Traveling with Rich & Julie
It was such a nice day today, 65 degrees and sunny out, that it was too nice to stay home or stay inside. We are currently living in Foley, Alabama.
We’ve been wanting to visit the Pensacola Lighthouse and the National Naval Aviation Museum, so today was the day.
From where we are camped right now it is only 26 miles to the lighthouse.
Getting to the lighthouse and naval museum requires entrance to the Pensacola Navy Base. Civilians must enter through the West Gate and show a valid government-issued ID such as a driver’s license or passport.
The 1859 lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse on the Gulf. If you want to climb up the lighthouse there are 177 steps. I opted not to do that — like I had a choice. Rich has been careful to not let me do much. He doesn’t want my knee to get worse than it already is.
The museum at the base of the lighthouse costs $9.50 per person to get in and is three full stories. It opens at 9 am and closes at 4 pm. We did not go into the museum. If you have been following our travels you will know that we always try to save money by seeing the free stuff. And, Rich didn’t want me to do very much walking.
Construction on the lighthouse began in 1856 and the lighthouse was lit in 1859. The light is still lit today. Construction was going on when we were there. I’m not sure exactly what they were repairing but they were working on the tower itself. It looked like they were repairing cracks in the structure. If you look closely you can see a lot of cracks.
After the lighthouse, the National Naval Aviation Museum is less than a mile further down the road.
The museum is filled with historic aircraft, cockpits, interactive exhibits, and a vast collection of artifacts that are fun for all ages. Children were allowed to sit in the pit of a Blue Angel flight simulator and cockpit.
The National Naval Aviation Museum is home to tens of thousands of items and millions of documents that span the entire spectrum of Naval Aviation history.
The Blue Angel pilots flew the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet for 34 years from 1986 through 2020. They currently fly the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet.
This museum is huge and we only touched a small portion of it. The Blue Angel displays are what we wanted to see the most. I walked slowly and took my time. Walking on flat firm surfaces in good walking shoes is the only way I can do things right now. I really like Skechers and am wearing a pair similar to the one in the link.
I sat down when I needed to. The seats located throughout the museum are quite comfortable as you can tell by looking at how comfortable Rich looks.
Visiting the gift shop is something we shouldn’t do because we always find so much we would love to buy. We don’t have room in the RV and we are minimalists now. So as much as I wanted a US Navy coffee cup or Rich wanted a new US Navy t-shirt, we did not buy anything.
Visiting places like this is beginning to depress me because I just can’t walk on this stupid knee again. Another doctor visit is in the near future, I fear.
Entrance to the Naval Base is the only way to visit the Fort Barrancas Area of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. We pulled in but then saw that I would have to climb uphill to the entrance of the Fort. Rich said no. After walking around the museum a little bit, my knee was already swollen and hurt to walk on.
And just down the road is the Advanced Redoubt Area of Fort Barrancas. Same thing here. I did not get out to walk around.
The Advanced Redoubt Area was built to protect Fort Barrancas and the Navy Yard from a land attack. It was a fort that protected a fort.
Redoubts are usually square but this one was built in the shape of a trapezoid.
After taking a break at the Redoubt Area, we drove further down the road and thought maybe we would be able to see the Barrancas National Cemetery, but we hit a gate and were told to turn around and go back to exit out the same west gate we entered. We had gone as far as we could as civilians.
Thanks for following along with us as we travel across America and see all of these amazing places. I love showing them to you and telling you about them.
(As an Amazon Associate, I may earn a commission for purchases made through links in this post.)