Trip to Pensacola

We made a quick trip to Pensacola, Florida, this weekend for a wedding.  We arrived Friday evening.

On Saturday, we went hiking/walking on the Florida National Scenic Trail - the part that went through the Fort Pickens parts of the Gulf Islands National Seashore.  Fort Pickens was interesting, so we spent a few minutes looking through parts of it.  Then we got on the trail.  We hiked about 7 miles in about 2.5 hours.  The trailhead from Fort Pickens starts out as packed dirt.  After about 2 miles, it crosses over to go along the beach, so we were walking in sand.  We weren't really prepared for that - the sand was way too hot to walk barefoot on it, and so I got shoes full of sand.  Also, it was SOOOOO HOT!  Along the beach, there was a very strong wind that kept it bareable, but the "inland" parts were really pretty oppressive.  Even with the heat, it was worth it to get the chance to see the park - it's a very, very narrow island along the Gulf of Mexico.  There are lots of birds.  We saw a couple nesting ospreys, and lots of other birds.  There were supposed to be snowy plover chicks, but we didn't see any of those.

The hike was our big activity for the day, since the wedding was in the evening.  It was on the beach.  Fortunately we had a covered pavilion for shade, and the breeze, and once the Sun started to set, it was pleasant.  Once it got dark, my husband and I walked out the long wooden sidewalk (to get to the beach) in order to see the dark sky.  Lots of stars out - very nice! The Moon, Venus, and Jupiter have been having some very pretty groupings on the last few evenings, which are gorgeous.  The lower latitude made the entirety of Scorpius visible, which I always like.  Also, we happened to turn to look toward the north and fortuitously saw a pass by the International Space Station!  ISS passes take only about 5 minutes, so it was quite the coincidence that we were looking in just the right part of the sky at just the right time! I always enjoy watching it pass through the sky.

Sunday morning I got up early and did a 40-min run on the treadmill in the hotel's fitness center.  I ran at 5.1 mph, so the distance totaled 3.4 mi.  Mostly I just wanted to burn some calories, since I definitely ate too much on the trip.  We flew home after breakfast.