On February 24th we went back to the Navel Air Museum to finish touring it.  There was a trolley ride that takes you out on the tarmac where they have more planes plus there is another fort there and a light house we haven’t seen yet.

We just missed the trolley when we arrived so we started out by checking out the top floor.  The planes have a different view from above

Navel Museum from above

Base Camp

I’ll add some more pictures on the points of interest page.  We finished the tarmac trolley ride.  That was interesting  but you couldn’t get out of the trolley so…. We just got back in the car to go see the fort or the light house when we got a call from our Minnesota neighbors, Dave and Sue (I won’t even attempt to spell their last name :)).  They made us an offer we couldn’t refuse, come see the condo they are renting.  We’ll have to stop back at the museum and finish it some other day.  They have a really nice condo they are renting and we had a fun time visiting with them.

As I’ve said before, there are some fabulous places to walk to.  One of the paths had signs warning us of alligators

In this section there is a bigger pool and they have a fence with like chicken wire by the fence so the alligators can’t get thru the split rail fence but you can look for the alligators.  We have walked down the path for several days looking for the mama alligator and her babies.  One day were were looking on the sides into the water when a pair of bikes went by.  Both of them slammed on their brakes, mama alligator was right by the fence.  Both the people and the alligator were scared.  I went to check it out and look

Alligator eyes

Our vigilance has finally paid off.  We finally saw the alligator!  We actually saw her a few more times and her babies but the pictures aren’t much better.  That is ok, that is as close as I want to get to one of those :).

Mardi Gras is coming up soon, they celebrate it here too. Actually while Mardi Gras is not observed nationally across the country, a number of cities and regions in the U.S. have Carnival celebrations, because of the French, Spanish, and other colonial influences on the settlements over their history. The earliest organized Carnival celebrations occurred in Mobile, Biloxi, New Orleans, and Pensacola, which have each developed separate traditions.  Hopefully we’ll have some pictures, stay tuned 🙂