Florida, Day 5

Sunday morning we went to Aunt Diane and Uncle Jim’s church. Before we left home to go down, Aunt Diane asked Mom if she would sing a solo on Sunday morning. Mom agreed, so we got to church a little early. I took a picture of Mom practicing:



After church Uncle Jim took us on a driving tour of the Gulf Breeze area. The back windows of the van are tinted, so some of my photos appear darker, although it was pretty cloudy the whole trip. Here’s a heron that we saw on our tour:



We spent the afternoon lounging around the house. That evening, we had to drop Uncle Jim off at church for a meeting. Us three ladies headed to the beach and then went back to church for their Talent Show and Dinner. Our next stop was Pensacola Beach:



The next picture is the view from the toll bridge as we crossed over to Pensacola Beach. It is on the darker side, since I’m taking the picture through the dark window of the van:



We stopped at several areas on Pensacola Beach, so I could take pictures. I had to step in the water at every beach, especially when we were on the Gulf side. Mom took this one of me in the Gulf:



We were going back to my aunt and uncle’s church after the beach, so Mom didn’t want to get too wet:



Now for some surf pictures:









I was trying to get a great close up picture of this little guy, but he was very quick and if you know what kind of bird it is, please let me know:





As we were driving back through Pensacola Beach, Aunt Diane was showing us some of the damage from the two previous bigger hurricanes, Ivan (2004) and Dennis (2005). When you look at some of these pictures, you’ll see some rebuilt homes on stilts and some empty spaces where hotels/homes have not been rebuilt:











If you want to check out more pictures from right after the hurricanes you can search for them on the net, but here’s one of the local websites:

Ivan: http://www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=PHOTOGALLERY0101

Dennis: http://www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=PHOTOGALLERY0103

These are on the Pensacola News Journal (PNJ) website and you can also see pictures of the area after Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ike, and more. We know that my aunt and uncle did not evacuated for Hurricane Ike, but there are some pictures on the PNJ website of the flooding in their area. We don’t think that Mom’s cousin and her husband evacuated from Houston, but we haven’t heard from them.

Here’s my last shot as we were leaving Pensacola Beach:



This is one of their water reservoirs and I loved the painting on it.

We then went to church and enjoyed a great potluck dinner and talent show. The rest of the evening was spent hanging out at the house and planning our next day.