New BackSplashes!

I finally finished putting up all my backsplashes! Using the Smart Tiles was fairly easy...just clean the area with a degreaser and peel and stick. Cutting and piecing around odd shapes was a bit frustrating, at least to me, but the tiles are flexible and forgiving of minor mishaps. I actually did four backsplashes, the kitchen, the half bath and two separate sinks in the master bath and only wasted one tile. Not bad for a beginner!

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

The Kitchen pattern is Idaho

The Half Bath pattern is Bellagio

Above is Jack's sink

The Master Bath pattern is Dune

Below is Gail's sink

In case you're wondering,we got them at Home Depot.

We are very happy with the results!

One Point Eight Million Dollars, Home Brews and Bean Soup...

We got so close to 1.8 Million dollars we could touch it...and did!

We had dinner the other night at McGuire's Irish Pub, a Pensacola Brewery, noted for some interesting quirks. According to the story, when Molly McGuire received a dollar bill as her first tip, she tacked it up behind the bar for good luck. Other patrons added to the collection and it soon became a McGuire's tradition. Restaurant patrons are encouraged to sign the dollar if they want to participate in the tradition; our waitress even provided a staple gun for our use. I signed the bill and Jack put it up. The ceilings and walls are covered in bills...and it's a large restaurant. Our waitress told us they have to count the bills each year and pay taxes on the money. At present there are about 1.8 million dollars on the walls and ceilings!

One must also be careful when using the restroom. At first glance, the sign on the door seems to indicate the men's room with the word "Men" - on closer inspection you can see the words "This way" in small text and a hand pointing to the adjacent door. The sign on the men's room door says "Women" with the same smaller text and pointing finger. I saw more than one woman walk through the door marked Women only to hurry right back out! Of course, that made me read the sign more carefully and avoid the same mistake.

They have a nice variety of home brewed beers as well as home brewed Root Beer. As a huge Root Beer fan, I had to try it...it was so good. Another strictly McGuire's menu item is Senate Bean Soup. It is touted as the same bean soup served in the U.S. Senate cafeteria. As long as you are ordering other items from the menu, the soup is 18 cents...the same price since 1977. We couldn't resist trying it. For 18 cents we got a hearty bowl of the best soup I've had in a long time!

The menu is varied everything from Burgers and Sandwiches to Shepherd's Pie, Corned Beef and Cabbage, and Sausages to Steaks, Chops and Ribs. I had the Shepherd's Pie and Jack had Brewer's Sausages. We shared a Lucky Chocolate Brownie a`la Mode. I don't know if it was lucky, but it was decadent!

 

After soup, dinner and dessert, we about had to be rolled out of there! It was a fun night and we'd definitely go back!

Red Bird and Blue Bear Visit the Aviation Museum...

Red Bird: Wow, look at all the planes! Wonder where we are.

Blue Bear: The sign says National Naval Aviation Museum, Pensacola, Florida.

Red Bird: They have navels in a museum? I have a navel, wonder if it could be in a museum...

Blue Bird: No, silly, Naval means things that are in the Navy! It's spelled differently than the navel that means bellybutton! And Aviation means things that fly. Besides, you don't have a belly button, you're a bird!

Red Bird: Do too have a belly button! The Navy has sailors...they sail on boats, duh, not planes.

Blue Bear: Well yeah, the Navy has boats but they also have planes and some of their boats are big aircraft carriers. They have huge decks that're like runways and planes can land and take off from the decks...only if you don't aim right or go too far, you'll fall in the ocean!

Red Bird: Wow, some of them have wings that fold and some of them have cool paintings on the side...like sharp teeth and Felix the Cat. I wonder if I can sit in any of the planes...or get on them?

This one looks mean...

Wow!  We're sitting in the cockpit!!!

There's the Felix the Cat one!

Hey, we're winging it...get it?

Be careful, quit wiggling around...you'll fall off

Wow, this one has no sides!

This one is bigger than a house...bigger than two houses!

Look...fake pilots from a long time ago

The wings are folded up.  That's crazy!
The wings fold so they can fit all the planes on the aircraft carriers when they're not flying.

Old Navy airplane seats.  Why couldn't I have my own seat?

There's Mr. Grandpa Jack! He's looking at a model of an aircraft carrier.
Hey! Let's turn this wheel and see what happens!

Space Lab

This was really cool!

