Ah, Saturday. Always a fun time in a tourist town. And this time we had the blessing of experiencing not one, but at least five of the little tourism havens on our way to a major military base museum that requires someone with a state department ID to get past the entry gate. Thanks to Cousin Jer for agreeing to be that person.
We
were ready early, so we made a quick trip over to Academy (that would be literally
in the back yard of our hotel). It
took a while, but I found a break-apart fishing pole that we could easily fit
in the car. Chris also found me one of
those long-sleeved shirts you wear in the sun to avoid major burn issues. I never had them before, and I usually don’t
wear long sleeves to go fishing, but the shirt is cool.
We
finally broke away from the Academy shopping spell and made our way down to our
rendezvous point in Gulf Shores – Super WalMart. We left our car in the parking lot and jumped
in with Josh and the gang for the ride to the museum.
The
National Naval Aviation Museum was a pretty huge place, ensconced on a military
base that was locked down to visitors who were not guests of military personnel. Jer was an amazing host and tour guide for
us. I think he was almost as excited as
Josh was to have someone who could talk all the airplane lingo. The museum had three different levels of
displays. Military planes of all
kinds. Several large models of aircraft
carriers. The first one of those we saw,
Luke remarked to his little sister, “Look.
It’s a big version of a toy.” The
displays only got bigger from there.
Caleb and Zak talked their way into some time in a flight simulator. Caleb apparently does a lot of that sort of
thing online, but this time the simulator actually moved. They seemed to have a great time, from the
screams we could hear. Not to be denied,
Luke talked Josh into taking him into a simulator as well. Christi was not exactly happy about that
scenario, but she handled it like a trooper.
I thoroughly enjoyed filming her face while Josh and Luke were inside
doing barrel rolls and loop the loops. Great
fun. Oh, and we picked up another passenger. Bubba the Begoggled Fly Boy Bear.
We
went from the museum to eat supper at MacGuire’s in Pensacola. It was definitely an Irish pub. Well, a “New York Irish Pub,” whatever that
means. I had shepherd’s pie, so the cuisine
was right on point. All of the food was
really good, and everyone had huge portions.
They also had a bagpiper entertaining.
The really odd thing, though, was their décor. The entire ceiling and down onto the walls of
this massive building was covered with one dollar bills stapled and
hanging. They had each been signed by a
previous owner who had eaten there. There
were easily thousands of dollars. Rumor
has it that the actual figure was somewhere close to a million. The kids were certainly impressed. Even AnnaGrace. Christi asked her what was on the ceiling,
and AnnaGrace said, “Money? Money!” Yep … money.
Proverbs
18:24 says, “One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is
a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
Father,
thank you for the sacrifice Jer made to get us on base and show us around today. Please bless him for that. Amen.
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