Duck's Deductions: Road Trip 2019

Well day 4 dawned...I know, I know, that is how all these posts have started. Day *fill in blank* dawned. Would you prefer if I start with: day *fill in blank* set? Wait, that doesn't make sense...Yeah, but does it make dollars? Dollar dollar bill y'all...ok, sorry. My brain got sidetracked, let's get back to the reason y'all are actually reading this...

First on the hit list for the day was the Pensacola Naval Aviation Museum!!!!!! I had found out about this place from one of the volunteers I work with and decided we HAD TO GO!!!!!! Thankfully Natalie loves me and is willing to (occasionally) indulge my obsession with military aircrafts (or watercrafts too). An awesome thing about the museum is that because it is on a Naval base it is free! Yay!

When going in the museum, your bags and ID are checked and your hand is marked. We made it through the security checkpoint with no issues, which for me is always a win because for some reason I often fail/am double-checked at security checkpoints. *shrug* Once inside, we spend a few hours wandering the two hangers filled with glorious, marvelous, wonderful, splendid, fantastic, beautiful, gorgeous, remarkable, majestic creatures. And no I am not talking about all the Navy fellows walking around.;)

Home of the Blue Angels

Me with my new love!

There were also LOTS of cockpits that you could climb into, so Natalie and I ran from one to another climbing in most of them like we were 5 year olds. And it didn't go unnoticed by some of the volunteers. When we were walking back from Hanger Bay 1 to Hanger Bay 2 (main entrance building), one of the volunteers asked, "So did you fly them all?" Our response was, of course, "Yep"

Ms. President

She's now a space shuttle pilot!

Natalie is Goose to my Maverick!

And these are not even all the cockpits we climbed in...

Beside acting like little kids, climbing into and touching everything we were allowed to, we had a couple incidents that made me glad we weren't kicked off the base. :) First, I thought there was another hanger bay with planes, and there was a building next door with a path to it, so we went over there and tried to open it a couple times. It was at this point, I finally read the sign on the door that read No admissions or No exhibits or something like that. Basically a sign that said this was NOT part of the museum. OOPS! There was a Navy guy working on a laptop near there and he saw us trying to get in and asked if we were meeting someone in there. We then had to explain that we were illiterate and didn't realize it was not part of the museum, or something like that. Then from there, we walked back into Hanger Bay 2 and into our second great story.

As I explained early, you have to get marked before entering the museum. Well at each door into all the building, there is a person (people) stationed to make sure everyone has been checked. Well Natalie and I walk in and the guy asks us, "Have you been checked." We nodded and held up our marked hands and kept walking as he nodded us along. We get past him and Natalie suddenly looks over at me and goes, "Wait, that was my unmarked hand." 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 We both started rolling with laughter.

And we weren't even done terrorizing these poor folks. Now it was on to the flight simulators!!! The first one we did, we actually got to control the simulator and fly the fighter jet! So cool! Though we had to be careful because we were warned that if we were to aggressive with the joystick, the simulator might get stuck and if you are upside down, you could be hanging there for at least 15 minutes...oh, goody!...We didn't let that stop us from doing a couple barrel rolls. SO. MUCH. FUN. And great news, we didn't get stuck! After that simulator, we did a couple other much tamer simulators that sadly we weren't able to control. Following that, we hit the gift shop where I got a pilot rubber ducky to add to my collection and lots of postcards.

Once we left the museum, we stopped at a lighthouse next door. We were hoping to climb all the stairs, but it was unfortunately closed due painting. Despite the fact that we are painters (mostly), we weren't allowed to climb. Then it was time to get off the base before being brought to the brig. (What I love alliterations)