Friday was a day of leisure. James and I golfed, the rest went to the beach, it was another beautiful day.
James and I golfed at Perdido Bay Golf course, it is a nice course. I played about like I expected, my spectacular putting in Texas did not follow me to Florida. However, it was fun to get out on such a beautiful day.
There is plenty of water, I found most of it.
We got back to the house just before the beach people. After our naps (yes it is such a luxury for us retired folks), James and Debbie cooked ribs with corn on the grill. We all went to bed a bit full...it was just awesome.
Saturday, The first thing that June and I did was go to Big Lagoon State Park to dump or tanks. It is only 5 miles away, very convenient.
We toured the park, it is very nice, we might consider it in the future.
We even hiked the observation tower which gives great views of the area.
Aunt Mickey, Debbie, June and I set off to tour Fort Pickens, while James took care of his yard. James takes a lot of pride in keeping his yard beautiful. If you want to see a spectacular yard with vibrant flowers, you should visit Debbie and James.
The drive to Pickens is spectacular, after Pickens we continued the drive with white beaches and ocean on both sides of the road. If I get time I may pull some of the dash cam video and add it to this blog.
Much to our surprise, Debbie had never been to Fort Pickens.
Fort Pickens was built in the early 1830s to protect Pensacola Bay. It was a very large fort that could hold over 200 canons. During the civil war, the Union held the fort and used it to bombard and dislodge the Confederates from Fort McRee and Fort Barrancas, which are across the bay. It was also used as a prison for confederate soldiers.
A darker side of history is that for a period after the civil war (1886) it was used to hold Geronimo, 15 of his Apache warriors and eventually their families as prisoners. He became a bit of a tourist attraction/sideshow with people coming just to see the famous Geronimo in prison. He was eventually transferred to a prison in Oklahoma where he died in 1913.
It was a beautiful day.
If any one recalls the story of Ft Pulaski, the rifled cannons rendered most fortifications obsolete. This canon has been upgraded by inserting a rifled cast iron sleeve into the barrel, which improved its range and accuracy...ingenious.
During war time the bay was heavily mined.
After Ft Pickens we stopped along the highway and made sammiches for lunch, one of the luxuries of driving your RV on the tour. We then continued our tour down the coast, returning to Debbie's around 5PM. It was a beautiful drive and relaxing tour.
The white sand beaches are just gorgeous.
We completed our tour and returned to Debbie's around 5PM. James was just putting the finishing touches on his yard and we made plans to go out to dinner.
We had a nice dinner at Hub Stacey's at the Point.
We had to get up early to catch a 04:45 Lyft ride to the airport, so we retired for the evening.
This blog will go on hold until we return from St John a week from tomorrow (April 28th).
If you wish to follow along, here is a link to that blog:
https://aljasa24sj.blogspot.com/
I am glad Fred and James were able to get in some golf time. The beach time was very relaxing for the rest of us. Fort Pickins was also interesting and the ride along the coast so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteWe also said good bye to Randy and Juanita Friday night, they left early Saturday morning. :(