Pensacola Bucket List

As you know, in about a month we will be moving to Jacksonville, North Carolina, so Nolan had the great idea to create a list of things we'd like to do or like to do again before we leave and so here are some pictures from our most recent items on our "Pensacola Bucket List" and maybe a few extras as well!

- Visit Fort Pickens
In 2007, when we lived on NAS Pensacola, we visited Fort Barrancas, which is located across the bay from Fort Pickens...
Fort Pickens recently re-opened after repairs were made from Ivan in 04 and various hurricane damage in 05 (so the State Park pamphlet stated), and Nolan wasn't on the schedule yesterday, Friday, so we headed down to Pensacola check it out!

A while back we had tried to walk (along the shoreline of the beach since they were working on the road) out to Fort Pickens, but after about 4 miles we decided we were still WAY too far away and decided to have a picnic lunch before turning back... walking on sand was exhausting! We found out yesterday that it was indeed even farther than we thought... we definitely would not have made it if we had kept walking...

The entrance!

Close up of one side of the entrance

A self-portrait from the top of the fort... much like the one we took at Fort Barrancas

One of the three tunnels down to where they kept the gun powder...
you can see Nolan, on the right, coming back from going down to the very end of it..


This fort was a LOT bigger! It had lots of "rooms" with very high arched ceilings!



Across the water you can see NAS Pensacola...
to the right is a huge (tiny in the picture) white piece of fairly new artwork... it looks like a tiny V
and to the left of it/middle of the picture is the Officer's club...
Behind the Officer's club... in the trees was our 1900s Pensacola home!

Fort Pickens is the reddish spot on the bottom of the picture... and across the "channel" is NAS Pensacola where Fort Barrancas is...

NAS Pensacola - where Nolan did his helicopter boat practice landings...

- Tre Fratelli

This little Italian restaurant is located in downtown Pensacola, in Seville Quarter... It is essentially in an old house... the back of the house is the kitchen (where everything seems to be made to order, one portion at a time) and the front of the house is the very small dining room... This time we ate outside and there was a concert going on across the street in Seville Square - fun times!
The food is just amazing! We celebrated my 26th birthday there last year (with the Butlers - miss you guys!) and this year we celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary there! We will definitely miss this great place to eat!

Deal of the Week!

Since I haven't had a "job" since we moved back to Florida in December, in May (after completing my Masters I was looking for something to do while Nolan was out flying and I wasn't having to work on homework!) I found the website slickdeals.net (and many other coupon blogs) and what a fun game I have found in using coupons (more specifically matching them to sales)!

It is amazing what you can get for free, or next to nothing if you have a coupon and the item on sale! So, for the past few weeks, that is the game I have been playing... finding deals to match coupons I have found, etc. (of course mainly for items that we use/will use, although if it is truly free or almost free ie .25 cents / .50 cents I donate it to the Milton Food Bank - which takes food, toiletries, etc.) So it is a win-win!

Of all the deals I have gotten, even items I have gotten for free, have not been as good as this one, so Nolan and I agreed it was blog-worthy! ;-) (and hopefully many more to come!)

The NEX ad I saw for $1 batteries
(after a $1 manufacturer's coupon - which I happen to have found and printed 5 of)
... must have been a misprint? but they honored it!

The 5 packs of batteries....

And what I paid... or rather what I didn't pay!
Paid $5 and saved $23.95! WHOOP!

Nolan Flying/Landing a Helicopter Videos!

On Tuesdays helo students have the opportunity to be scheduled to practice 'landing on the boat' which is down at NAS Pensacola...

LAST Tuesday Nolan was scheduled, but the aircraft has some mechanical issues, so he was rescheduled for yesterday!

Enjoy the videos!

Practicing on solid ground....

Landing out on the boat!
(landing "toes first" as Nolan put it)

Way to go Nolan! :-) I am so proud of you!

PS - Only 8 more events until he will be done! WHOOP! and today, June 10th, is our 3rd wedding anniversary! WHOOP to us! :-)