Pensacola Air Museum

While we were in Pensacola for the quick over-night, we drove out to the Naval Air Station. We ducked into the Air Museum for a quick spin. We have been before and expect to return with B's Scouts soon, so we only stayed a few minutes. It is a very cool--and free!---place and, if you have not been, it is a "must see"! It is a huge collection of aircraft.

We went in to find a plane that our grandson's great-grandfather helped to position in the museum. It is a Corsair. We found it and sent some pictures to our daughter-in-law. 

Holy Ship!

At the Port of Pensacola, we happened upon a behemoth, the Global 1200. It is a 532 foot long service and construction ship for deepwater derricks. B pointed out the helicopter pad on top. The website states that it can provide living quarters for 264 people, has a gymnasium, a full movie theater, satellite TV and an internet cafe. 

http://www.ship-technology.com/projects/global1200pipelayves/ 

This link shows a picture of this ship with its enormous cranes extended. 

 http://www.shipspotting.com/photos/small/1/0/4/1567401.jpg

 The ship's flag is from Vanuatu. (I had to Google that!) That is a collection  of islands in the South Pacific between Australia and Fiji. I learned that it was the location for a Survivor show. The ship has been in port since September and is due to leave in mid-December. I would love to see the port bill for fees. For a start, I understand that dockage is determined per foot length of the ship.

A second large ship was not quite so visible. It is the Boa Olympic of Norway and is in a similar business. It also has a helicopter pad. This ship was just over half the size of the Global 1200.

McGuire's Million

More than once, my brother-in-law has mentioned that sometime we must eat at McGuire's in Pensacola. Now B and I had not been to Pensacola since before Katrina went through, but last weekend I needed badly to just get away and regain a little sanity. To say that school is hard this year is a grave understatement.

So Saturday morning, we got my car serviced, voted "early" and headed out on I-10. It was noon (their time) when we arrived in Pensacola and we headed straight to the restaurant.

What a fun place and the food was yummy. We were glad we decided to split a hamburger when we saw what a 3/4 pounder looks like! We could barely finish that and took the delicious bread for a snack later. It is a microbrewery and they make their own root beer, as well.  I tried the root beer and  it was good.

But about the million:
The story goes that co-owner Molly McGuire took her very first tip, a dollar bill and tacked it up behind the bar for good luck. Friends and supporters began to put up a dollar, also. Now, the entire ceiling of the entire restaurant is covered with dollar bills, most signed by the person who put it up with a staple gun that the restaurant provides upon request.

When B asked our server about the validity of the sign below, she said that the bills now come to closer to 1.5 million. 

I was amused to hear people talking about when they dust the money. Apparently, it gets dusty hanging up there and, every so often, they have to dust the money. It is not a favorite chore of the employees. I guess that is different from money laundering?

Thanks, Tom, for the recommendation!

Mailbox Monday: Hand-painted Iris

The Magic of Millions of Monarchs

Saturday was the Monarch Butterfly Festival at St. Marks. We have yet to go to the festival as we prefer to go when the crowds are not there. We went down on Sunday. Our older son and his toddler son went with us. The butterflies are rarely on schedule for the festival, but this year they came in with a cool front and were there on the coast by the thousand, if not the million I named in the title of this post.

I counted fifty individuals and estimated the rest and came up with 400 that we saw. They are feeding on the sweet nectar of the blooming saltbush that grows along the dikes.

They have come hundreds of miles already and will fly across the Gulf to Mexico; their progeny will return in the spring, though not as dramatically as the fall. Their numbers in the spring are hardly noticeable.

I spent my time Sunday enjoying our grandson instead of trying to get the perfect butterfly picture. The pictures below were taken a couple of Octobers ago.

The Weinermobile!

...."That is what I'd truly like to be  DRIVE!"  Even if the base looks like an El Camino.

Is it somewhat ironic that the store in the background is a Whole Foods?

Mind the Handrail

The handrail to the visitors' center at the lighthouse was alive with fall webworms.

It had attracted the attention of this colorful lubber grasshopper that was on the prowl for a snack.