• 45NorthAmericas Great LoopTraveler
    1
    The "Pride of Pensacola"Some people would call this graffiti...Pensacola can never have too many. This is their Bay Bridge, 3 whole miles of it.1Sunset from Shaggys Restaurant2This would be my sort of tavern...Is this why the precinct is called Orange Beach

    Day 34: At Orange Beach

    November 6 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

    So, we're not actually 'on' the beach... our marina on the ICW is a 4½-mile drive away. But you have to go through the precinct of Orange Beach to get to Pensacola. And to Pensacola we went, because I wanted to see the famed U.S. Naval Aviation Aerobatic Display Team, the "Blue Angels".

    But I drove with a heavy heart. The Naval Aviation Museum on the U.S. Naval Air Station Pensacola was closed (we knew that) due to the government shutdown, and the next Blue Angels public practice session (they have several each year) would be on 15 Nov, by which time we might well have completed the Loop. As we drove up and over the Perdido Key Bridge, Rosie sings out, "There they are!". And sho-nuff... there they were... wheeling over Pensacola Bay in a classic Diamond Formation, with smoke. We only saw them for about 3 seconds. A short time later, as we drove along 292, Sorrento Rd, the jets came low across the highway, one behind the other, with gear down. They were in the pattern for landing. And that was it, not a scheduled practice session, just some practice, and we lucked onto it for 3 seconds. There was nothing left to do but go for a drive through and around Pensacola and then over the lengthy Pensalcola Bay Bridge and the Pensacola Beach Toll Bridge to Shaggys at Little Sabine Bay, for lunch. Rosie has developed a taste for Gulf shrimp which must be satisfied.    Read more