The Blue Angels In Florida

On my birthday a few weeks ago, while we were in Destin for our spring break, we were able to make it to watch the Blue Angels practice at the Naval Station there in Pensacola. Talk about a real thrill! To watch these planes buzz overhead like tiny blue mosquitoes and to surprise you with a sudden burst of their jets was incredible!

It was a pretty cold morning with the temps around 50 or so but with the bay nearby and the breeze coming off of it, I have to believe the windchills were closer to 40-45. As you can see below, we were not dressed as warmly as we should've been.

While we were waiting for the Angels to appear, we went inside a larger plane once used to transport all kinds of equipment and people for past Blue Angels shows across the world. You could still smell the odor of motor oils and gasoline as this fuselage was surely used to haul some massive pieces of machinery through the air.

As we heard the crowd begin to applaud and cheer, we rushed to as close as we could get to see the Angels taxi down the runway and begin to take off in succession. I tried to get as many pictures as I could of them flying overhead and doing their stunts but they were incredibly fast and I wasn't able to get a good shot most of the time.

Once we were finished outside watching the Angels fly overhead, we went into the NAS museum and saw all kinds of planes, helicopters and flight simulators. The kids were even able to sit inside an old Blue Angel cockpit.

Soon, however, it came to be time to leave and go eat some lunch. We were less than an hour away from our condo on the beach so we thought we'd grab some food at one of the restaurants next door to our room and not make ourselves eat at the Burger King right off base. I was pretty excited to find this great little restaurant next to our condo that looked out into the ocean and provided a sandy playground for the kids to play on while we waited for our food.

Here you can see them wading on the beach and drawing in the sand.

Next, here's a pic of Jacob being eaten by a shark.

Finally, here's a pic of Kaitlyn being shoved into the shark's mouth by her caring little brother.

We learned a few different things on this trip. One is that just because your school district may call it "spring break" doesn't mean the weather or seasons know that it's supposed to be spring-like. It was pretty cold down in Florida that time of year so next time, we may wait to visit the panhandle until late April or even mid-May. Thankfully, we did consider bringing warmer sweatshirts and jackets although mine ended up wrapped around Kaitlyn much of the time.