This chapter starts out with our trip along the western shores of the Florida panhandle. Our first stop (just prior to lunch) was to stop off at the Grayton State Park just west of Seaside, Florida. This state park and beach looked absolutely gorgeous (winner of the 1994 Beach of the Year award) and even had one site left for two nights! We checked out the place, and even though it looked tremendous (with good bathrooms!) we decided to head on to our already booked destination (Big Lagoon .. since we had booked and unbooked this spot three times we were feeling a little guilty to do it to them again .. and besides, we wanted to get along a little further on our trek out west). Certainly, Grayton beach (and the state park) are in our list to stay at on a future trip!
On our way back from Grayton State Park we stopped at Seaside (only a couple of miles back east):
This is actually the filming location of, 'The Truman Show', for all you video buffs out there. Really neat, since I had just tried to purchase this movie a couple of nights before (and when I chose it I did not even know about the filming location). What a fancy, upscale, picture-perfect little community! It was really neat to see it (for me, David) since I had seen the movie. Reba (who also saw the movie) thought it pretty cool to see the sites that were in the film. We all liked it and even bought some books at the cute little bookstore.
Next we headed to our lunch destination, the Eden Gardens. This was particulary beatiful. Along the shores of a lake, a large country estate that had been donated to the state of Florida:
It had a large blooming Azalea garden (Pam loved it):
and they were conducting tours of the house. (We chose not to do the house tour.) Lunch was nice (a bit cool down by the water, though). Heather Lynn and Daniel practiced their football 'style':
It looks like we are revving up for our 1999 Minnesota Vikings trip. I think going back to Minneapolis is a good idea (Heather Lynn and David went there in December, 1998), now we just have to hope that Dallas or San Francisco is in town at a convenient time (they are both visiting teams in 1999 to Minnesota). This time, the plan is to include Daniel in the trip. Anyways, back to our current trip ...
Now it is off to Big Lagoon! We had a bit of trouble with traffic on the west side of Pensacola. Because we got stuck in the wrong lane and were forced to turn left we actually got a chance to fill up the air in one tire that was really getting low. We also got to check in at a Mailboxes, Etc. we had already past and did a bunch of e-mail sending and receiving. That wrong lane and forced turn was a blessing in disguise. After another long delay at this problem intersection we were able to get away. We arrived in to our campsite at about 17:40 (20 minutes before closing time).
On our first full day at Big Lagoon we headed back a little way towards Pensacola to the Naval Aviation Museum. Here we are before heading in to the museum underneath a local monument:
This was a spectacular museum. Our tour guide, Chuck, was a veteran of the second world war and gave us a great tour of about 90 minutes of all the 1909-1950 vintage fighters (no time for a tour of the jets, but we were able to look at them afterwards on our own time).
Here is Daniel next to the actual aircraft that George Bush flew (it had been sunk in Lake Michigan for about 40 years before being rescued and refurbished):
If you are wondering why they were at the bottom of Lake Michigan, we found out that a number of planes were (and still are) there because it was used as a safe location to train pilots. They were supposed to land on the ships, but being not as experienced, after all it was training, they did not always land in the right location.
There were some really neat cockpits of various aircraft that you could sit in:
David as a Blue Angel:
James piloting and Daniel navigating (or is he the gunner)?
After the museum we got partially lost in the naval air base and then escaped out the other side to go do our laundry (all together). After the laundry, we actually ate 'out' (at a couple of take-out spots .. Church's Chicken for James and a Checker's drive through for the rest of us). Then back to tent trailer 'home base' and to bed.
Our second day at Big Lagoon was very quiet. While a deep sea fishing expedition was a hopeful day trip (for David, Daniel and perhaps Heather Lynn), the weather did not cooperate. By late afternoon (and a quick grocery stop for David and Reba) the rain us. By evening we had a major thunderstorm on our hands. We had a couple of thunder claps that shook the trailer! We found out the next morning that there were indications in the weather radar that tornadoes were just 15 miles off the coast to our southwest (and supposedly heading northeast). Fortunately, they never hit (though we got some very heavy rain and fairly high winds. The trailer held out beautifully (only a couple of minor leaks).
On the way out we all stopped briefly at a neighbouring state park - Perdido Key. This one is very close to the Alabama border. Here is a picture of us on the beach:
Notice the waves (and this is the Gulf of Mexico)! We had just had the very noisy and strong storm the evening before and all signs of the storm had not disappeared.
Well, all good things must come to and end, and it is time for us to depart Florida and head west .. to New Orleans, Louisiana.