Planes, Lighthouse and old Forts. . .

Marilyn and I got to see the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels air performance team over at the Naval Air Station - Pensacola, their 'home base'. It was their last performance ("Pensacola Home Coming 2009") of the year. They now are off until the first of the year, where they open up with their traditional first show in mid-March at the NAS-El Centro (CA), where they do winter practice and test runs. Quite impressive, not to mention LOUD at times (...and CLOSE).

On the NAS base we also toured the Pensacola Lighthouse (we like lighthouses; have seen over 15 so far over the years in the U.S.). Built in 1824 just to the west of old Fort Barrancas, a fort established originally by the Spanish, and it flew under five flags over it's many years. It is painted white on the lower 1/3, to show against the trees during the daylight; painted black on the upper 2/3, to show up against clouds during the day.

Fort Barrancas is one of a number to the old forts throughout the coastal area. Both the lighthouse and the Fort have nice museums with a lot of history and interesting information about the area over the past 300+ years.

Then later this afternoon we took in the last quarter of the #2-Alabama/Auburn football game on TV. A good, close game with the Crimson Tide eking out another win.
Next Saturday (12/5) they play the Florida Gators (#1) in Gainesville. Should be another good game. I see the Gators winning (hope so anyhow). Go Gators!

The weather has turned definitely cooler today and even more so after sunset today. I told Marilyn that we need to be heading further south ...and fast it would appear.

It looked like most of Gulf Shores, Alabama was shopping at the 170 stores comprising the Tanger Outlet. It was packed today (no we did not shop, just passed by and amazed at how many folks were packing themselves into that place so they could lighten themselves of a few bucks).

I see it looks like some rain coming into the Valley (...err, the San Joaquin Valley, the great Central Valley of California that is). I am sure it is welcomed as it usually is for that area.

Gotta get back to my book....more later....

The Pensacola Lighthouse Mascot - on duty!

Turkey and Football!!

It has been a beautiful, warm, sunny Thanksgiving Day with lots of turkey and all the trimmings of course for us. And then there are the football games which we both really enjoy to watch and getting all wrapped up in during the day.
We did take out a little time earlier in the day (before the 'feast' and the 'phootball') to visit one of the historical sites in the area, Fort Morgan, a Civil War encampment established by the Confederates to prevent Union blockades of Mobile Bay. The initial fortification occurred at this site in the 1500's under the Spanish explorers; then major construction began in 1819, and was finished in 1834. The large brick fort serviced the Confederacy, then later, the Spanish-American War, and both world wars. It played a major role during the Battle of Mobile Bay in August 1864 when Confederate and Union forces fought for control of the harbor entrance. This Battle of Mobile Bay was where Admiral David Farragut gave his infamous command, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" There are a number of brick and concrete breastworks and gunnery emplacements. It was an interesting side-trip.

(This is a picture of a picture (air shot),
in the museum of Fort Morgan today)

There is the Mobile Bay Ferry that runs between Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines (located across the 8 mile bay entrance on Dauphine Island); and due to time constraints (hey, we gotta have our turkey and football, eh?) we did not take the ferry trip this time.
We did come across another interesting site - the Indian Village Achuse, which is the site of the oldest Indian sighting and visitation (1530) in the U.S. This was even long before the pilgrims landfall in the Plymouth colony in Massachusetts.















From Gulf Shores going west out to Fort Morgan, you are driving for about 18 miles on a paved two-lane road through very lush growth, with water on both sides (it is about 200 to 800 yards wide). There are a number of real nice beach homes along this drive as well.

It has been a great Thanksgiving Day for us (with the exception of missing our family and many of our friends of course), and we have many things to give thanks for, not only on this day, but on all our other days also.

And as you will note, there are some rather interesting signs along the way down here also. Those gators don't have a thing to worry about at far as we are concerned. They can have all the room they want, and live as peaceful as they wish.

But then I guess there are some people that need to be told for their own safety...










A VERY HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY TO ALL!!





> The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (at Gulf Shores -
looking East); The restaurant in the lower left
corner of the picture (with the teal-blue roof) is
"LuLu's". It is owned and operated by Lucy Buffett,
the sister of Jimmy Buffett.

Thanksgiving in Gulf Shores, Alabama

Well, here we are on the sunny shores of south Alabama along with some of our fellow Elks friends for the Thanksgiving holiday. We will miss our family and friends back in California, but as our time continues to count down on us, we need to take the advantage of our ability to travel, explore and soak up a little more 'warmth' these days.

A lot to do and a lot for us to see.

The bad news for Jim is that there is a huge 'Tanger Outlet' for Marilyn to shop to her hearts content, and within walking distance too, and then of course we have some great restaurants throughout the area (which we really don't need, but we do love to try out the new and different local places).

We are about 35 miles south of Mobile, Alabama and 25 miles west of Pensacola, Florida on the beautiful white sand beaches of the Gulf.

More later, along with more pictures of course.