Pensacola Stay: 9.8.22 - 10.8.22

Our Story

Long story short, we sold almost all of our possessions including our home, dropped our youngest off at college, and are now wandering the country. We're staying at Airbnb's about a month at a time while working remotely. Turns out, there is a significant discount if you book an Airbnb for a month or more!

See our first post "How the heck did we pull this off?" for more details on how we got started. If you have any questions, post them in the comments or contact us directly and we'll be happy to answer them!

Travel Stats

Next Up

You never know what life will bring, so our itinerary is tentative. Our plans are to head west in 2023 and eventually make it up to Alaska.

Hope to see you along the way!

• 10.8 - 10.11: Silver Springs, MD (Outside D.C.)
• 11.11 - 11.22: Fletcher, NC (Outside Asheville)
• 11.24 - 1.7: Winter Park, FL
• 1.9 - 2.11: San Marcos, TX (between Austin & San Antonio)
  
  

Why Pensacola?

We had planned to go to Minneapolis, but changed plans because Caroline still needed help with several things as a result of her broken leg. So, the flexibility of the Airbnb life paid off right away! Not only were we able to help our daughter, we got to see Pensacola and how great it is as well.

The Airbnb

Link to Airbnb Listing

A bit worried about safety, but reviews and owner reassured us. Always felt safe. Really nice neighbors. Quiet. Close to historic downtown. Loved it!

Our Airbnb Non-Negotiables

Just like a home, there will never be a perfect Airbnb. As long as our non-negotiables are met, we'll book it.

How'd we like Pensacola?

Such a cool town. Downtown is fantastic!. Pensacola has lots of great parks, beautiful water views, bars, restaurants, and coffee shops. Pensacola Beach is stunning. There's a party-like atmosphere in the town ... New Orleans-ish. There's plenty to do and we actually experienced legit fall weather. Who knew!

Being from Central Florida, we never heard how great Pensacola is. So glad we got to experience it.

Pensacola Stay Top 10-ish

More Time with Caroline

Link to More Pics - More time with Caroline

Because of Caroline's broken leg, we were able to sort of delay being empty-nesters. She needed our help with transportation and other things while she was still getting around on her knee scooter and was unable to drive.

Such a blessing to be able to spend more time with her, but might have made our good-bye harder. We watched from a distance as friends became empty-nesters, but didn't fully realize the emotions that come along with it. 

Time with Teams Hodge, Bearden, & Lykins

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The thing we're looking forward to the most is reconnecting with friends and family. Scott and Cheryl graciously opened their home to us and our friends John and Laura Lykins, who they didn't know. And the icing on the cake ... Mike and Kim Bearden drove over from New Orleans! So great to catch up with everyone and we can't thank the Hodges enough for their fabulous hospitality!

OMG the food! Scott made beef brisket and wings in his smoker. Sooooo good! It was Dave's Bday as well, which he was trying to keep on the DL, but the group surprised him with a serenade and Bday cake. So nice of them.

The only damper was a UCF loss to Louisville. But Louisville is regarded as the best team in the country and are the 12-time defending national champions. So there's that.

BONUS ... The Hodges have CHICKENS! Real chickens, the kind that lay eggs and stuff. We learned quite a bit about chickens at the Hodge household. 

Like ... hens don't need a rooster's "assistance" to be able to lay eggs. Mind blown.

Blue Angels Cruise

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Link to Videos - Blue Angels

Watch. The. Videos. OMG. Direct flyovers in two of the videos. Pics are great as well.

This is an absolute must. So cool. Goose bumps! Well worth a trip to Pensacola.

Gulf Islands National Seashore

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Another absolute must. Words are inadequate. For miles, there's nothing but sand dunes, the Gulf of Mexico, and small parking lots you barely notice. Old Florida for sure and at times seems other-worldly.

When you come to Pensacola, you must make this drive. Weekdays are best, but weekends are good too.

Gulf Islands National Seashore Beach

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Link to Jelly Fish Video

There were a LOT of jellyfish close to shore. Some were really big!

Downtown Pensacola

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Awesome. So cool. Lots of restaurants, museums, shops, bars. So much to do. Nightlife is fabulous. Every third week (we think) a large portion of Palafox street is shut-down for freaking Party Time! So much fun, particularly when you go with the King and Queen of Pensacola, John and Laura Lykins.

Pensacola Seafood Festival

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Lucky this happened during our stay. Lots of fun!

Pensacola Bay

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Really beautiful. We never tired of walking along and driving across the the bay. Escambia Bay is beautiful as well.

Parks and Trails

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We're trying to go on long daily walks at local parks when we travel from city to city.  In Pensacola, we visited Veterans Memorial Park, the National Memorial to Missing Children, Bay Bluff's Park, and the Navy Point Park Trail.

Pelicans in Paradise

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The Pelicans in Paradise is a public art project organized by the Pensacola News Journal. Pelican statues were decorated by various artists and placed at various locations around the Pensacola area. We tried to see as many as we could.

Bar Tattoos

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So, we started taking pics of interesting/fun/cool tattoos on servers and other folks we meet at bars, pubs, etc. Great conversation starter as long as Dave doesn't come across as too creepy.

There are captions on most of the pics about the tattoos and why the person got it.

Hopefully, this will be a regular part of our blog.

Bars, Coffee Shops, & Restaurants

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So many great ones. One of our favorites was the 200 South Palafox complex, comprised of a few bars/restaurants including World of Beer and Graffiti Pizza. On Saturday and Sunday, there's a huge outdoor big-screen TV set up to watch football and lots of other TVs around the bar.

Above, we met a fun group at the Graffiti Pizza bar and hung out all afternoon on an NFL Sunday. The two young women behind Kim are Gator fans, so we had to talk a bit slower to them.

Lexi and Trixi

Link to Videos - Lexi and Trixi

Lexi and Trixi ain't right. They're adorable, wonderful greeters at Gillette Wheelchairs & Medical Supplies. (Caroline needed a knee scooter.) However ...

... something oddly traumatic must have happened to them as pups. Watch the videos. See if you can figure out what.

We could not.

Miscellaneous Musings

• Somewhat interesting business name is a drive-through coffee shop.
  

• Best town name we saw (we're hoping it is indeed a town name and not a specific reference) is located in Alabama.
  

• In a world where much doesn't make any sense at all, it's soooooo satisfying when you're walking through Target and you see something that makes perfect sense.
  
  
  
  
• We want to meet Pedro and Steve. At the same time.
  
  
  
  
• BAD DECISION ALERT!
  
  
  
  
• Dave had a quick business trip to Colorado during our Pensacola stay and he got a nice pic of the Rockies. However, the beauty of the Rockies isn't the reason the pic is posted.
  
  
  If you have occasion to have a drink or six with Dave, ask him about the incident on his flight home. He won't allow it to be published here ... he needs plausible deniability.

Next post will be about our time in Silver Spring, MD which is just outside D.C. Look for it in about a month or so.

-D&K