Sunday, January 30, on Santa Rosa Island.

We had another relaxing day today at Pensacola. The weather got to around 60 with overcast skies all day. We took a bike ride in the morning to Fort Pickens and after lunch rode out of the park to the Pensacola Beach area. This is a neat place, much like St George Island. It is built up with resorts and condos near Pensacola beach but when you get to the west end of the island the national seashore keeps everything natural and quiet. The west end is where the campground is and is also the location of Fort Pickens. We listened to a video about the fort at the visitors center and found it quite interesting.This fort dates back to the 1830's and has a lot of history. The fort was constructed of 21 million bricks that were manufactured in Pensacola. The architecture uses arches to support the walls and cannon areas. Geronimo was housed here for a few years when the U.S. government was rounding up the Apache Indians to make the west inhabitable to the pioneers.

Later in the day we went into town for some fresh produce and to do our laundry. We had a great seafood dinner at Flounder's restaurant to top off the day.

Hope all is well with everyone. We miss you all and love to get the e-mails, phone calls, texts and comments on the blog. Keep 'em coming!

Hint: I found that if you click on a picture in this blog it will open in a new window and be easier to see.

Entrance to the national seashore.

Looking into Fort Pickens from the front. The walls are a facade for cannon vaults, gunpowder rooms and numerous tunnels and rooms. 

An example of the smooth bore cannons used at the original fort. Range for these cannons was about a mile.

An example of the arch work that was used to support the walls and ceilings of the fort. All made of bricks cemented into place.

This is what the walls looked like from inside the fort

This is one of the BIG GUNS. It has a barrel that weighs over fifty tons and shoots a four hundred pound projectile up to eight miles. It was also pretty accurate. It took a ten man team to operate this cannon in combat!

Looking back toward the condos at Pensacola Beach.

Guess who was at the campsite to greet us after our long bike ride?