We’ve arrived safely in Pensacola, Florida. Our rooms at the B&B are beautiful and the proprietors are very friendly (both originally from northwest Jersey). In fact, everyone we’ve met here is extremely friendly. And laid back. The town has a lot of history and has a pretty unique blend of cultural influences apparent in the architecture of the town. I definitely have plenty of material with which to test out the camera (and any crappy photography I produce is purely the result of my lack of knowledge and skill and not the fault of the camera!).
Upon arrival, we headed immediately for the beach. The weather was cold and windy today, so it wasn’t quite ideal for a stroll on the beach (nor a nap on the beach but we did it anyway and have the sand in unmentionable places to prove it). On the other hand, we had the beach almost completely to ourselves. In fact, the town is pretty dead. We are hitting very little traffic and parking has been very easy thus far.
There are a lot of cultural things to do (museums, the zoo, etc.) and we plan to make it out to Fort Pickens. I want to take pictures, sit on the beach and read (it is supposed to get warmer), explore and visit the public library branches.
Random good things that happened today:
- I saw cotton fields! I don’t know why this makes me so happy. I guess it’s part of that Southern landscape that I’ve always read about but never experienced. Damn Yankee. Russ keeps teasing me that I’m going to pull over, rip up a plant and smuggle it back to Bloomington across multiple state borders. If only he knew how right he is.
- Russell was very indecisive about where he wanted to eat, which resulted in a us wandering around for a good thirty minutes by car and foot BUT in the end we found a great place called Rag Tyme Grille. Yummy food, friendly staff and great atmosphere. I imagine it’s even more fun with the live music acts that appear occasionally. Thanks, Russ, for being an utter food/atmo snob.
- By some miracle, Russ and I are not completely bitchy after being up for 36 hours on little sleep (we left Bloomington at 11pm and took turns driving throughout the night). Early bedtime for us tonight.
Hope to have more photos up soon!
Playing in Puddles 