Naval Aviation Museum, Pensacola Florida

Where are we today ?

Robertsdale Alabama

        Today's weather is supposed to be overcast, maybe some rain so we planned to head off to Pensacola Florida about 40 minutes away and check out the National Naval Aviation Museum . We had heard about this from Sparky of Where's Eldo and thought we just need to check it out.  
        Well it was absolutely amazing! Free parking and free admission, we thought sounds like a good deal, check it out for an hour or two. (Boy were we wrong!) We arrived about 10 am and we re amazed at the size of this place. Huge parking lot, pretty full and as we entered the 1st building we were just overwhelmed with what we saw. This place is massive!

         First we get a map and plan a strategy, walked about looking at early aircraft, and displays. the Blue Angels, WWII aircraft and more displays. Videos at various places to watch and so much interesting history here is amazing.

         Real airplanes and helicopters hanging from the ceiling everywhere, displays, mockups, models so much to see and take in! Took so many pictures and have only posted a few (too many) here. And they don't really do justice to what we saw.

         Stopped and watched a video of  the Treasures of lake Michigan during world war II where training of pilots on the lake to land and take off from small fresh water aircraft carriers. A great little known piece of American History.

This plane was recovered from Lake Michigan.

This one restored from recovery in Lake Michigan

         Now here for two hours and it's noon, we stopped at the Cubi Cafe and bar for a bite to eat. We had not planned this but had barely began to explore this place. So a quick bite to eat (reasonable prices) and then carried on.

Chicken Salad sandwich and soup for me

Chicken Quesadia for Suzie

       From here we headed to the upper level with so much more to see and way too many videos to watch.

         Old setups of theatres, homes, kitchens, main streets, stores and army camps were very interesting.

 

old country store

Suzie at the bar 

control module for  "Blimps"

space walk

airplane cockpit

        Then over to hanger One to view more displays.

Presidential helicopter

more awesome displays

        Then after walking for hours time to rest a bit and view a movie at the IMAX Theatre. The 2 o'clock show that we choose was The Imax film "Rescue"  all about the EarthQuake in Haiti in 2010 and rescue operations. Now this we had to pay for  $8.25 each but very worthwhile and so glad we did it.

        Hey now it was 3 o'clock and thinking maybe time to head back home. We need to come back another time, and spend a day or two again, its free admission and we did not do the lighthouse tour or the free narrated tour of the boneyard either.

        Stopped by a pharmacy for some cough medicine then home to relax a bit and whip up an easy supper tonight. Left overs are wonderful. Ham, scalloped potatoes, veggies, and baked beans, yep we got it made after a busy fun day.

yummy

        Had a great day exploring, enjoyed a bunch of aviation history and did a lot of walking on a dull overcast day, perfect. Almost too much fun, but then can you ever have too much fun?
        Thanks for taking the time to drop in and hoped we did not bore you with so many pictures.

Check out the map below to see where we have been this winter

View Winter 2012-1013 in a larger map