Pensacola

Ok, we now go back in time to the weekend after Thanksgiving 2015, for our stop in Pensacola on the way home from Disney.  We stopped for a couple of nights for some beach time and to break the drive up.  And just to make sure we had worn the kids out enough at Disney….

‘Strike a Pose’, Zayne!

Hey, Sailor Boy

Our stop at the National Naval Aviation museum

LOTS and LOTS of planes

Just my size!

Dad, this is a serious job

Ok, let’s start the engines

Hey! What are you doing on my carrier, Daddy?

Looking for subs.

Ready for take-off

Bomber ready!

F4 Corsair. Just like the ones in Baa Baa Blacksheep

Torpedo seat

I think I’m gonna be a pilot!

I gotta turn this gun to shoot some Zero’s.

A T-34 trainer, just like Grandpa Stover used to fly.

Pensacola is also the home of the Blue Angels

Nixon’s Marine 1

Prepping for take-off

Daddy and co-pilots? ready to go.

Mommy’s ready, and seems to have lost her co-pilots

The co-pilot is ready to be THE pilot.

I can’t wait to get to the beach!

Had to take a pizza break after the musuem

On to the beach! Zayne decided to dig a hole and relax.

Capriana on the other hand decided to build a castle.

Zayne wiped out by a wave.

The sunsets on the vacation….

Of course the kids are still playing in the sand.

So tired, he fell asleep wathcing TV.

Too tired to even get in bed the right way….

Summer Vacation – Patriot’s Point

While in Charleston we went to Patriot’s Point.  This “National Park” is home to the retired aircraft carrier U.S.S. Yorktown, the retired destroyer U.S.S. Laffey and the retired submarine U.S.S. Clamagore.  The whole tour took 7 hours, including lunch, which we kind of knew would take a while.

The U.S.S. Yorktown

The U.S.S. Laffey

The walk up. As we later took advantage of, there is an enclosed golf cart that seats 8 or so. The walk is longer than it looks after 7 hours…

Pilot Zayne “Z” Jennings

Pilot Capriana “Dancer” Jennings

“Smokey” Stover – just like our Grandpa in Kansas (but different guy, although our grandpa was in the Navy and flew planes for a little while. More on that in an upcoming post)

Scrappy!

Down in the engine room. We got to see EVERY part of the ship. Most of it we didn’t care about.

I have to reduce the pressure of the steam, or we’ll lose screw #2!

Daddy’s favorite WWII plane, the Corsair.

“Dancer” in her pre-flight briefing.

The Brigg.

Riding an artillery shell. Daddy said it reminded him of the movie Dr. Strangelove. We thought that was strange…

Our Grandpa Stover was also a barber in the Navy.

And Daddy’s and Zayne’s favorite fighter jet, the F-14 Tomcat

“Z” with an F-18 Hornet

Now he’s an artillery gunner.

The ship is REALLY long!

Now it’s Cap’n Capriana

And Co-Cap’n Zayne.

The U.S.S. Clamagore. The sub is in pretty bad shape and I’m surprised it isn’t leaking.

The torpedo room. 3 shifts of men, armed, repaired, loaded and slept in this room.

The aisle? Not so sure on my nautical terms….

Two kids in a tube.

I’m ready to go now! No, not leave, out to sea! Submarines are fun!

The U.S.S. Laffey

All aboard!

A nice seat in front of a turret. We watched a movie inside this turret about the attack on it in 1945 and the kamikazee planes that hit it. Yet it didn’t sink.

A view inside at the sleeping quarters.

Summer Vacation!

Due to time constraints, we jump ahead in our programming….   Ok, so we’re a bit behind, so Daddy is starting a new strategy (ya, we’ll see how this works out….).  He is going to make a post with newer pics and one with older pics so always keep scrolling down until you see stuff you’ve seen before.  Of course, to start this new strategy off he’s only putting up one post (so, how does this work again, Daddy?), but at least it’s new pictures.  At least only a month old…  Well, here is post #1 of our trip to the Carolinas.

Our first stop was Asheville, NC, where we stayed with our friends Jim and Anne who moved out there years ago. This is taken off the Blue Ridge Parkway which is just a couple miles from their house.

Another pic of the Blue Ridge Mountains off the Parkway

In Asheville one of the restaurants had a bubble machine. As you can see, it was a fun.

Mel and Anne about to go biking.

We found a turtle on our nature hike! Capriana is trying to coax it to move.

Asheville has some great breweries, but we chose to stop at a Cider place and sampled 8 different ciders. Funny how our original choices weren’t our favorites after trying them all. Some, were tough to choke down….

Jim with the kids.

Our next stop was Myrtle Beach. We found a gluten free restaurant and as you can see Zayne was very happy at the selections….

…and so were Mommy and Capriana with the dessert.

And of course a picture with the king and queen of Margaritaville (yes, we went all touristy and went there….)

Blenders and a beach. Oh, and pajamas and Capriana’s balloon hat from Margaritaville (same with the blender glasses. I TOLD you we went TOURISTY).

Our first stop in Charleston, was to an old plantation.

Nice splash pad before our walking tour of Charleston….should have brought swimsuits with us.

Real cobblestone street dating back to the 1700’s.

A row of houses dating back to the 1700’s and among the first in Charleston refurbished.

The bricks on the ground show where the wall ramparts were locate. Charleston used to be a walled city and just beyond this rampart was the water. As you can see Charleston has grown a bit.

A good example of a single house. The house is just wide enough for a single room and extends back as far as 100 yards in some instances.

A row of houses along the sea front and still has part of the old wall, under the new wall.

The First Baptist Church….in the U.S.A., built in 1682, so this is truly the FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.

A house George Washington stayed at during his visit to Charleston in the 1780’s

The chair (supposedly) that George sat in during his visit. For sure the same location.

A little lunch with a view before our next stop…..

…Which was Fort Sumter. This is where the first shots in the civil war were fired.

A restorted cannon inside the fort.

Rebel or Yank?

Something about the brilliance of the light made me take this pic. Somehow it seems more poignant now.

A row of cannons

The remnants of the north wall. This was originally 3 stories high with cannon racks. The wall to the left was part of the soldiers’ barracks.

Tired girl on the boat ride back.

Foreshadowing – the U.S.S. Yorktown.

Capriana’s silly face

Out….

and…..oiut