The Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola was fascinating, but inside and in Hangar One the displays were a bit spit and polish after spending the previous day on the clean but worn USS Alabama. I guess it was inevitable that the visits to Stennis and the Mighty A would linger and maybe even overwhelm a bit, but the top flight birds seemed so sparkly in comparison, and I found myself leaving the phone in the pocket. I did try to take pictures of the many models of aircraft carriers which were quite special, but they were hard to get a good photo of in their glass displays. Ditto for the trolley tour of the flight line outside (restricted area, don’t get off the boat!) which is a shame because those craft were all a bit worse for wear. Our guide flew a patrol bomber, so he was heavily biased towards those pilots who flew the slower, much more vulnerable craft, and I can’t really blame him for that–but he did blow right by the Phantom saying, Yes, there were alot of those made, and all the allies bought some. Really? That’s it? Kind of rankled an F4 fan like me, but the most problematic thing about the tour was not being able to get any decent photos of the fighters, recon planes, and patrol bombers they had out on the line. He did make the sobering point of how we lost six hundred aircraft just ferrying goods over the Himalayas to keep China in the fight against the Japanese. The US built over 400,000 warplanes in the six years of WWII and, while they weren’t just thrown together, there were no frills. Not even conduit to protect the wiring, since none of the planes were expected to last very long at all.
The museum did have several displays of life back home in the war bond era, along with mockups of WWI and Vietnam scratch air camps, but I was totally fascinated by this mock up of a home kitchen, mainly because my mom had a yellow ceramic bowl just like the one pictured that she use to fill to the brim with her magnificent potato salad to go with her skillet fried chicken. Most often she combined cans of Niblets corn and Petis Pois peas with lots and lots of butter to round out the meal. And whatever potato salad was left over (there was never any leftover fried chicken!) was used for ham and potato salad sandwiches. My best potato salad never came close to hers, which is why I’ve started cheating and using red B potatoes and adding a hint of mustard, things she would never have done. But hopefully we all remember a kitchen similar to this, and similar memories, and I am so sorry for those who don’t share those memories of a central kitchen that was clean and productive and important to the whole family.
After leaving the Pensacola Naval Air Station, I circled back to Orange Beach and checked in at the Perdido Beach Resort. I had to wait a minute poolside (about half a bushwacker) until my room was ready, but then I was able to get it together and take the short walk over to The Gulf. These are my two favorite places in the panhandle so far. The PBR has a two chair balcony for each room, and if you get the pool view, you get to look down on that well laid out poolside area with a splendid view of the beach as well. It is also right next to the marina channel leading boats of all sizes and varieties out into the deep water. They’ve got a great little poolside bar that’s shaded but still open air, and a short order window for poolside pizzas and burgers. Also a high end restaurant and a quality breakfast buffet.
If you’re driving straight in, The Gulf is the perfect place to check in and lose what stress you have left before you dive into the rest of the trip. Constructed entirely of shipping containers the bar and gift shop and lounge area are all entirely open air, and that constant fresh breeze might be the single greatest attraction in the panhandle. There’s always a couple of gourmet tacos on hand and I always go that direction, even though I did have the burger once and it was also outstanding. Very hard to go wrong here. Now this is my favorite spot, but there are plenty of options. The Flora-Bama Yacht Club is an open air waterfront restaurant on Ole River just down the road from the PBR and across the street from the world famous Flora-Bama Lounge & Package Store and a great place to watch some football and/or listen to some pretty good beach bands. The Sunset Grille is a great stop in as well, but the thing to do is just get down here and get down.
I also highly recommend The Voyager restaurant inside the Perdido Beach Resort. I’ve had a number of good meals here looking out over the waves. This time I went light with a chilled seafood platter, but I was really impressed with the Caesar salad on on earlier trip because the dressing was obviously made to order and they garnished the salad with crisp fried anchovies. Haven’t seen that before. That night they also had an intriguing rack of lamb special that I almost went for even though I know I can’t really handle meat past lunchtime any more. Bummer, but the only one really if I don’t count the hundreds of wasted photo ops on the flight line and later or the beach.
The next morning was perhaps the best part of the trip for me. It was about 63 degrees on the beach in the pre-dawn as I followed the hungry terns and one very dignified heron down the beach to the rock jetty bordering the deep water channel under the bridge. I had a coffee in one hand and the phone in the other. The birds wouldn’t let me get close enough for a good shot–I enjoyed them very much anyway. I really wish I could find a way to start every day barefoot on the edge of the ocean. Maybe some day that dream will come true. Nothing wrong with wishing on a star, or on a beach.
