It's not often we have a picture of both of us! A side note-Mary's rainsuit is old. She leaves little blue crumbs (Hansel and Gretel-like) whenever she wears it.
Mary Frances at the White Cliffs:
Francine did a much better job capturing all the birds around our boat.
Mary Frances in the busy port of Mobile.
Thanks again, Francine. We miss you.
Tuesday Kathy and Mike, accompanied by Carol and Jim, picked us up at 12:15 and we went to the Officers' Club for lunch. Then we visited Fort Barancas, a Civil War fort on the Naval Air Station. This fort was part of the coastal defense. The Confederates seized it when they captured the Navy Yard at Pensacola.
Mary, Kathy, and Carol on the drawbridge:
We next drove to Fort Pickens on one of the barrier islands that make up Gulf Islands National Seashore. Fort Pickens is the only fort on this part of the coast that stayed in Union hands.
Carol, Jim, and Kathy with part of Fort Pickens in the background.
Aren't storks on the roof supposed to be good luck?
Wednesday morning we called a taxi to take us to the Pensacola Naval Hospital complex to acquire some steroid cream and antihistamines for John, who had gone head-to-head (actually proboscis <remember this from the old cootie game?> to legs) with a swarm of salt water no-see-ums while biking on Saturday. (It's Saturday again and the 2 dozen or so bites finally look as though they're fading.) On the plus side-our Consumers' Energy bill this month was only $15.65. Now don't spoil our fun by pointing out the price of gasoline and marinas!
Thursday we decided to take a walk instead of a bike ride. We broke up our 2 hours (40 minutes at a fast clip) with a salad at the O Club. Later, Mary was reading up on deck and called John up to see a heron swallow a fish it had just caught. It held the wiggling fish in its beak then tossed it up so it came straight down head first into that big beak. We watched as the fish wiggled its way down the heron's throat. Talk about fresh!
These guys look very big up close and are comfortable pretty close to people:
A pretty night sky:
Friday we accomplished one of Mary's goals-we took both a long bike ride and a brisk walk! 9 1/4 miles on the bikes and 30 minutes of walking at a brisk pace. Hurray for modern medicine! We saw a pelican plunge into the bay and, the second its head appeared above water, a seagull perched on it. The gull stayed put as the pelican tipped its head back and swallowed whatever tidbit it had found. The pelican finally shook it loose and the gull flew away, unsuccessful in its quite clever attempt at a "free lunch". We ate lunch at the club again, but there was much more energy (and noise!) as a class of student pilots was celebrating the completion of the academic phase of their training. It was fun to witness their enthusiasm and camaraderie.
It's Saturday and the weather has still not been good for our next move, cold and rainy today but tomorrow looks promising. With the water like this in the protected marina, imagine what it's like in the bay:
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