Errands and New Friends

Fort Pickens Campground — Gulf Islands National Seashore (GINS), Florida
Temps: Lo 58F / Hi 66F (14C / 19C)

One day of blue skies and sunshine, and we’re back to clouds and mostly dreary conditions. We got a short break with the sun peeking through yesterday afternoon. Today, we added fog into the mix. We woke up to misty conditions that lasted through the day. Not once did the sun show itself.

So be it; good time for quiet walks on the beach, making plans for the next few months, running errands, and making new friends.

The map to the right shows the miles we logged with the toad yesterday — about 75 miles (120 km). Most of it was to run errands.

One thing about Florida — everything is spread out. Another thing about Florida — getting from the barrier islands to inland spots is not always a straightforward shot.

(1) Fort Pickens Campground … (2) American Home Base … (3) Commissary … (4) National Naval Aviation Museum … (5) Joe Patti’s …
(6) Back to the Campground.

We started out early yesterday morning with a drive to our “mailbox home” at American Home Base(AHB). We could have asked them to send our mail to us, but we figured we’d make an in-person call and say hi to our contact there as well. Since starting to fulltime, they’ve sent us our mail twice (on demand) and so far we have no reason to regret our decision to use them.

Next, we drove to the commissary to pick up a few things. Unlike most commissaries we’ve shopped at, this one is off-station and required a detour before the fun part of our day.

Shopping completed, it was onto the National Naval Aviation Museum, located on Naval Air Station Pensacola. Although the Navy Lodge we stayed at in September is practically across the street from the museum, our time was limited and we didn’t get a chance to visit it then. Since running errands took longer than expected, our plans to tour the facility today didn’t quite work out as expected either. So we’re 0 for 2 for this museum — which, by all accounts, is not to be missed. Perhaps third time will be the charm.

In the universal language of all aviators, a WWII pilot relives his flight with naval
aviators from his past and future.
L to R: WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm.

The trip to the museum was far from a waste, however. One of the reasons we were there was to keep a lunch date with new friends. Ron and Ina, soon-to-be fulltimers from Woodbridge, Virginia, reached out to us soon after we arrived at Fort Pickens. Since they’re snowbirding it at the Blue Angel Rec Area (military campground), the Historic Cubi Bar Café at the museum made for a convenient meet-up location.

We sat in the open area overlooking the restored planes in the “early aircraft” display area. In hindsight, we probably should have sat inside for a step-back into history. You see, the café is not just an eatery, but an exhibit in its own right. The décor and layout apparently duplicates the bar of the famous Cubi Point Officers’ Club in Subic Bay (Philippines). During the Vietnam conflict, the squadrons began a tradition of placing plaques in the bar. When the club was closed in 1992, those plaques were moved here and placed exactly as they had been at Cubi Point.

The café is filled with memorabilia from the original Cubi Bar.
[collage from photos courtesy of the website]

The menu offers a simple, but tasty selection of soups, salads, sandwiches, and paninis. I was happy with the Half Aviator’s Choice and Cup of Soup (in my case, ham on whole wheat and Italian wedding soup); Mui ordered the Barrel Roll — a panini consisting of sliced deli ham and warm pulled pork, dill pickle slices, and Swiss cheese.

Thanks, Ron and Ina, for treating us to lunch; next time we meet up, lunch is on us.

We debated spending the afternoon at the museum, but hints of blue sky encouraged us to deviate from our plans. Well, that and the lure of Joe Patti’s seafood market. We had heard of this place from several people, and now that we’ve been, we understand why it is so highly recommended. We picked up some salmon — part of which we had for lunch today; and a couple pounds of shrimp. We will go back to fill up our freezer before we leave the area. And to have more of the excellent gelato also sold at Joe Patti’s ;-)

No photos from inside; but here’s one from outside the hangar-like market building.

By the time we arrived at the campground, the sun was out and the patches of blue showing between the clouds were on the increase. So, we quickly put the groceries away and went for a short walk that turned into a long walk. We started out on Pensacola Beach, walked up to and through the group camping area, and strolled back via the gulf-side beach. The sun went into hiding halfway through our walk, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.

We saw another nine-banded armadillo near the campground, but it was too fast for me. So, here’s the sum total of my wildlife photos from yesterday … didn’t take the camera out today.

The brown pelican was at the pier at Joe Patti’s; the Great Blue Heron (probably a male
preparing the nest for this year’s mating season) was not far from the campground.

Although I didn’t take the camera out today, we did go out. We didn’t stray far from the campground, opting to create our own trail by walking the Blackbird Marsh trail, connecting to the gulf-side beach via the loop A access, wandering all the way to Battery Cooper, and returning via an inland trail we happened upon that took us by Battery Worth before it dropped us into loop B in our section of the campground.

Tomorrow’s weather forecast is iffy. There are storms moving in from the west that might bring rain. On the other hand, the front may wiggle and by-pass us. So, we’re in wait-and-see mode as far as any sightseeing is concerned.