jet planes, lighthouse, and hermit crabs

We got up bright and early this morning and went to the Naval base here in Pensacola to watch the Blue Angels practice.  Even though I lived here for 4 years during college, I never once saw them fly. It was really cool.  Right as they were finishing, it started to rain.

So we decided to check out the Naval Museum.  The kids loved all the planes, and they were able to sit in a couple of them.

Recently, when Austin was listing what he wants to be when he grows up, one of the occupations was astronaut.  He was able to see an old space station, astronaut suits, and some other things.

There was a playground made out of old plane stuff.  Kamdyn played too.

On the way off the base, we stopped at the Pensacola Lighthouse.

All around town, they have these painted pelicans. Kind of like the painted crabs in Baltimore.

By the afternoon, the weather was beautiful again, sand we spent it at the beach.  By the way, remember this guy.........



Sure enough, someone in our family was stung by a Portuguese Man of War today.  Justus was the lucky winner.  And in case you are wondering, if you ever get stung by one, don't put vinegar on it like you would for a jelly fish sting.  It only makes the pain worse.  All you can do is wash it clean and wait out the pain. Thankfully, Justus' pain didn't last too long, and his stings were not deep. 


Then, tonight we went to what they have here as the equivalent of a boardwalk.  After walking on a peer near the "boardwalk", the kids wanted to play in the sand on the shore. I don't know the official names for anything, but in college we always called it the "Sound side", the bay side and not the gulf side.  The water is still and calm and crystal clear.  We walked along and saw a bunch of different sea creatures:  crabs, something in a big conch shell, this huge snail-looking thing, and a bunch of hermit crabs.  Brad and Justus gathered up 6 hermit crabs, and I took Madison to the store to get a cage for them.  The cage came with a "free hermit crab".  We put them all in their new home. Madison was so excited.

Once we were back, we googled the hermit crabs we found and learned that they can only live outside of salt water for a short time. So Brad and Justus took a little walk back down to the water and sent our new friends on their way.  We're down to one LAND hermit crab but still a happy girl for having her new pet.