We came to Pensacola, FL to visit the Naval Aviation Museum which is 7 miles from Big Lagoon State Park. As we pulled into this campground both Terry and I felt like we’re slumming yet this is a very nice campground. After being in Destin, almost any place would feel that way! The state park is on a lagoon off the Gulf of Mexico.
Views on our bike exploration trip and our campground site. Not bad, but not Destin!
NAVAL AVIATION MUSEUM, Pensacola, FL
We highly recommend visiting this museum and taking both their walking tour and the trolley tour. We missed the start of the walking tour but we were allowed to find them and join late.
What made this museum special were the personal touches. Each of our 3 tour guides were very knowledgeable, experienced ex-naval aviators familiar with the aircraft. Visitors are allowed to touch most of the aircraft. At the end of our first walking tour, we went into a simulator of the deck of an aircraft carrier with the sounds, video and wind blowing in your face. The trolley tour takes visitors to the flight line back lot where they store planes that will one day be restored.
We took a second walking tour to catch the part we missed but ended up taking the entire tour again because it was different. Each tour guide picks the planes they discuss. There’s some overlap but each guide brings their own knowledge and experience into the discussions. If you visit and have the time, we highly recommend doing the walking tour a couple of times with different guides.
One very special plane at the museum is the SBD-2 Dauntless which is the only plane that survived the Pearl Harbor attack and the battle of Midway. It was damaged in the battle of Midway, but survived. The plane was shipped back to the U.S. where it was repaired and used for aviator training on Lake Michigan (too many submarines off of both coasts to train on the open ocean). However, it did not survive aviator training and ended up at the bottom of Lake Michigan for years until it was recovered and restored.
Left bottom: The view in the flight deck simulator. The different colored shirts of the crew represent their job assignments.
Right top: Our first tour guide talking about the Flying Tigers and how Disney created their emblem.
Right middle: Our trolley guide.
Right bottom: Our second walking tour guide in front of the plane that survived Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway.
Camping: Big Lagoon State Park, Pensacola, FL
Electricity, water, dump station, showers, Verizon 2 LTE