Wandering America
Florida
| January 2007 - Pensacola The Air Force isn't the only branch of the armed forces that can sing "Up we go into the wild blue yonder". We visited the National Air Museum at the Pensacola Naval Air Station, home of the Blue Angels, and those sailors certainly "go up into the wild blue yonder" as well. This museum has been established to capture the history of naval aviation, from the first seaplanes along the shoreline of Pensacola, Florida to the modern aircraft carriers serving in our country's defense today. There are over 140 aircraft on display and more than 250 stand-alone exhibits. One of our favorite was the stroll down "Home Front USA" which portrays what life was like for families during World War II. There is also I-Max theaters inside the museum that shows seven films daily, a motion-based simulator that you can ride, and flight simulators that you can fly. The Blue Angels practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays during their show season, but unfortunately we were out of season.    February 2007 - Milton Black Water Heritage State Trail is the westernmost Rails to Trails trail in Florida and extends north from Milton, Florida to the gate at Whiting Naval Air Station. The trail is nine and a half miles long with seven bridges crossing various streams along the way. There is piney woods, a cypress/bay tree swamp, and an area of white topped pitcher plants. We rode the entire trail which made the trip nineteen miles in all. Needless to say we were "pooped" when we finished the ride. We got to see our first, and hopefully last, diamond backed rattlesnake. It was stretched out right in the middle of the trail sunning itself. It was a just small one being only a little over a foot long. We didn't know what kind of snake he was until describing it to the park ranger after we had finished the ride. He told us that he thought it was a diamondback and that there was a larger one about three miles north of where we had seen this one. Once we got home we looked it up on line and sure enough, it was a diamondback rattler. Being that we "don't like spiders and snakes" we didn't stop to take a picture; however, if we had known what it was we sure would have (from a distance, of course). |