Meaghan & Erik: Pensacola & Biloxi

I don't know why, but I've always wanted to go to Pensacola. In part, I blame Joan Osborne. No, really, I do. The video below is why. When I think of Pensacola, the song St. Teresa also pops right into my mind. Ah, the summer of 1996. Good times. I also blame Joan Osborne for my nose ring the first 1.5 years of college. This makes me afraid for the pre-teens growing up with so-much-worse pop stars now.

Anyway, this post is not about preteen musings. It's about my fulfilling my desire to go to Pensacola while also seeing my little brother!

DAY ONE:

Sunrise at LGA. So. early.

When I arrived in Pensacola, it was POURING. Like, is the sun ever coming out again pouring. I was worried that my trip to the beach was going to be a complete bust. So, I headed directly to a bar a friend of mine mentioned and it felt beachy enough to make me feel like not all was lost. One downside: Ordered seared tuna salad with ginger dressing and it had grated cheddar cheese on it. Ummm.... Ew!

Fortunately, the sun came out and I jumped in my car. I pulled into the first public beach parking lot I saw, changed in the public restrooms and hit the sand. It felt so good. Unexpected bonus about the rain: I felt like I was at a private beach for both beach days I had on my vaca. And it wasn't too hot. Good news all around.

Looks good on a sign, eh? The place was not my kind of place. I saw images of the jukebox music stopping upon my entrance and decided that I would not go in.

Decided to check out Flounder's per another recommendation. Met some awesome locals and the evening began.

I totally got adopted by this group of locals. We went to McGuire's because I mentioned that I needed to put a dollar bill with the Illini "I" on it for my friend Frank. You can see it with all the others just above my head to the right. My tab at the end of the night? $8. EIGHT DOLLARS!! What am I doing in NYC again?

DAY TWO:

Day 2 started with rain like this. It was scary. So scary in fact that I had to pull over, which is how I got this photo. People were driving HUGE trucks that splashed water over my car to the point where I couldn't see out my windshield. I took advantage of the rain by visiting the Naval Air Museum and getting a massage.

The Blue Angels. I'm not a big museum person normally and I'm definitely not a big fan of planes and military history. Or so I thought. It was really cool and I got lost in looking at all the amazing feats of American ingenuity.

The rest of the day was spent avoiding the rain by getting a massage and eating lots of yummy food. I was able to take a nice 2.5 mile walk on my own private beach of sorts, but as far as real sit-in-the-sun-and-bake time? Notsomuch. I went to a Pensacola celebrity chef's restaurant H2O Cajun Asian restaurant. It was amazing. Some of the highlights: Spicy miso crab soup that was very unusual and a surf & turf sushi roll.

DAY THREE:

Of course, the sun came out the day I was driving to Mississippi. I guess it was much better than the rain!

My brother, Mike. Look how studly he is. He felt very stupid posing by the sign for his base but was a good sport nonetheless. I would not have taken "no" for an answer and would have broken out the Catholic guilt on him. (I drove 2 hours and you can't take this one photo...)

I'm a bright lobster shade of pink not because I'm burnt but because I'm soooo hot. The heat was no joke! Also, I find it funny we got photo-bombed by his friends. He was showing me his drill team moves outside while we were waiting for 5pm.

So, this is so odd but at 5pm every day everyone stops at attention and listens to Taps and then the national anthem. It blares over these speakers all over the base. It was cool to witness.