Beaches and perfect weather (at least so far) what more could anyone ask for in a recent move. Mark and I moved to Pensacola, Florida on October 26 after a mini vacation to Birmingham, Alabama. We spent about 12 days in two different hotels. The first ten days we were at the Holiday Inn. We enjoyed the free breakfasts and fitness gym. We couldn’t get a hotel on base because all the rooms were booked for the Blue Angels’ performance. After the shows were over we got a room at the Navy Gateway. It was just in time too because we could only have up to 10 days in a hotel without having to pay for it. We needed the extra couple of days to wait for our home to be ready for moving in. We had looked around off base for a decently close apartment, but couldn’t find something that was good for our situation. Luckily the base had a town home. We decided we wanted to live on base and it has been a good decision ever since. Mark doesn’t have to get up too early to go to muster and I can get up and go with him to work out at the gym or run on the trails. We go shopping at the commissary, but we just found a grocery store called Publix that is pretty good. Pensacola has some good qualities and some that aren’t so good, but I find all places are about the same. I enjoy living life and I don’t mind living in a small place or major city. Pensacola is in the category of a small place and we’ll see how things go during this part of my adventure.
Pensacola Lighthouse
Mark and I went to the Pensacola lighthouse on base. It was lucky we went the day we did because the next day they were decorating it for the holidays. We walked to the lighthouse the day after Thanksgiving and made it into a little day hike. The trail that leads to the lighthouse is very nice. I enjoy going on the trail because it has little sign posts telling the name of some of the local foliage. We paid for our lighthouse bands/tickets in the gift shop. Mark was able to get a discount for going into the lighthouse. I guess I’m going to have to get use to those “perks.” They had the lighthouse kind of separated because you can go through the keeper’s house for free and then you pay to go up the lighthouse. They had many different trinkets and artifacts from previous lighthouse keepers to show in each of the rooms. They did have some creepy looking manikins dressed up in the fashion of the day when they first made the lighthouse. The climb up the stairs was fun and well worth the sightseeing. We were able to see part of Alabama, the ocean, the white sandy coast, and the forested swampy land of Florida. Seeing for miles around is one of the reasons I like lighthouses.