us wearing a
Cardinal shirt and Patti approaches them to see where they’re from – we see a
lot of people down here from St. Louis (I think I’ve mentioned that), but
everywhere we go we see someone wearing Cardinals shirts or St. Louis gear of
some kind.. there must be a pipeline.
We find Flora-Bama.. but it’s not exactly
what we’re looking for. It’s a big
complex and there are different sections of the bar and signs pointing in all
directions to the Oyster bar, and the Main Bar, and if you go left then you’re
in this big hall where they’re playing bingo.
We stick our heads in the Oyster bar and looks like a “pro shop” snack
bar - so we head up to the “Main bar”
which seems a little dark and shady, and maybe not fully functional for
lunch. So I head up to the bar to ask if
they serve food here, and some of the local identify us as lost tourists and we
hear them laugh that we don’t look like we’re from around here. The bartender tells me that the only food is
down at the Oyster bar, and we look at the menu (fried bar food) and decide to
head back to a place that we had passed that looked promising, The Crab Trap
(although we all thought that is had different names – the Crab Bucket or the
Crab Basket.. ). And we were very
pleased with that decision. Our waiter
was Ethan and had a lovely voice for radio – he did not seem to mind at all
that we weren't from around here.. and the food was amazing. Best meal I’ve had since Felix’s – the crab
cake on top of a fried green tomato, with corn stuff relish… I want more
please. Amy’s mahi mahi was cooked very
well, and Dana had some SUPER yummy crab dip that she shared with us - Dana asks if we can have one of the kiddie
sand buckets that are piled up near the hostess station and Ethan tells us that
we can take as many as we like. Dana
wants to use them for our late night crabbing adventures..
We head back down the road and stop at some
of those shops on the way back – Amy finds a cute top in one of the boutiques,
and Patti finds a shirt that brings out the crazy, I mean color, in her eyes..
I am tempted by the Mango Mai Tai, and it doesn’t take much arm twisting for
Amy and Patti to join me. We get up to
go and Amy still has about half of her drink left (and the car keys), and in
the short walk to the car, Amy no longer has a drink. Dana asks for keys and Amy insists that she’s
ok to drive because she won’t be drinking WHILE she’s driving, that’s why she
downed the rest of her drink while we were walking to the car, so she’d be
good. Ummmm… yah… so give Dana the keys… cause it’s better to slam a drink right before
you get behind the wheel.. oh Amy.
We find a Wal-Mart on the way back, it
looks less chaotic than the Wal-Mart in Gulf Shores, and Amy wants to find a
raft like we all have (they’re called papasan rafts and they’re easy to get in,
relaxing.. ) – but this Wal-Mart is a special kind, it’s all food, called a
Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market – interesting. Dana and Amy drop us off with our
new food supplies and head up to the big Wal-Mart so Amy can get her raft – and
mission accomplished. But if you’re
looking for it in the seasonal/raft section, you won’t find it – they found it
in the kids/toy section for some reason. Amy came in dancing, she was so happy
to find one, and in her favorite colors of pink and orange. It’s a good day at the beach.
The night is full of excitement.. some
drinks, some laughs, and patiently waiting for Orange is the New Black to load
on Netflix.
