Pensacola Beach Blogger

Just got back from another business trip to Las Vegas, and pleased to see the green flags flying over Pensacola Beach. I took a drive all the way down to where the road closes on the east end of the island, and noticed these cool cloud formations. It is great to be back! Humidity is my friend!

Hope Santa brought everyone everything they asked for! I know my name was on his list…. look at this weather! What a beautiful few days we’ve had! Ain’t no such thing as post-Christmas blues when you have a view like this.

The last few days have been a bit chilly on the island. The few people out on Casino Beach yesterday were bundled up:

If you click to enlarge this photo, you can see that it is sunny in Navarre! Those buildings lit up by the sun on the right side of this photo are about 11 miles away from where I was: Pensacola Beach Pier.

The color of the water changed when I walked to the end of the pier. Check out the shades of blue… no filters or Photoshop tricks here:

It should be back into the 70s in the next few days, and I really look forward to it!

Have a good Christmas Eve Eve!

I’ve been taking some pictures from some friends (and soon to be neighbors) from Minnesota of the house they have going up across from my place. I came across this photo while I was looking for photos to send, and I’m not sure why I hadn’t noticed it before. This was taken about a month ago just before sunrise, and the colors are amazing.

Since we’ve only had fog around here (and high temps!), I thought this picture was worthy of a Pensacola Beach Blogger post!

Click to enlarge!

Another foggy and misty morning here on Pensacola Beach! We should have a beautiful day on our hands today… as soon as the sun makes it out of the fog.

I Just got back from all of my traveling (sorry about the lack of posts!) just in time to see the Christmas Parade on the island. This morning, low clouds were moving in, so I wasn’t sure what the weather would do, but it turned out just fine. Take a look:

Some little dancers in red:

A Florida Christmas, indeed! This week is supposed to be in the mid-seventies!

More terrific Christmas Dancers, dancing all the way down Via De Luna:

Check out this cool Candy-cane bike:

Of course it wouldn’t be a parade without the McGuire’s Irish Pub party bus:

And last but not least, here’s our big guy in red:

See you all next year!

Now, it’s clean-up time!

The Pensacola Seafood Festival (Festival of Five Flags) happened this last weekend, Sep 26th – 28th. We went over to Seville Square on Sunday and got some good pics, and some good eats! As always, admission to the festival is free.

Check out all this food! There were seafood cooking lessons:

And all kinds of good ol’ southern food:

Fresh crab cakes, anyone?

How about some southern fried goodness…?

Here was our dinner, Coconut shrimp, rice, salad, and a few Bug Lights with Lime:

Hey Mon Salsa to sample, with tortilla chips:

And you can’t pass up free samplse of some cajun pork rinds:

Of course, the Pensacola Seafood Festival had more to offer than food. Between the 200 arts and crafts vendors, local booths, and entertainment in Fountain Park, they had something for everyone! I liked this garden sprinkler:

And there was a train ride for the kids:

Or adults… :-)

Pensacola Beach has a different shape this fall, after several weeks of the Gulf re-claiming its sand, or, at least shifting it around. Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike seemed to have left their mark on our beautiful beaches. There are four, seven, and even some ten-foot drops on the east side of the island:

I’m curious to see what the future holds. Will the SRIA somehow bring sand in, or reshape the beach? Will the beaches take their normal, flat shape again over time? Leave a comment if you have any input on this:

The walkway near my home is officially closed now, due to the big drop off at the end of it:

This morning I was up early enough to catch the sunrise on Pensacola Beach. In fact I was up before the sunrise:

At 6:30am this morning, you can still see the moon at the top of this picture.  It was a very peaceful time to be out on the beach, but the sand was kind of chilly. The Gulf, however, was very warm. It felt great to walk on the warm sand down by the water.

Here comes the sun:

There were plenty of pelicans out, ready to “obstruct” my shot:

Sun is up. Time to head back and make some coffee!

Today is a perfect beach day on Pensacola Beach. Since the hurricanes, the beach has taken on a different shape, making it possible to walk out on sandbars far out into the Gulf. Fish at this time of year is good too. If you walk out into the water, you’ll soon be surrounded by little fish being eaten by big fish!

Of course, fishing isn’t all about catching fish, is it? Having moved from Michigan last year, I’m still not used to scenes like this when it is nearly October:

(click to enlarge)

Now get out there and enjoy the beach! Who knows how many nice days like this we’ll have left!