Pensacola And Destin

This is our campsite at the Marina Campground on NSA Panama City.  Definitely not our favorite, the campground or the city...  The campground is very tight, no picnic tables and most of the residents seem to be long termers, meaning not very sociable.  We didn't meet anyone...  We weren't crazy about the surrounding area either.  Maybe it's because the weather was rotten 2 of the 3 days we were there. 

So, on the only good day we had we took a drive over to Destin, which is only an hour away from Panama City to the Destin Army Infantry Center Recreaction Area.  

The campground is really tight!  

The "premium" spots don't look that bad, but getting in would still be a challenge!

They also have all types of lodging, hotel, suites, 2/3 bedroom villas...  At a great price!

These are the 2 bedroom units...

These are the 3 bedroom units, right across from the beach!

Nice!

The pool area.

OK, so here we are heading across the bridge into Pensacola!

We are staying at the Oak Grove Park Campground on board Naval Air Station Pensacola. This is on the base right behind our campsite, beautiful!

Today we went to the National Museum of Naval Aviation.

It was amazing, if not overwhelming!

This statue represents each of the wars.

I love the old recruiting posters, so there will be a few sprinkled in...

The "Winged Telegraph Squadron" pigeons in other words.

WWI era ambulance.

If you think airplane seating is tight now!  Thank you...no! 

This has to be the coolest plane ever!

P-40B "Tomahawk".  One of the most widely recognized aircraft of WWII, the P-40 served a variety of nations in combat theaters from the skies over China to the sands of North Africa.  Between 1939 and the delivery of the last example in 1944.

I wouldn't want to get stuck behind this one!

Decommissioned Blue Angel planes.

The control center of a blimp.

I know some people in Tennessee that would love to get their hands on one of these!

I thought this was a big propeller, but Stu gave me the real scoop, there are much bigger ones out there.

Stu is now calling me his "Blue Angel"...Pfffffftttttt!

Homecoming...enough said.

Asking for a presidential salute would have been too much....

An unmanned drone, get used to seeing this.

This was cool!

Back in the day when the Navy did not provide squadrons on deployment or weapons training detachments with transportation, it was common for member of the wardroom to chip in some money to purchase a well used automobile in which personnel could get around.  They inevitably were decorated and often kept and passed down through the years as a symbol of squadron camaraderie.  This Lincoln Continental is one of the more elaborate "works of art" around and for many years belonged to he members of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 134.  The addition of a refueling probe mock-up on the top of the car, it resembles the EA-68 Prowler aircraft flown by the squadron.  This squadron car was donated to the museum in 2003 after being driven to Pensacola from VAQ-134's home base at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington.

A model of the USS Saratoga.

The museum was so big, we only got through half of it today, back tomorrow for the rest.