               ...Blue Bear and Red Bird

Pensacola...Restaurants...and Home Improvements...

Moved to Pensacola the first of March for what we thought would be our shortest move so far...forty miles (going the long way via I-10). When we arrived at our park, we discovered they had recorded my reservation wrong and had us down for one night rather than one month.They were very apologetic and were able to find a site for us, someone was leaving the next morning and we could take that site. We spent the first night in an overnight pull-thru and moved to our long-term site the next morning. So...our shortest move was several hundred yards!

We are at Pensacola RV Park. Small, family owned, right off I-10, but far enough away so there is no traffic noise. As you turn onto the gravel road into the park, you will see a sign cautioning you to watch out for chickens! The roads and sites are gravel and level and there are only a few amenities, full hook-ups with 30/50 amp, laundry, dog run, WiFi and cable TV, but that is all we need. The people who run it are friendly and helpful. Our site is right across from the office, so we get to watch all the comings and goings. It can be noisy sometimes, but it's kind of fun to see who is checking in and who is checking out!

When we were in Charlotte, NC, we went to a Sonny's Real Pit BBQ and Jack fell in love! They are a regional chain here in the Southeast and we've been on the look out for them ever since. Well...there is one right around the corner from the RV park. Jack likes the sliced brisket and I like the sliced pork...with baked beans, coleslaw and garlic bread. We tried another regional place called the Cock of the Walk just because of the name. It is mostly seafood, which I love and Jack's allergic to, but he can always find a burger or steak on the menu. The food was okay, but nothing to write home about...especially since home is on the coast where we can get great seafood! We haven't found a good breakfast place yet...but there's still time!

I put up my new Smart Tiles backsplash in the half bath and one in the master bath. Just have the kitchen left to do. They weren't too hard to do, though the master bath got a bit frustrating when I had to piece around the curved window. I'll post pictures of all three when I get the kitchen done, but just let me say...they look great!

The Florida Panhandle and Time On Our Hands...

Wow, I haven't posted on here in a while. Can't really say we've been busy, more the opposite...we've been relaxing.

We arrived in Navarre, Florida the first of February and settled in for a month at St. Rosa Sound RV Resort. For the most part I liked the campground - nice flat sites with cement pads and patios, clean and well-kept, with gorgeous views as it is situated right in the Intracoastal Waterway. The downside is traffic noise, it is right on the main road...but I knew that going in. Jack wasn't quite as enamored as I. In addition to the traffic noise, he didn't like that there is no grass - the landscaping is all done in wood chips, which was fine to me but not, according to Jack, to the dogs! We have different preferences and, for me, being on the water trumps all. :)

One thing we did agree on is that, despite having grocery stores and the like nearby, there was really nothing to do in the area...not even decent shopping! We either had to go to Fort Walton Beach, about 15 miles to the east, and it doesn't have much more than Navarre does, or to Pensacola, a city of 50,000 about 25 miles to the west with a number of offerings.

Of course not finding a lot to do can leave you with time on your hands, and time on your hands can lead to all kinds of things, with me it usually leads to shopping...

We love our fifth wheel, but not so crazy about the furniture that came with it...a sofa with an air bed and two recliners. The recliners are hard with no lumbar support and seem to make Jack's bad back worse (he has two bulging discs that are becoming more painful, but that's another story). The sofa is equally hard and uncomfortable and we seem to have no need for the air bed. We live in our fifth wheel 24/7, it's our home and should be comfortable, right? We started out "just looking" and, no surprise, ended up buying. We found a small-scaled, but very comfortable, rocker-recliner and a cushy recliner love seat at the Lazy Boy in Pensacola. Jack loves a recliner, especially one that also rocks. I am more of a "curl up on the couch girl" but a couch won't fit through a twenty-eight inch door and a recliner love seat with a removable back will. Our love seat and two recliners will arrive late March or early April! Pictures will follow.

Ordering the new furniture seemed to get my nesting instinct going and I started looking around to see what else we could do to make our home comfy and cozy. Well, we found something called Smart Tiles designed for a light weight, do-it-yourself backsplash. Couldn't decide which one we liked best, so bought one for the kitchen, one for the bathroom, one for the other bathroom...! Thinking I might try doing one room today. I'll post photos when they're done.

When our month at St. Rosa came to an end we still had four or five weeks to wait for our furniture, so next post...moving to Pensacola!